Bluegrass At Sedalia, 2009 June 25th, 26th and 27th - Big Island, Virginia

The James River Bluegrass Association and The Sedalia Center for the Cultural Arts present “Bluegrass At Sedalia, 2009.”   If you remember the festivals of 30 years ago you might feel you have stepped back in time when attending festival at Sedalia.  What do I mean?  I certainly do not mean the days when drinking and drug use rampaged through the festival grounds and children were in danger.  No!  I mean there was a certain togetherness back in those days with campers all close together and it seemed you knew everyone around you.  It feels that way at Sedalia.  When you get there you’ll see what I mean.

The bands playing at Sedalia are: Black Bear Express, Blackwater, The Bluegrass Brothers, The Deer Creek Boys, FaithRidge, Hard Drivin’ Grass, High Ground, Kinney Rorrer & The New North Carolina Ramblers, Mark Templeton & Pocket Change, Reed Creek and Smith Mountain Grass.

Camping at Sedalia is on a first come first served basis with the campground opening June 21st.  Electrical hook-ups are limited and run $40 for the three nights of the festival.  rough camping is $5 per night.  

One of the neat things about Sedalia is the entirely covered concert area.  It seems not matter how hot the day the stage area is comfortable and much cooler than the the area around it.

I’m gonna let you in on a little secret.  When I was a kid my Mama used to make “fried pies.”  Fried pies are
made using dried fruit that has been reconstituted and places on one half of a round piece of pie crust that is then folded over and crimped closed and then pan fried to a deep golden brown.  Last year I saw a guy eating what looked to me just like a fried pie.  I asked him where he got it and sure enough this lady had brought over a large bunch of peach and apple fried pies.  They were so good I bought a dozen to take home with me.  Mmmm, Mmmmm!  They were good! Other foods at Sedalia include BBQ ribs and chicken cooked right on the premises.  I’ve got to tell you if you want any of this wonderful BBQ you better line up when they start emptying the grill.
Order $40 advance tickets by writing 1108 Sedalia School Road, Big Island, VA 24526 or by calling 434-299-5080 or check out their website at www.sedaliacenter.org.  Maybe I’ll see you there.

5th Annual James King Bluegrass Festival Rockahock Campground - Lanexa, Virginia June 25th, 26th & 27th, 2009

Once again "The James King Bluegrass Festival" will occur at the Rockahock Campground on Lanexa, Virginia thus coming June 25th, 26th and 27th, 2009.   The Rockahock Campground is on the Chickahominy River just off US Route 60 near Williamsburg, Virginia.  Earlybird advance tickets priced at $55 for the weekend are available if ordered before May 1st, 2009.  That’s a $10 savings over the regular $65 ticket price.  So, if you know you’re going why not order in advance.

Again this year the line up is fine including: The James King Band (All three days!), Sierra Hull & Highway 111, Bradley Walker, Lost & Found, Randy Waller & The Country Gentlemen, Blue Highway, Country Fried Grass, Code Blue, Bill Emerson & The Sweet Dixie Band, Lawson Creek, Gold Wing Express and many more to be announced.  That’s quite a diversified line up of great Bluegrass
music.

Full service camping at Rockahock is handled differently than at most festivals, therefore my best advice to you is to go on-line to www.rockahock.com to check on festival camping and rates.  Primitive RV sites are available for $40 for the weekend or $15 per night.

Next door to the campground is a fine Italian Restaurant, so if you get tired of eating “festival” food there’s a really nice place to sit and have dinner.

Rockahock has a large pavilion available to festival goers for their use to jam.  Also attached to this pavilion is the campground shower house.  These showers are each completely separate from the others and can be used by either sex.  When you enter the shower you are alone and can lock the door behind you.  This is a great idea and a feature that really impresses me. Another interesting difference that separates Rockahock from other festivals is the fact that the stage area is considered part of the bar and restaurant.  You can buy beer and mixed drinks and drink them in your lawn chair as you watch the show.  This same feature, however prevents you from bringing anything into the area with you.  Just as with any restaurant you cannot bring food or drink into the stage area.

So, make plans to join your friends at the James King bluegrass Festival at The Rockahock Campground on June 25th, 26th and 27th, 2009.

