Once a Month, Every Month in the Pioneer Log Cabin!

Facilitated by the incomparable Jordan Riehm and Dr. Erika Brady, and hosted by the Kentucky Folklife Program, Log Cabin Jams are a fun musical experience for members of the community. One Sunday of every month, bluegrass musicians are invited to join us at the Pioneer Log Cabin on Western Kentucky University’s campus to play together, sing together, and all in all celebrate bluegrass musicality at its finest.

In the words of Dr. Erika Brady,

“A bluegrass jam is a session either scheduled or unscheduled (like parking-lot picking at a festival) in which pickers perform tunes and songs from the bluegrass repertoire in ensemble (at the same time), with instrumental breaks (improvisations) taking place in an order established according to a set of unwritten rules. Rules of a specific group are generally learned by observation, so it is common for a newcomer, no matter how accomplished, to hold back for a bit to take the measure of the group: skill level, repertoire, protocols.”

Who are the Facilitators?

Jordan Riehm

Award-Winning Bluegrass Musician

For Jordan Riehm, bluegrass music is connected to the land. “Here in the rural areas of Kentucky,” Riehm reflects, “the air feels different-you want to take a deeper breath. You feel just a little closer to what the trees are trying to do for this world.” It’s not lost on him that those same trees are also used to make guitars and banjos, his primary instruments. Riehm is best-known as the banjo player with Kentucky Shine, a high-energy award-winning bluegrass band based in Owensboro. Bluegrass Today wrote that they, “live up to all that their name implies. They radiate and illuminate with irresistible appeal.”

Riehm maintains a steady teaching practice at the Bowling Green Rock Band Academy. He is also the head content for Tunefox, an innovative app that helps people learn bluegrass music. Riehm is now the Kentucky State Bluegrass Banjo champion two times over (in 2022 and most recently in 2023) and has played the Station Inn, the ROMP Festival and the Bean Blossom Festival. He has performed with Orville Peck at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. But he most loves staying close to home-breathing in that rural Kentucky air, the kind purified by the trees, not polluted by the cars. The kind that makes you want to breathe it back out again with a song.

Dr. Erika Brady

Musician, Folklorist, and Senior Producer-Host of Barren River Breakdown for Barren River Breakdown

Dr. Erika Brady’s first experience of bluegrass was as a teen in Washington, DC – a rich musical environment. She slipped (illegally at first) into clubs such as the Shamrock, Cellar Door, Bayou, Birchmere, and the Red Fox. In Boston in the 70s, she hoster her first radio show, Back Porch, on WHRB, and assisted in producing concerts for both bluegrass and blues performers. As a graduate student in California, she studied with country music scholars DK Wilgus and Norm Cohen and began playing in the deep oldtime and bluegrass scene flourishing in southern California before completing her PHD in folk studies at Indiana University.

Dr. Brady began teaching at Western Kentucky University in 1989, where her teaching included courses on Southern culture and country, bluegrass, and popular music. She began her stint as senior producer/host of the public radio show Barren River Breakdown in 1997, with new shows airing weekly till 2017. In 2005 she organized and hosted the first (and to date, only) academic conference devoted to bluegrass music, with attendees from Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, as well as states all over the US. In her own words,
“…The papers were great, but the jams were truly epic.”

She currently enjoys the growing jam scene here in Bowling Green, and is adding mandolin to guitar and banjo to her instrumental life with the help of her incomparable friend and teacher Jordan Riehm.

What is Expected at a Jam?

It can feel a bit intimidating walking into your very first Jam Session. What are the rules? Are there any rules? What do I play? What do I bring? These are all very common questions one may ask, however no need to stress! This is a fun, enjoyable, and welcoming musical opportunity crafted with musicians in mind. In fact, Dr. Erika Brady kindly illustrates all you need to know in the:

“It’s About Jam Time!: Guide to Cabin Jams”

When are the Jams?

• Sunday, February 18th, 2024

• Sunday, March 24th, 2024

• Sunday, April 28th, 2024

• Sunday, May 19th, 2024

Where are the Jams?

The Pioneer Log Cabin on Western Kentucky University’s Campus

The Pioneer Log Cabin on WKU’s campus houses the Kentucky Folklife Program. This beautiful space has been a home for our program for quite some time, and we are thrilled to share it with the community.

Reminder: The Pioneer Log Cabin’s Maximum Capacity is 30. First come, first serve for safety.

Follow this link to get detailed directions to the Pioneer Log Cabin!

Parking

The Kentucky Museum Parking Lot on WKU’s Campus

Because these events are held on Sunday’s, the best options for parking are to park in the Kentucky Museum parking lot (1444 Kentucky Street, Bowling Green, KY, 42101). The Pioneer Log Cabin is located behind the Kentucky Museum, but if you were to use the Kentucky Folklife Program’s mailing address you would be led to the wrong building on campus (the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center). Please note, the Pioneer Log Cabin has white doors. There is a different cabin with yellow doors in front of the Kentucky Museum called the Felts House. DO NOT PARK RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE PIONEER LOG CABIN. This is prohibited, and towing can be enforced on campus.

Countdown to the Next Jam!