For too long, the grass has been bluer on the other side. Of the Missouri River. Cross Ranch State Park has hosted the Missouri River Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival for 15 years. Meanwhile, over here on the east bank, we've got brome, foxtail barley and even big bluestem. But bluegrass? Hardly.

Enter Blue Moon Rising, a Tennessee-based bluegrass band that considers outreach part of its mission. The band played last summer at Cross Ranch, and called one of the event's promoters afterward to see about a Bismarck concert.

"We were a host family for them and got to know them really well," said Jill Wiese, bass player in Cotton Wood, a bluegrass band from Washburn. "Their bass player called me in August and said 'Jill, do you ever do shows in that town we flew into?'"

And the answer was: Well, not really.

Blue Moon Rising had an opening in January and asked if a concert could be put together. It would cost about $5,500.

The purse strings were drawn tight at the Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association of North Dakota, but Wiese couldn't pass up the opportunity to bring a big-name bluegrass band to Bismarck. Blue Moon Rising's most recent album, "On The Rise," was included in the Ten Favorite Bluegrass Albums of 2005 list on CMT.com. The album debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard bluegrass chart.

So Wiese talked to her husband and her bandmates, and decided to call Bismarck State College.

"They were pumped," she said. "They helped with a grant, gave us some money and let us use the auditorium free. We had nothing but positive support from them."

Blue Moon Rising will play at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14 in the Sidney J. Lee Auditorium at BSC. Tickets are $15, available at the college, Eckroth Music, String Bean and at the door. The band also will play a free concert at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 13 at the Washburn school.

In addition to the concerts, members of the band will give hands-on bluegrass workshops from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at BSC. There will be workshops for fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo and songwriting. Tickets for the workshops and the concert are $20.

"We love it there. We had a great time at Cross Ranch and thought this would be a good opportunity to come back and play in Bismarck," Blue Moon Rising's bass player, Tim Tipton, said. "Hopefully we'll get to play to more people and get a chance to introduce the music to a broader audience."

That, too, is Wiese's hope. She said Bismarck is virtually an untapped bluegrass market. As such, it's a complete mystery right now as to how many concert-goers there might be.

"We just want to try Bismarck out, find out if there is a market," Wiese said. "Will we sell out, or will there be a hundred people who show up? Idon't know."

That concern was too much for BOTMAND, which told Wiese that bringing a bluegrass band to Bismarck in January was a gamble it didn't want to take. She didn't see it as a gamble, though. At the bottom line, there will be a major band here that will provide workshops and put on two shows full of quality music - Blue Moon Rising has two songs on the bluegrass chart right now.

Also, the band is happy to spread the bluegrass gospel.

"We like traveling to new areas, where bluegrass is just getting started or is not an every-week occurrence," Tipton said. "Here in Tennessee, there's a big festival every weekend. But when you travel throughout the country it's a lot of fun, and you get a chance to meet people who are just starting to play or write songs. As a band, it allows us to interact with people in a more intimate setting."

Blue Moon Rising does intimate, but it also does worldwide. Next month it will perform at the Station Inn in Nashville - a venue famous for its daily bluegrass concerts. The gig will be featured live on Sirius Satellite Radio.

"There's been a reawakening in bluegrass," Tipton said. "With the launch of Sirius and XM (Radio), there's been a broadening of the audience even more. It's hard to find a mainstream radio station that focuses on bluegrass. This gives people a chance to find it 24 hours a day, commercial-free."

Blue Moon Rising performs in three- and four-part harmony, Wiese said, and also has some masterful gospel tunes. The band is Tipton on bass, Keith Garrett on mandolin, lead and baritone vocals, Chris West on guitar and lead, tenor and baritone vocals, Randall Massengill on rhythm guitar and tenor vocals and Justin Jenkins on banjo and baritone vocals. Megan Lynch, a fiddle player from Nashville, will accompany the band for its Bismarck and Washburn concerts.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@;bismarcktribune.com.)