Keep Central Texas Picking
For 48 years, the CTBA has kept this music alive in Central Texas, one jam, one festival, one new picker at a time. CTBA membership is how it happens.
This music doesn’t run on its own
The CTBA is an almost entirely member-funded, grassroots organization. There’s no sponsorship behind our Sunday jam, no corporate interests funding the scholarship that sends a young picker to their first bluegrass camp. There’s just us: a few hundred people in Central Texas who decided bluegrass music is worth supporting, and who put a little money and time behind that decision.
We’ve been at this since 1978, and we’ve gotten together to jam every Sunday since. We publish a newsletter, champion bluegrass on the air and across the country, put on any number of events each year, and award scholarships that get richly deserving young musicians to camps and workshops, to keep this music going into the next generation and beyond.
Your membership is what pays for all of it.
Where your money goes
- Bluegrass jams that are free, accessible, and open to everyone. The CTBA Sunday Bluegrass Jam and the CTBA beginner/intermediate jam stay free to attend, because your membership covers the costs.
- Scholarships for young pickers. CTBA scholarships send young musicians to bluegrass camps and workshops. Some of the best young players in Texas got their start thanks to the CTBA and its members.
- Events that hold our scene together. CTBA Memorial Fest. The CTBA Band Scramble & Garage Sale. The CTBA Annual Meeting and Show. Your membership makes it all possible.
- Bluegrass beyond our own backyard. The CTBA puts its money where the music is, sponsoring local institutions like Strictly Bluegrass on Austin’s KOOP 91.7FM and representing Central Texas in the International Bluegrass Music Association, where we’ve been a member organization since 1992. Your membership keeps Central Texas connected wherever bluegrass is thriving.
- The CTBA newsletter and member emails, with all the Central Texas news that is fit to print: bands, businesses, shows, resources, recommendations, instruments for sale, and everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the people who make bluegrass happen here.
Pick your membership
Individual
$25 / year
The classic. One card-carrying CTBA member, one vote, supporting the whole of Central Texas bluegrass.
Family
$35 / year
Two memberships/one household, twice the bluegrass. Big savings for your spouse, partner, or whoever else picks at your place.
Student
$15 / year
Reduced pricing, plus priority consideration for CTBA scholarships to camps and workshops as applicable.
Band
$35 / year
Get your music in front of the most engaged, obsessed fan base in Central Texas. All the benefits of membership plus a listing on the CTBA Bands page and in each CTBA newsletter, first consideration for stage time at CTBA events, and a personal welcome from a CTBA board member to get your band plugged in.
Business
$50 / year
Support the scene and reach a highly targeted, motivated audience. All the benefits of membership plus a listing on the CTBA Business page and in each CTBA newsletter, license to use the CTBA logo and membership information in your marketing (tell everybody!), and a personal welcome from a CTBA board member.
Lifetime
$300, once
Never think about it again. All the benefits, forever.
All memberships are annual (with optional auto-renew), save Lifetime.
You’re probably already one of us
If you’ve sat in on the Sunday jam (a 2026 Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Critics Pick, by the way), caught a set at Memorial Fest, or tuned into Strictly Bluegrass on a Sunday morning, then you’ve already been part of what the CTBA does. Membership just makes it official, and makes sure we’re still here next year.
The practical stuff
Join online in about two minutes: centraltexasbluegrass.org/membership
Prefer paper? Print the membership form and mail it with a check. Details are on our contact page.
Not ready to join? Come to a jam anyway. They’re free and open to everyone. You can also volunteer or make a donation.