Hello friends. This will be a short entry, so don't be concerned. I arrived home a few hours ago from a truly great weekend of Bluegrass at the VFMA's "Jumpin' Bluegrass '09." I did not attend the contest today and do not have the winners for you, but if you will click here in a day or so I'm sure the VFMA will have all of the winners posted on their web site. I arrived on Thursday and delivered the large cooker full of BBQ so graciously provided by your donations at the monthly meetings of the Virginia Bluegrass Family. It was enjoyed by nearly 200 people. For those of you who have chosen not to attend this event I wanted to tell you that even though we had a lengthy light shower on Thursday, we hardly noticed since we were snugly inside the large building with great sound provided by Kevin Prater, recently the Mandolin player and tenor singer for the The James King Band. Upon seeing Kevin (Waldo to his friends!) I commented about his change of professions. He told me he only does sound about 5 times a year and that the next day after leaving James King he hired on with Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain. Kevin did a great job with the sound To know who performed at this weekend's show click here to read my previous post with all of that information. Friday's feature was the induction of Sammy Shelor in the Virginia Folk Music Hall of Fame (I would like to note here that I am a bit confused as during the ceremony this induction was often mentioned as being into the "Virginia Music Hall of Fame." Was this an error of omission or have I had it wrong all these years?) A recording was played with many of the greatest Banjo players in the business congratulating Sammy. Some of the speakers were, Earl Scruggs, J. D. Crowe, Kristen Scott Benson, Steve Martin, Eddie Adcock and several others. While this induction was really fine the highlight of the evening was the two sets by the Lonesome River Band. Wow! They are truly in top form and are playing some of the best Bluegrass around today.
Nest, I wanted to tell you I am driving out to Nashville, Tennessee this week in advance of my week at the IBMA "World of Bluegrass" events the week of September 28th. I will, most likely, write a lengthy post upon my return. Most of you are aware the Virginia Bluegrass Family has presented three nights of "after-hours" Night Owl Concerts in the Nashville Convention Center as part of the weeks entertainment. This year I decided to suspend the Night Owl Concerts due to a rather large price increase of the rent for the concert space. When we began in Nashville just a few years ago the cost for the space was $300 for 3 days. Just 3 years late the cost rose by 50% to $450. Now, just a few years later there was another 50% increase to $675. I felt I simply could not ask the membership of the Virginia Bluegrass Family to bear those costs. If any of the readers of this blog can share with me a way to accomplish the Night Owl Concerts next year, please let me know. We were a small fish in a large sea, but we served a great service by giving new bands a chance to be heard in a National event. These bands really have no other venue to be heard than by the "smaller" organizations and their efforts to present them to the attendees (Which include record execs and festival promoters and booking agents) of the IBMA "World of Bluegrass." Until I return I guess it could be this is....
"NUFF SAID!"