Festival season may be over, but fall in Philadelphia rarely lets up. Between September and Thanksgiving, our area will be visited by multiple International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) award winners, two fiddle summits, and a wave of younger bands rewriting the rules of bluegrass music. Here are ten standout shows from the Philly Bluegrass Calendar you won’t want to miss this season. As always, there’s much more at phillybluegrass.com/calendar. There you will find every bluegrass show and jam in the region. Think we missed one? Use the submit an event link and we’ll add it. See you out there!
September 27: Sister Sadie with Wood Flower and Blue Octane at The TileWorks of Doylestown
Sister Sadie made history in 2020 when they became the first all-female band to win the IBMA’s Entertainer of the Year award. They’ll be surrounded by history on September 27, when they headline an outdoor afternoon with Wood Flower and Blue Octane on the grounds of Henry Mercer’s old tile works in Doylestown. Just two days after that, Sister Sadie takes the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. Tickets.
October 15: Magoo at 118 North
Magoo is a fast-rising band on the jamgrass scene. The Denver four-piece has racked up accolades, including a win at UllrGrass, second at Telluride, and a dobro contest win for Dylan Flynn at RockyGrass, where guitarist Erik Hill was runner-up in the flatpicking contest. Earlier this year, they celebrated their debut album, What a Life, with sold-out shows in Denver and Chicago. On October 15th they’ll celebrate their Philadelphia-area debut at 118 North. Tickets.
October 21: The Brothers Comatose with The Dirty Grass Players at Ardmore Music Hall
The Brothers Comatose get their name from brothers Ben and Alex Morrison, who founded the band in San Francisco in 2008. The band added its first “sister,” mandolinist Addie Levy, for their fifth studio album, Golden Grass. The new album pays homage to the current wave of string bands coming out of California that are creating a new take on an old style of music. Opening is the Dirty Grass Players, a Baltimore band Philly audiences already know well. Tickets.
October 22: Natalie and Brittany Haas at The MAAS Building
Fiddler Brittany Haas (Hawktail, Crooked Still, Punch Brothers) and her cellist sister Natalie Haas (Alasdair Fraser) began their musical lives together, filling their childhood home with Bach suites and old-time tunes alike. With their 2023 recording, HAAS, these singular musicians finally recorded together for the first time. All of that is to say you won’t want to miss HAAS at the MAAS. It’s a small space, so grab your tickets before they are gone. Tickets.
November 1: Willi Carlisle with East Nash Grass at Ardmore Music Hall
Willi Carlisle is no stranger to Philadelphia. Those in the know have not missed recent performances at Johnny Brenda’s and Milkboy. Carlisle is poised for an even bigger breakout in 2026, with new record The Universal Bubba enlisting producer Tyler Childers and his backing band, The Food Stamps. Carlisle is joined at Ardmore Music Hall by East Nash Grass, who are fast becoming an area favorite too. They return to the area triumphant with multiple IBMA awards and headlining slots over the summer at Grey Fox, and elsewhere. Tickets.
November 5: Punch Brothers at Keswick Theatre
Punch Brothers (Chris Thile, Noam Pikelny, Chris Eldridge, Paul Kowert, and Brittany Haas) have played together long enough that arguing over whether to call them a bluegrass band has stopped being interesting. What hasn’t stopped is the band reinventing itself over and over again. This time, with The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers the band has released its first all-instrumental album, and the first to feature Brittany Haas on fiddle. Why travel to New York to see them at Carnegie Hall, when there’s a more intimate show closer to home at the Keswick Theatre on November 5? Tickets.
November 11: Mountain Grass Unit at Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia
In just a handful of years Birmingham’s Mountain Grass Unit has jumped from playing fairs and pizza joints to headlining major rooms. Last year Billy Strings name-checked them as a band to watch in his keynote address at the IBMA World of Bluegrass conference, where Mountain Grass Unit also won the Momentum Award Band of the Year award. The band visits Philly on November 11 fresh off dropping their latest album, Appalachian Smoke, on August 28. These days they are counting their streams by the millions. Catch them up close at Brooklyn Bowl before you’re watching them from the nosebleeds at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Tickets.
November 14: Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart at Zellerbach Theatre
Béla Fleck calls My Bluegrass Heart the third chapter of a trilogy which began with the 1988 album, Drive, and continued in 1991 with The Bluegrass Sessions. Fleck’s bluegrass records have introduced new generations of pickers to the genre before, and this one is doing it again in real time. A new live record, Live Heart: My Bluegrass Heart at the Ryman, is out October 16, 2026 on Thirty Tigers. The project tours in many iterations, but you are unlikely to be disappointed by whomever Fleck selects as bandmates for the performance at Zellerbach Theatre. Tickets.
November 15: AJ Lee & Blue Summit with The Cody Sisters at 118 North
AJ Lee’s voice started turning heads on stages since she was a kid, when she had Mother Jones asking, “Could this Kid Be the Next Alison Krauss?” Teaming up with The Tuttles (Molly, Sullivan, Michael, and Jack) really put Lee on the California bluegrass map. Today AJ Lee & Blue Summit are headlining major festivals, a Lee is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year at October’s IBMA Awards. The band’s new album, Cover to Cover, draws from across the whole map of the music: “Matterhorn,” Gillian Welch’s “Tear My Stillhouse Down,” and the honky-tonk lament “Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin.” It’s a record that tells you what a band listens to, and this one listens widely. The Cody Sisters open. Tickets.
November 22: Carter & Cleveland at Sellersville Theater
Jason Carter held the fiddle chair in the Del McCoury Band for more than three decades. Michael Cleveland has spent nearly as long leading his own band, Flamekeeper. Between them they hold 18 IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year awards, 17 Grammy nominations, and four Grammy wins. Now they’ve put their legendary resumes together made a barnburner of a record, Carter & Cleveland. If you missed them at this year’s Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, here’s your chance to see two of the world’s most decorated fiddlers sharing a stage. Ticket.
