Bluegrass and folk music fans can find a festival home in Murfreesboro this May, as organizers prepare to host the inaugural Gallagher Fest in celebration of the internationally recognized local Gallagher Guitar Company.

Festival organizers have said the upcoming festival is not just about the music, but is a celebration of people coming together as well as the founding of the independently owned and operated Gallagher Guitars.

Current Gallagher Guitar co-owner and operator David Mathis said the festival will be open, free to the public, and will feature live, onstage entertainment including an open jam, several instrument competitions and live performances from hot musical artists.

“It’s been like a dream,” Mathis told the Pulse. “I’ve had to pinch myself and say ‘Is this really happening?’”

Gallagher Fest will be spanning the course of two dates, kicking off with an open jam on the night of Friday, May 3.

The next day will host four thrilling contests featuring the fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar. In what Gallagher calls the “ultimate test of guitar prowess,” the guitar competition will judge each contestant’s flatpicking skills, with the winner claiming the grand prize donated by Gallagher Guitar Co., a Gallagher G-50 (an instrument that retails for $4,200).

Winners of the other contests stand to win prizes as well, including a cash prize for the event’s top fiddler, an F-Style mandolin donated by Eastman Guitars for the best mandolin player, and a 24-fret Mastertone banjo provided by Gold Tone for the day’s top banjo jammer.

Saturday, May 4, will also feature daytime performances from local talent such as Jim Hurst, Scott Heuston, Uncle Shuffelo & His Haint Hollow Hootenanny and many more. Indoor activities include a guitar workshop hosted by Hurst, a songwriting workshop hosted by Chris Jones along with Heuston, and a presentation covering the early days of Gallagher Guitars by Don Gallagher and David Tipton.

The music will continue into the evening with a concert featuring the Dan Tyminski Band held within the Walnut House, located next door to Gallagher on Murfreesboro’s Walnut Street.

Josh Rinkel / courtesy of Gary Jared Photo

Laura Orshaw and Josh Rinkel of the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys will open that show; tickets for Saturday’s evening concert will be sold separately, though other Gallagher Fest activities are free to attend.

Mathis said May has always been a big month for Gallagher Guitars, as the independent brand was first launched by skilled wood worker J.W. Gallagher and legendary guitarist Doc Watson in May of 1965. He said it was also in May, of 2019, that Gallagher closed its doors in its original city of Wartrace, only to be reopened in downtown Murfreesboro after being bought by David and Reina Mathis with the blessing and assistance of the Gallagher team. After the purchase, the new owners decided to continue circulating the Gallagher Guitar designs customers have fallen in love with over the years, even keeping some of the same equipment first employed by J.W. Gallagher.

Mathis said he was shocked at how many of the people he reached out to for help immediately gave passionate responses wanting to make the festival a reality. Mathis said he has the dedication and loyalty the Gallagher brand has acquired through its quality products and heartfelt mission to thank for the eagerness of many to help put on the festival.

“That’s one of the things that’s been really impressive about this group. They were very clear, almost adamant, that they welcome the opportunity to connect this festival with Gallagher Guitars,” Mathis said. “That’s how the name was determined—the group wanted to link those two things together, and I’m really heartened by their desire to do that.”

Jim Hurst, for example, as one of the premiere artists being featured at the festival, said he has been playing on a Gallagher guitar since 1986. Hurst said he saw Doc and Merle Watson play a Gallagher guitar at a festival in Hurst’s hometown in southern Ohio when he was young, and remarked that the instrument’s tone was the best he had ever heard in a live concert. After that, he asked the operator of his local guitar store to order the same model he had just seen played, and has since been playing his Doc Watson signature Gallagher Guitar all over the world.

“There is a loyalty and a kinship [between] each of us who are Gallagher owners,” Hurst said. “All of us are kind of family members in a way.”

Hurst said he has been participating in celebrations paying homage to the legacy of Gallagher Guitars since the Mathises established Gallagher Day in 2021. He said he is excited to play in Murfreesboro for the first time since last year at the inaugural Gallagher Fest, a grander, expanded street festival version of what Gallagher Day has evolved into. Hurst said he is also psyched to watch all the other performers throughout the festival, especially the internationally praised Dan Tyminski.

Known for his skilled slide guitar and flatpicking style, Tyminski has been a longtime member of Alison Krauss’s band, Union Station.

Many have sung along with Tyminski and the Soggy Bottom Boys in their popular “Man of Constant Sorrow,” featured in the 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Hurst said events such as Gallagher Fest serve as an inspiration in continuing to carry the spirit of bluegrass.

Gallagher Fest begins with an open jam at Gallagher Guitars (118 N. Walnut St.) at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 3.

Music at the outdoor festival on Walnut Street begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 4, with the evening Walnut House concert beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Find tickets for the Dan Tyminski concert, information on entering the instrument contests and more details on Gallagher Fest at gallagherfest.com.

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2024 Gallagher Fest Schedule:

Friday, May 3
At Gallagher Guitar Company, 118 N. Walnut St.

7 p.m. – Open Jam

Saturday, May 4

Free Events:

At Gallagher Guitar Co.
8 a.m. – Shop open for tours

At the Walnut House, 116 N. Walnut St.
9:30 a.m. – Presentation by David Tipton and Don Gallagher

11:30 a.m. – Guitar Workshop with Jim Hurst

12:30 p.m. – Songwriting Workshop with Scott Heuston and Chris Jones

Street Festival on Walnut Street

10:10 a.m. – Fiddle Contest

11 a.m. – Mandolin Contest

12 p.m. – Asher Cataldo & Bryce Reeg, David DeVaul, Kristen Ford, Jesse Black

12:40 p.m. – Banjo Contest

1:45 p.m. – Jim Hurst

2:15 p.m. – Flatpicking Contest

3:15 p.m. – Chris Jones and Paolo Ercoli

4 p.m. – Scott Heuston & Erica Flom

4:35 p.m. – Uncle Shuffelo & His Haint Hollow Hootenanny

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Ticketed show at the Walnut House:

7:30 p.m. – Josh Rinkel & Laura Orshaw

8:15 p.m. – Dan Tyminski Band

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