26th Annual Mineral Bluegrass Festival July 16th, 17th & 18th, 2009 Walton Park - Mineral, Virginia

Adams & Anderson LLC presents the 26th annual Mineral Bluegrass Festival at Walton Park in Mineral, Virginia this coming July 16th, 17th and 18th, 2009. The first festival ever held at Walton park was presented in 1978 by Lester Flatt and The Martha White Caravan.  As I’ve mentioned in these pages before I remember so well sitting in Sacra’s Restaurant on Saturday morning eating breakfast with the other tables filled with my Bluegrass heroes.  Lester Flatt and his bandmates were at one table.  Jim & Jesse were at another.  There was Jimmy Martin sitting at a table and Ralph Stanley at yet another.  My brother and I were going on and on about Bluegrass, but we could hear these guys talking about fixing the roof or working on their car.  They were talking about every day things just like we do when we’re at work.  I’ll never forget it.

On Thursday at Mineral things get underway with Lonesome Will Mullins & The Virginia Playboys followed by: Paul Williams & The Victory Trio, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Marty Raybon & Full Circle and Dailey & Vincent.  

Friday has yet another host of bands including: Jay Armsworthy & Eastern Tradition, Bill Yates & The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band, The Chuck Wagon Gang (Is this Bluegrass?) Goldwing Express and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out.

There’s yet another big day of Bluegrass on Saturday with: The Little Mountain Boys, The Virginia Ramblers, The Gary Waldrep Band, Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, The Grascals & Rhonda Vincent & The Rage.

Advance tickets for the weekend are $75 which is a $10 (Must be received by July 6th, 2009) savings over the at the gate price.  Rough camping is available at $25 for the weekend.  Full hook-ups are very limited, so please call ahead for availability.  Call 540-894-9811 for camping details.

Appomattox Bluegrass Series Continues in March! Three Big Shows Featuring: Doyle, Russell & Rhonda! & Cabin Fever, Too!

March is the biggest month yet for Bluegrass in Appomattox as the Appomattox County High School Athletic Booster's Club presents three big shows on three consecutive Sunday afternoons.   Things get started right off with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver on Sunday, March 1st at 2PM.  Doyle started his own band more than 25 years ago and has always kept a top notch group of band mates.  Packed with humor plus instrumental and vocal virtuosity Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver never fail to entertain.  Then coming up on the very next Sunday, March 8th at 2PM, is another great concert by Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out.  Russell Moore is a graduate of the "Doyle Lawson School of Bluegrass" and it shows.  IIIrd Tyme Out never fails to present and entertaining and musical performance.  The next Sunday, March 15th at 2PM, features the First Lady of Bluegrass, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage.  This will be my first chance to see and hear Rhonda with her new band, so that should be a new treat.  Rhonda has always known how to sing and perform Bluegrass as well as delivering some beautiful ballads with a decidedly more contemporary sound.  The doors open at around 1PM for all of the shows, so plan to arrive early so you can pick your seat.  Don't worry about lunch as the Booster's Club will be serving grilled hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hot dogs with all the fixin's.  I'll see y'all there!

Also, don't forget The Cabin Fever Pickin' Party is coming up next weekend March 5th thru March 8th.  Cabin Fever is a weekend full of Bluegrass and jamming along with socializing with your friends and meeting the bands.  I'll see you there, too!  I'm gonna be tired by the time the Ides of March arrive.

