It’s been a hot couple of years for East Nash Grass, who took home the International Bluegrass Music Association’s New Artist award in 2024 and made their Grand Ole Opry debut in 2023. Fiddler and singer Maddie Denton won IBMA’s Fiddle Player of the Year award in 2025, and the band released an album, All God’s Children, in August 2025. Singer and songwriter James Kee moved to Nashville eight years ago from Signal Mountain, Tenn., where he cut his teeth playing on that town’s The Mountain Opry show. Kee began performing with East Nash Grass at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Madison in 2019, and their Monday shows at Dee’s helped establish their reputation. Now a quintet, East Nash Grass is a song band that has a nice touch with the licks and turnarounds you associate with bluegrass. All God’s Children is an album of songs crafted from sturdy material, and you’ll hear hints of Newgrass and country rock throughout. “Hill Country Highway” and “Bend in the Road” address the eternal theme of being on the road when you want to stay home. As Kee sings in “Hill Country Highway”: “Headin’ down the mountain / Feel my wheels a-slidin’ / I hope this ain’t my last ride / I guess we’ll know directly.” Jason Carter opens.
8 p.m. at The Basement East
917 Woodland St.
