Bluegrass & Bagels Jam

Second Sundays in the silver building

On the second Sunday of each month, from ten in the morning until noon, a circle of pickers forms in the Railyard Park Conservancy’s Community Room. It is the silver building beside SITE Santa Fe’s parking lot, at the edge of the park’s 11 acres off Cerrillos Road. The lot charges for parking Monday through Saturday and is free on Sundays.

Greg Neal leads the jam. It keeps the traditional bluegrass format: each player around the circle takes a turn calling a song and leading it while the rest follow. Any instrument is welcome. The Queen Bee Music Association, which runs the jam, says the ones it sees most are guitar, mandolin, fiddle, ukulele, banjo and upright bass. The conservancy names the repertoire GospelGrass, TradGrass and NewGrass. Queen Bee lists this jam as its intermediate and advanced session. It is free, and drop-in musicians walk in without signing up.

The bagels and coffee come from Boultawn’s Bagelry and Café, and the conservancy asks for tips or donations to cover them.

The circle does not always stay indoors. For September 13, 2026, Neal and the rest of what the conservancy calls “the Bluegrass & Bagels crew” set up in the park’s Open Field as part of the Pop-Up Playground event. Queen Bee told players to look for a blue tent just beyond the lawn. The October 11, 2026 jam is listed back in the Community Room.

The Hive on Pacheco Street

Queen Bee is a nonprofit community music school founded in 2019. It takes its name from a Taj Mahal song. Its permanent home on Pacheco Street is called The Hive. The school teaches group classes for children and adults and runs summer camps and free community programs. It counted more than 18,000 musical engagements across Northern New Mexico in 2025. Its community programs are supported by the Kathryn O’Keeffe Charitable Foundation.

Bluegrass & Bagels is one of four free jams Queen Bee holds each month. On first Sundays there is an old-time jam at Santa Fe Brew Co’s headquarters on Route 14. Eric Carlson leads it, playing fiddle tunes by ear. Carlson served as president of the Southwest Pickers from 2009 to 2011, when that group presented the Santa Fe Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Festival. On third Sundays, Laura Stack leads a community sing on the Railyard’s Green Lawn behind SITE Santa Fe. On fourth Thursdays there is a folk jam in the living room at El Rey Court.

The conservancy’s page for the bagel jam is dated March 23, 2022, and announces it as “offered every second Sunday of the month.” A notice from the same year advertised the October 9 jam, ten to noon, in the Community Room. The conservancy now describes the jam as co-hosted by Neal and Queen Bee.