Country Music in Washington

For almost 50 years, The Country Gentlemen entertained audiences with a special brand of progressive bluegrass music. Today, a tribute band tries to keep their sound alive and give listeners a sound they thought they'd never hear again.

Some have called the old schoolhouse in Lucketts, Virginia the “Grand Ole Opry of Bluegrass.” We take a step inside the history of this special place and explore what it's like to be at the schoolhouse on a bluegrass Saturday night.

For almost 30 years The Friendly Inn near Ellicott City, Maryland was a go-to spot for bluegrass music in the Washington-Baltimore corridor. When the bar closed, Friendly Inn regular Rob Miller and friends carried on the Friendly Inn camaraderie in his 19th century barn, which he rehabbed and transformed into a bluegrass venue.

After achieving his dream of becoming a cardiologist, Dr. Cleveland Francis stepped away from medicine to chase a second career as a pioneering African American country music artist in Nashville.

Explore Washington’s origins as an unlikely epicenter for bluegrass, spurred on by WAMU’s extensive bluegrass programming, as well as several nationally known groups like the Seldom Scene.

Learn about the remarkable lives and careers of Roni and Donna Stoneman, the last surviving members of the legendary Stoneman Family, who brought their music from Appalachia to Washington during the Great Depression and dominated the DC honky-tonk circuit in the decades following WWII.

Profile of country music broadcaster Connie B. Gay and his pioneering work at Arlington, VA-based WARL, along with country music radio’s resurgence in the 1980s on WMZQ.