Jason Carter brings his fiddle to Tumbleroot in April

After 33 years beside Del McCoury, the award-winning fiddler is out front with his own band, and he plays Santa Fe's Agua Fría Street room on Sunday, April 18.

For most of the last three decades, if you saw Jason Carter, you saw him a step to the side of Del McCoury, sawing out the fills that made one of bluegrass's great bands sound the way it did. Next spring, Santa Fe gets him front and center.

Jason Carter plays Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery on Sunday, April 18, 2027, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now through Lensic 360. The show was announced Oct. 23, nearly six months out, and Tumbleroot holds about 400, so this is one to grab while you are thinking about it rather than in March.

The backstory is the reason this one matters. Carter spent 33 years in the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin' McCourys before announcing he was stepping away to focus on his solo career as the Jason Carter Band. Saving Country Music called the news what it was for bluegrass fans: big. Carter has been named the International Bluegrass Music Association's Fiddle Player of the Year more than once, including in 2023, according to his Wikipedia entry), and his last solo album, *Lowdown Hoedown*, arrived in 2022 with a star-studded lineup of guests.

What the solo years mean, in practice, is that the fiddle is no longer the seasoning. It is the meal. A Jason Carter Band show puts the instrument in the lead the way a guitarist or banjo player usually gets to be, with the hard-driving tunes and the long breaks that years in a top-tier band sharpen into something effortless-looking. He has been building out a touring calendar since the move, with dates this year in places like Roanoke and The Parkway Theater, and an April Sunday in Santa Fe now joins the list.

The fiddle is no longer the seasoning. It is the meal.

The room is a good one for it. Tumbleroot's Agua Fría flagship took over the old Club Alegría building, which the SF Reporter covered as workers finished the tasting room, restaurant and music venue ahead of its 2018 opening. Club Alegría had long been part of the city's music life, and Tumbleroot has kept the stage busy since, with a calendar that swings from indie and rock to roots. A bluegrass fiddler with this résumé on a Sunday evening, in a room where you can get a beer and something from the kitchen and still be close enough to watch the bow hand, is about as Santa Fe a night out as it gets.

There is also something fitting about catching Carter at this stage. Players who spend decades in a famous band often do their most personal work after they leave, when the setlist is theirs and the tempo is too. Seeing that happen in a 400-cap room is a better deal than it will be later.

April is a long way off. Put it in the calendar now, and bring the friend who still thinks bluegrass is just banjos.

Sources: Jason Carter at Tumbleroot – Lensic 360 tickets (tickets.lensic360.org); Jason Carter at Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery – JamBase (jambase.com); Jason Carter to Focus on Solo Career After 33-Year Tenure with The Del McCoury Band – Relix (relix.com); This Is Big: Jason Carter Leaves the Del McCoury Band – Saving Country Music (savingcountrymusic.com); Jason Carter (fiddler) – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); A Star-Studded Lineup Joins Jason Carter For New Album Low Down Hoedown – Grateful Web (gratefulweb.com); Jason Carter Band – Downtown Roanoke (downtownroanoke.org); Jason Carter – The Parkway Theater (theparkwaytheater.com); Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery is about to become your new favorite place – SF Reporter (sfreporter.com)