Blue Grass Duo Daves and Jolliff Kick off Adams Theater Season

April 17 | Adams, MA | 7:30pm

The Adams Theater kicks off its 2026 season with a show that will hit for bluegrass devotees and casual listeners alike. Michael Daves and Jacob Jolliff, last seen locally at the 2025 Freshgrass festival, return to the Berkshires in support of We Like Jim & Jesse!, their new duo album out on Wild Geranium Records.

The record is a tribute to Jim & Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys, one of bluegrass's foundational acts. Jim played guitar and Jesse played mandolin, and the two brothers built their sound around close two-part harmonies and the interplay between those two instruments, a format that runs back through early country music to the Carter Family era and earlier. Daves and Jolliff step directly into the line: same instrumentation, same vocal architecture, same tight economy of two voices and two instruments. What they bring to it are the improvisational instincts and the harmonic range they've developed over years of working in the genre.

Daves, an Atlanta native and part-time Adams resident, was called "a leading light of the NY bluegrass scene" by the New York Times, and earned a Grammy nomination alongside Chris Thile for their album Sleep With One Eye Open. He's also one of the country's most active bluegrass educators, with a teaching history that includes Carnegie Hall. Jolliff is a National Mandolin Champion (Winfield, KS, 2012), a Berklee School of Music scholarship graduate, and a veteran of Bela Fleck's touring band, Yonder Mountain String Band, and the beloved New England roots outfit Joy Kills Sorrow.

EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders receive free admission by presenting their cards at the box office.

The Adams Theater, Adams, MA. Tickets at adamstheater.org