The Dirty Grass Players and Smilo & The Ghost will be teaming up for a co-headline show on the Big Rail Stage!
Band Bios
Smilo & the Ghost is an Americana-grit folk band born from the rustbelt and rooted in redemption. Fronted by singer-songwriter Tyler Smilo, the band blends raw lyricism with vintage tones, cinematic storytelling, and a touch of cosmic twang. Their sound drifts somewhere between dusty desert highways and dimly lit city bars — a fusion of folk, alt-country, and soul with deep emotional bite.
Formed in Erie, PA in 2016, Smilo & the Ghost have shared stages with Grammy winners, national acts, and underground legends alike. Their discography includes Ghost Writers, Fingers Crossed & Godspeed, and the live album Live from PACA, with their newest record Twang & Fire capturing both fire and fragility in a post-pandemic world. Smilo’s lyrics are deeply personal, often exploring recovery, survival, and the ghosts we carry — because he's lived it.
More than a band, Smilo & the Ghost is a movement of misfits, musicians, and truth-tellers. Whether it's on stage or on the record, the band invites you to feel something real — and maybe even find a piece of yourself in the process.
Visit their web site >>
The Dirty Grass Players are an energetic explosion of old-time pickin’, coloured with an inventive, newgrass hand, that is given lyrical life by their soaring vocal harmonies that exist on an ethereal plain. They live at the crossroads between the traditional, which is the backbone of what they do, and the progressive with their innovative forward-thinking approach. The Dirty Grass Players, with their steady, workman-like precision and loose adventurous spirit are a band that can both confound Bill Monroe and cause him to smile uncontrollably. Their music is progressive, traditional, experimental, imaginative, and at its core, Dirty.
The Dirty Grass Players formed in 2015 with guitarist Ben Kolakowski and mandolinist Ryan Rogers at a series of informal picking sessions in the Baltimore area. The band quickly started to garner attention in the area, culminating in them winning the competitive Charm City Bluegrass Festival Battle of the Bands in 2017. The band’s original bassist and fiddler left shortly after and they solidified around the addition of bassist Connor Murray. In 2024, Sam Guthridge joined on banjo and the band reemerged as a powerful four-piece.
Since then they have released two albums, 2020’s Beneath the Woodpile and 2023 Shiny Side Up and established themselves as one of the most exciting young bluegrass bands around. With their high-octane shows they have become a mainstay on the festival circuit, being invited to play at some of the the most prestigious gatherings from coast to coast including Delfest, Grey Fox, Kingman Island, Hot August Music Festival, Dark Star Jubilee, Ramble Fest, First Class Music Fest, and many others.
Their latest album Shiny Side Up, produced by The Travelin’ McCourys’ Coldy Kilby, continues to further the evolution of bluegrass with its hard-driving sound that showcases the progressive, darkside of bluegrass with its forward-looking, non-traditional playing and songwriting. In its praise of the album, Bluegrass Unlimited says, “Shiny Side Up validates the arrival of the Dirty Grass Players onto the scene and shows bluegrass is in good hands going forward.
Visit Their Web Site >>
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The Funky Little Brewery in the Woods.
Big Rail Brewing is a microbrewery, taproom, and outdoor event venue nestled in the woods of western Pennsylvania.
Stretch your legs across acres of beautiful outdoor space.
Relax and sip micro brews of every color, from rich stouts and hoppy IPAs to crisp cream ales and refreshing lagers.
Enjoy crackling camp fires, top-notch concerts, yard games, and hearty meals from the best local food trucks.
Sit back and socialize from the comfort of our brand new tap room & brewery building.
Always family and leashed-pet friendly. Rain or shine. Shelter is limited, so dress for the weather.
Blue Collar Born & Brewed.
Big Rail is a nickname for 155-pound and 152-pound rail — made incredibly strong to handle the immense weight of ore and coal carried through Pennsylvania’s old-growth forests, across her mighty rivers, and over her foreboding mountains. Likewise, Big Rail Brewing was forged in the wilds of Pennsylvania, and we brew our beer to honor all of the unseen blue collar tradespeople who hold up the immense weight of modern civilization.
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