Longtime Del McCoury fiddler Jason Carter books a 120-cap night at ZenBarn

Jason Carter brings his band to Waterbury on Sunday, March 28, 2027, a rare chance to hear one of bluegrass's best-known fiddlers from a few feet away.

March in central Vermont is mud season and maple season, and a Sunday night drive down to Waterbury for live bluegrass is about as good a cure for it as anything. That's what's on offer next spring: Jason Carter has announced a show at ZenBarn on Sunday, March 28, 2027.

The show starts at 7 p.m., and tickets are on sale now through OpenDate (the link is on our show page). The date was announced on Oct. 23. The thing to know is the size of the room: ZenBarn holds 120 people. For a fiddler with Carter's résumé, that's an unusually close-up night, and the kind of ticket that can disappear well before the snow melts.

If the name is new to you, the band he spent most of his career in won't be. Carter was the fiddler in the Del McCoury Band for 33 years, and he also played with the Travelin' McCourys, the instrumental group built around the McCoury band's players. In a statement announcing the change, he said farewell to Del and the Travelin' McCourys to focus on his own music, and he now tours as the Jason Carter Band. Bluegrass Today, Relix and Saving Country Music all covered the departure; Saving Country Music's headline put it plainly: "This Is Big."

Along the way he collected multiple IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year awards, and he is one of the instrumentalists who has defined the sound of traditional bluegrass for a generation of pickers. Out on his own, he's kept a full calendar. The Jason Carter Band joined Railroad Earth for dates on that band's 25th-anniversary tour, and this fall and winter it is booked from the Blue Jay Listening Room in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, on Nov. 25 to Luckett's Bluegrass in Virginia in January and the Sherbino Theater in Ridgway, Colorado, in April. Earlier in 2026 the band played everything from university performance series to theaters in Louisiana and listening rooms in Indianapolis.

For a fiddler who spent 33 years in the Del McCoury Band, a 120-person room is about as close as it gets.

That mix of rooms says something about where Carter fits now: he can share bills with a jam-scene favorite like Railroad Earth and still play straight to a seated bluegrass crowd. In Waterbury, with Burlington and Montpelier each a short drive away, he should draw both.

Vermont has a deep bench of bluegrass and old-time listeners, and they tend to show up for the real thing. A Sunday show in a room this size, from a player with this lineage, is the kind of date that regulars mark on the calendar the day it's announced. If you are planning to go, there's no reason to wait on the tickets; at 120 capacity, the math isn't on your side.

Practical notes: it's a Sunday, so the 7 p.m. start is friendly to anybody with a Monday morning. Late March roads in the Waterbury area can still be sketchy after dark, so plan the drive home. And if you play fiddle yourself, or have a kid who does, this is the show to bring them to.

Mud season comes every year. A chance to hear a fiddler from Del McCoury's band at arm's length in a 120-cap room doesn't.

Sources: Jason Carter (fiddler) – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Jason Carter leaves Del McCoury and Travelin’ McCourys to focus on solo career – Bluegrass Today (bluegrasstoday.com); This Is Big: Jason Carter Leaves the Del McCoury Band – Saving Country Music (savingcountrymusic.com); Jason Carter to Focus on Solo Career After 33-Year Tenure with The Del McCoury Band – Relix (relix.com); Railroad Earth plot 25th anniversary tour dates with the Jason Carter Band – Relix (relix.com); Jason Carter – Blue Jay Listening Room, Nov 25, 2026 (OpenDate) (app.opendate.io); Jason Carter Band – Luckett's Bluegrass (luckettsbluegrass.org); Jason Carter Band – The Sherbino (Ticket Tailor) (tickettailor.com); Jason Carter Band – Manship Theatre (manshiptheatre.org); Forty5: Jason Carter, Indianapolis (forty5.com); Radford University performance series (radford.edu); Jason Carter at ZenBarn – JamBase (jambase.com)