BOSTON BLUEGRASS UNION 50th Anniversary Concert
feat. The Seldom Scene
The Boston Bluegrass Union (BBU) presents The Seldom Scene at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge, MA on September 27, 2026. The concert honors the founding of the BBU 50 years ago in September 1976 and one of its guiding lights, Stan Zdonik, who passed away earlier this year.
With Stan’s legacy in mind, we come full circle to honor 50 incredible years of BBU Bluegrass shows with this very special concert right back where it all started in Cambridge. Just a short walk across Harvard Square from the site of the first BBU show at “big brown church with rooster on top” is Arrow Street Arts – a new acoustically state-of-the-art venue where we will hear the Seldom Scene, one of the most celebrated and influential Bluegrass bands of all time!
DATE AND TICKET INFO
Performance Schedule
September 27, 2026, at 7:00 PM
Pre-show picking party & jam sessions beginning at 4:00 PM.
Seating Opens at 6:30 PM. Approximate runtime of the show is 90 minutes.
Buy Tickets
The Seldom Scene
Fifty-three years into a legendary career, much has changed about The Seldom Scene, starting with the venerable progressive bluegrass quintet’s various lineup iterations over time. But even as band members have stepped in and out of various roles, what’s most important is what hasn’t changed: an undeniable knack for blending both old and new music and traditions without sacrificing what makes either potent and durable. Their current iteration is a true blue lineup: guitarist mandolin player Lou Reid, bassist Ronnie Simpkins, banjoist and fiddler Ron Stewart, dobro player Fred Travers, and guitarist Clay Hess.
Since they started up together in 1971, The Seldom Scene has dexterously performed original and traditional songs while presenting fiery and soulful reinterpretations of material by Merle Haggard, James Taylor, and more. The concept of bluegrass unshackling itself from a conservative, straight-ahead mindset seems like a given now, when some of its biggest stars fill stadiums and cross over with mainstream audiences, but the continued presence of the Scene acts as a reminder that it wasn’t always so. Even if their playing style feels more at home in intimate clubs, where the audience can feel their exuberance radiating from the stage, the Scene’s elastic relationship to genre established an important precedent that encouraged their contemporaries and allowed bluegrass bands to expand their repertoire in ways that laid the groundwork for today’s bluegrass boom.
Long live The Seldom Scene.
In September 1976, twenty-two Boston area Bluegrass music lovers signed a charter announcement creating a new organization – the Boston Bluegrass Union. They conceived it as a cooperative effort to put on shows, picking parties, and workshops. And just weeks later they hosted their very first BBU show and picking party. Joe Val & the New England Bluegrass Boys played a 2 pm show at the “bluegrass church,” the First Congregational Church on the Cambridge Common. Admission was $2.50. “The big brown church with the rooster on top”, as it came to be known, would be the BBU’s home venue for more than 17 years and 39 shows, eventually moving to larger venues. Now 50 years on, the BBU has hosted 166 concerts, more than 500 festival performances, and featured more than 250 separate bluegrass acts. Most of these events were booked and emceed by Stan Zdonik, founding BBU member, board president, and primary talent buyer. For 49 of its 50 years, the BBU flourished with Stan’s guidance, expertise, and extraordinary passion for bringing Bluegrass music to our doorstep. For a deeper BBU dive, please check out Bill Nowlin’s history and Gerry Katz’s archival material.