"BLUEGRASS RAMBLE" March, 2009 - Blog Only

Today is Saturday, February 21st and the laundry is in the wash and my day begins.  This weekend will be a Bluegrass weekend.  Of course most of my weekends involve Bluegrass in some fashion, if only listening to WBBC, The Bobcat and the "Sweet Brenda & Him" show on Sunday morning from 7 to 10 AM, 93.5FM.  But, this weekend is one just chock full of Bluegrass.  Last night I drove to Farmer's Cafe in Blackstone to hear The Flatland Bluegrass Band in concert.  They did a fine job, as always.  Be sure to come to the "Night Owl Concerts" as part of the "Cabin Fever Pickin' Party" in Hampton, Virginia coming up in less than two weeks from March 5th through March March 8th at the Holiday Inn.  Last night was a lot of fun, but my weekend is just getting started.  Tonight I'll be driving out to Farmville, Virginia to hear two great bands at the VFW Hall.  Those two bands are Eddie Gill & The Grassmasters and Donnie Mason and In The Tradition.  Bosth of these bands play good old hard driving traditional Bluegrass.  Eddie is known for his soaring tenor leads, while Donnie has that special touch with heart songs and is especially gifted with his ability to bring a tear to your eye with his heartfelt recitations.  If you've got nothing to do tonight, make your way out to Farmville and join me for a great evening of Bluegrass.  I'm not sure when things get started, but I wouldn't get there any later than 7PM.  Now, you might think, "Well, Gary's Bluegrass weekend is over." but you'd be wrong because I'm heading back out again tomorrow toward Appomattox, Virginia to the Appomattox County High School to hear two more great bands.  Presented as part of the Appomattox County High School Athletic Booster Club's Winter Bluegrass Series, this Sunday's concert features Lexington, Virginia's own Nothin' Fancy Bluegrass Band and a great band from Nashville, Tennessee, known as Williams & Clark Expedition.  The show gets underway at 2PM, but the doors open at 1PM, so plan to get there early and claim your favorite seat.  Don't worry about lunch as the Booster's club grills up some geat Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers along with chips and other snack items.  I'm a nut about Bluegrass, so I'll probably be there really early.  so, if you read this and came because you saw my blog, come up to me and let me know.

I suppose many of you are wondering when I'm planning on sending out that last newsletter.  Well, so am I!  No, actually my plans are to enjoy Cabin Fever and then after I get back home I'll get serious and write up that last issue.  Most of you read my blog, but there are a few who for one reason or another don't have computers.  If you know one of those folks let them know about my plans.  While I'm here blogging I wanted to let you know about The Virginia Bluegrass Family/Bluegrass Virginia "Night Owl Concerts."  This year, in an effort to present more music and give more bands a chance to play, I have reduced the set times to 25 minutes each.  The showcases will begin at the usual 11PM time and end at about 2:20AM early Sunday morning.  Here's the schedule:

11:00PM -Flatland Bluegrass Band  11:25PM -  The Fitzmaurice Band        11:50PM -  Code Blue                       12:15AM - The Willow Creek Band        12:40AM - Deep Creek                     1:05AM   - GrassStreet                       1:30AM   - Some Assembly Required      1:55AM   - Jollet Lane                       

So there you have the schedule.  Note that anywhere in this blog whenever you see words that are highlighted in different color (called hyperlinks) type they are instant links to the web sites of that particular band or organization.  Simply place you mouse over the hyperlink and click.

Also, I will not be attending the March meeting of The Virginia Bluegrass Family as I am so excited about Cabin Fever that I plan to be in Hampton that night getting things started early.  Tom Reeves will be passing the bucket around, so please be generous and help out the church so they'll keep letting us use the facility.  Well, that's the Ramble for this time around.  I'll see all of you at Cabin Fever, won't I?

"NUFF SAID!"

