Madison’s RiverRoots Music Fest Boasts Big-Time Headliners

Ricky Skaggs and Sam Bush are just two of the icons playing at the Southern Indiana hoedown in May.
As folk, bluegrass, and Americana music goes, the 12th annual RiverRoots Music & Folk Arts Festival (May 18–20) in Madison, Indiana, has managed to put together a blockbuster lineup of artists.
Among the iconic headliners are Ricky Skaggs, a multiple-Grammy-winning country and bluegrass singer and mandolin player; Sam Bush, a Telluride fixture who got his start as a founding member of New Grass Revival; singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim; and Peter Rowan, a legendary bluegrass and folk guitarist who, in addition to other projects, played with with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman in Old and in the Way.
A music lineup like that makes the festival’s lively marketplace of works by Indiana artists and makers, the friendly crowd, the bountiful food trucks and craft beer, and the picturesque Ohio riverfront setting seem like mere perks.