The Kennedy Creek Old-Time Festival
The Kennedy Creek Old-Time Music Festival takes place every autumn at the Kennedy Creek Resort in Suches, GA. Participants are invited to reserve cabins, yurts, or campsites, and food is available at the resort restaurant. Guest artists lead jams, teach workshops, and present concerts, but the main event is always jamming with friends. Admission is free thanks to our sponsors, the American Musicological Society and the Jon Bekoff Project.
Upcoming Festival
The next festival will take place September 4–7, 2025. Reserve your lodging now at the resort website . The program will include workshops, performances, and a square dance. Our featured performers this year are The Yellow Dandies , an old-time band out of Birmingham, AL.
Bailey Hill is a multi-instrumentalist and experienced songwriter based out of Fultondale, Alabama. He first picked up the mandolin in 2009 at The Alabama Folk School and soon expanded his horizons to banjo, guitar, and fiddle. Bailey teaches and performs American Old Time, Bluegrass, and Celtic music and founded the neo-traditional band, The Yellow Dandies, with guitarist Ben Ayers in 2016. Bailey’s passion for teaching and performing comes from a fundamental drive of wanting more music in the world. Bailey views music as not just a great hobby or job, but an excellent way to build community and fellowship.
Ben Ayers grew up with the Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, and Contest Fiddle traditions of his native Middle Tennessee and the Southern Cumberland Plateau, where he currently teaches K-8 Music at a number of local schools. Since 2011, Ben has played guitar, mandolin, electric and upright bass, Irish bouzouki, and tenor banjo in everything from Jazz Big Bands to Rock Trios, but his main focus has consistently been Old-Time and Bluegrass. After several years of regularly performing and collaborating on educational music-projects with virtuoso fiddler, Jim Wood, Ben started the alternative Old-Time band, The Yellow Dandies, with mandolinist Bailey Hill and he continues to teach, write, compose, and explore the world’s traditional music.
Aerin deRussy first picked up the violin at age four for classical instruction but learned her first fiddle tunes from her Grandfather when she was six. Her Grandfather was an old-time fiddler from Monroe County, Kentucky but was thirty years out-of-practice and mostly deaf by the time he tried teaching Aerin how to fiddle. It was a rocky transition from classical to fiddle but by the time she was in her late-teens, Aerin was winning fiddle contests throughout the Southeast and gigging with various Atlanta and North Georgia Bluegrass bands. She joined The Yellow Dandies in 2017 which rapidly converted her preferred genre to Old Time.
Ryan Brown is a full-time bassist & music instructor in Birmingham, Alabama. He learned to play electric & upright bass in his high school’s jazz band and started his music career before graduating. Since then he has played & studied almost every style of American music and some beyond, from Rock & Roll to the Avant-Garde, and began his journey into Appalachian Old-Time music in 2018 by joining the Yellow Dandies. He will talk for hours about the importance of rhythm & what it means to really play “in the pocket.” Get him started only if you have a little time!
Provisional Schedule
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11:00am: Workshop: Alabama Tune Time with The Yellow Dandies
The Yellow Dandies will teach two or three Alabama tunes. All instruments are welcome. -
1:30pm: Workshop: Beyond the Basics with The Yellow Dandies (fiddle, guitar, banjo, bass)
Participants will break out into small groups to work on advanced techniques. Guitar players will learn how and when to access connecting chords, how to create bass lines, and how to take more advanced rhythmic approaches to their backup playing. Banjo players will work on chord shapes, chord structures, and rhythm for syncopated tunes. Fiddle players will work on improving 4th-finger performance and seconding. Bass players will learn how to create bass lines and when to ride the root. -
3:00pm: Workshop: Stringband Ensemble with The Yellow Dandies
Participants will combine the techniques and approaches they learned in the individual classes to create small groups able to perform “on-the-spot” arrangements. - 5:30pm: Concert: The Yellow Dandies
- 9:30am: Sacred Harp Singing
- 2:00pm: Fiddle Contest (hosted by Sasha Hsuczyk)
- 7:00pm: Square Dance
Kennedy Creek Old-Time Festival Fiddle Contest
- Preliminary: Two divisions including Open (any age), Junior (age 16 and under). Juniors may compete in the open division but may not then also compete in the Junior division.
- Each contestant will play one tune in the Preliminary Round.
- There are no rules disqualifying any styles or tricks but judges will be listening for style and repertoire that represents the region.
- Scores will be tabulated directly after the end of the preliminary round and top 5 finalists will be announced and posted immediately.
- Finals will begin 30 minutes after finalists are announced. It is during this time that finalists will draw for finals order.
- Open Finals will consist of 2 tunes.
- Tied scores may result in additional playoff rounds. Scoring between rounds is not cumulative.
- Winners and awards will be announced directly after finals have finished. All contestants are responsible for their own festival admission fees. The contest is open to all participants, including non-Georgia residents.
- 12:00–1:30pm: Registration
- 1:30–2:00pm: Order Drawing
- 2:00–2:45pm: Junior Division
- 3:00–4:00pm: Open Division
- 4:00–4:15pm: Junior Awards
- 4:15–4:30pm: Drawing for Finals
- 4:30–5:00pm: Open Finals
- 5:00pm: Open Division Awards
Past Festivals
September 5–8, 2024
- Guest artists: Mickey Nelligan and Sasha Hsuczyk
- Sponsors: The American Musicological Society & The Jon Bekoff Project
September 7–10, 2023
- Guest artists: The Short House Serenaders (Sarah Adams, Van Burchfield & Isaac Stroupe)
- Sponsors: The American Musicological Society & The Jon Bekoff Project
September 29–October 2, 2022
- Guest artists: The Griddle Lickers (Mick & Evan Kinney) and Hog-Eyed Man (Jason Cade & Rob McMaken)
- Sponsors: The American Musicological Society & The Jon Bekoff Project
September 30–October 3, 2021
- Guest artists: Emily Schaad, John Herrman, Meredith McIntosh, Allie Jean & Frank Lee
