Though the Ryman hosts plenty of shows, its summer bluegrass series is the only one favored with its own entry on the website’s dropdown events menu, and with good reason — after all, “Birthplace of Bluegrass” is an even more specific designation than “Mother Church of Country Music.” Gill, a Hall of Famer whose bluegrass roots run at least as deep as his country ones, is a master of leavening an appropriate reverence with quick wit and the kind of smiling virtuosity that giants like Earl Scruggs brought to that stage, and he always brings a crackerjack bluegrass outfit along for the ride. Opener Jarosz reprises a role she undertook with Scruggs in the same series just a couple of years ago, when she admirably demonstrated the ability to enthrall an audience all by herself. The combination is a perfect way to open one of the strongest summer lineups yet offered.
— Jon Weisberger