IBMA Red Carpet 2026: Is Bluegrass Getting Younger?

Is Bluegrass getting younger? We walked the IBMA red carpet in Chattanooga and asked the players who would know: James Kee of East Nash Grass, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Molly Tuttle, and Sierra Hull. The same theme kept coming up: a new generation is stepping in, and the people who came up before them are passing the torch. Barry Courter, Bryan Stone and Russ also look back at last week's Billy Strings reopening of the Tivoli and what it says about where the music is headed. Listen to this week's episode here or watch it on YouTube. As always, subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you get podcasts for weekly updates on Bonnaroo and festival news! ______ (00:00) Intro: IBMA in Chattanooga (05:01) Live from the Red Carpet (14:06) James Kee, East Nash Grass (20:12) Darin & Brooke Aldridge (23:34) Molly Tuttle (26:50) Sierra Hull (32:19) Wrap-up (35:46) Outro LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE CaveFest 2026 Recap: Live From The Caverns Billy Strings Reopens Chattanooga's Restored Tivoli Theatre Billy Strings 10/20/26 Tivoli Theatre, Chattanooga, TN ______ 🎧 LISTEN LINKS Website: https://thewhatpodcast.com Spotify: https://thewhat.co/spotify Apple Podcasts: https://thewhat.co/applepodcasts YouTube Music: https://thewhat.co/youtubemusic Amazon Music: https://thewhat.co/amazonmusic 📱 SOCIAL LINKS Discord: https://discord.gg/zShHTeCYGn YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thewhatpodcast X: https://x.com/thewhat_podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewhatpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewhatpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thewhatpodcast The What Podcast theme: "Aquarius" by *repeat repeat, used with permission. Other music provided by Midist and used with permission. We love to hear from you! Send us an email at [email protected] or call (423) 667-7877 and leave us a voicemail. We might just feature it on the show.