A Bluegrass Essay - My Bluegrass by Gary Robertson

I promised a lot of people I would write a very long essay to be included in my last issue of Bluegrass Virginia.  As I have had more and more difficulty writing, this won’t happen.  But, I do want to try to define
what I think Bluegrass is to me.  First, I truly believe Bluegrass began even before Bill Monroe started his band The Blue Grass Boys.  Here in Virginia and in Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky string bands
existed long before the 1939 date on which Bill Monroe first got his band together.  Oh, the music was rudimentary when compared to the complex music we call Bluegrass today, but it was most certainly the music our music grew out of.  Bluegrass music is played on six instruments only; Mandolin, Banjo, Guitar, Fiddle, Bass and Dobro.  You’ll notice I stated these are the only instruments that comprise Bluegrass.  I
believe this with all my heart.  Other instruments may do guest shots in Bluegrass settings, but these six
instruments are the basis of Bluegrass music.  This fact is the reason that most string music prior to Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys can’t really be called Bluegrass.  The instruments that make up Bluegrass were introduced into the American culture slowly and one by one.  They were changed and adapted as our music made demands of them.  Orville Gibson recognized the need for a different design on the Mandolin and
made radical changes from the old European “taterbug” shape to the modern shape we all recognize today.  Mandolin music had to be louder to compete with that of Guitars and Banjos.  Gibson along with many early builders transformed the Banjo from the weak fretless sound of the early instruments to the bright modern style of Banjo we enjoy today.  Martin took the European Guitar and made it bigger and stronger to accept steel strings and in turn made it louder.  The Fiddle and String Bass remain basically unchanged from the styles created in the 16th and 17th century, having been perfected hundreds of years ago.  The
newest instrument in Bluegrass is the Dobro.  Created by the Dopera brothers this acoustically amplified instrument found it’s way into Bluegrass because of a disagreement between Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs and the Grand Ole Opry.  *Briefly, Bill Monroe was jealous of his music (He felt that Flatt & Scruggs were playing his music and had basically stolen it from him.) was blocking the induction of Flatt & Scruggs as Opry members.  After an intense meeting between Monroe, The Martha White Flour Company (Martha White threatened to withdraw all advertising.) and the Grand Ole Opry leadership it was decided that Flatt & Scruggs could be members of the Opry if they did not feature a Mandolin as a lead instrument.  They agreed and shortly thereafter hired Josh Graves who brought the Dobro into the music of Flatt & Scruggs and hence into Bluegrass music. [*This account was told by Josh Graves on stage at the Bass Mountain Bluegrass Festival]  Now that we have all of the instrument established something should be said about the singing.  Singing is, by far, the most important element of Bluegrass music.  We would become
very tired of Bluegrass if there weren’t vocal numbers.  Here, indeed, Bill Monroe did establish the style of singing that has come to be Bluegrass.  He moved the average string band music to higher keys to match his tenor vocal range and the rest, as they say, is history.  It is when I get to this point in my discussion of Bluegrass that I have some serious disagreements with many scholars of our music.  In Nashville, in front of the Ryman Auditorium is a historical marker that proclaims that Bluegrass started there in 1945 when Bill Monroe along with Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and Chubby Wise started Bluegrass music.  This proclamation has stuck in my craw ever since the historical marker was presented on stage as part of the first IBMA Awards in Nashville.  If we are to believe this, then we must deny the music of the first six years of Bill Monroe & The Blue Grass Boys.  Can we deny that "Muleskinner Blues" is Bluegrass?  What about "Doghouse Blues" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky?"  Please, if you have these early recordings of Bill Monroe,
take some time and sit back and listen to the seeds that began this great music we all love called Bluegrass.  Let me pose this question to you.  If the music played by Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys prior to 1945
was not Bluegrass, why were Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs hired?  Why did they want to be part of the band?  It’s quite simple, Bill Monroe was on fire back then.  I have an old cassette tape of an Opry show before Flatt & Scruggs were members of the Blue Grass Boys and the crowd was wildly enthusiastic.  Monroe’s music was so new and all enthralling that the crowds screamed and cheered much as they did in later years for Elvis and The Beatles.  Bluegrass music has grown and changed, but has retained that basic flavor that makes it the music we love.  I read an article about BBQ recently in which the writer stated that each person is introduced to a food and is told this is BBQ.  From that point forward they judge all other BBQs by the one they were first told was BBQ.  This holds true for Bluegrass as well.  I was told Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys and Flatt & Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys were Bluegrass.  I have
based all my judgements concerning Bluegrass on those bands.  Now, my idea of Bluegrass has grown.  Yes, Bluegrass is and “idea.”  Bill had an idea and created his music.  We all have an idea of what
Bluegrass is and it can be very different from one person to the next.  My brother, Jim, and I came into Bluegrass at the same time, but we have different ideas of what Bluegrass is.  I have devoted the largest
portion of my adult life to following Bluegrass.  Jim, on the other hand, has raised his family and had many
distractions taking his focus away from Bluegrass.  We both still love the music of our beginnings, but I have allowed for a stretching of the envelope into which Bluegrass fits.  Jim remains more strongly rooted in the earlier styles.  Bluegrass, for me, encompasses a wide range of bands and styles and I enjoy most all of them.  Tastes in Bluegrass are as personal as are tastes for various foods.  I find my tastes to be wide ranging (I still don’t like an Electric Bass!), but with a decided leaning toward the traditional music that forms the basis for all of our music.         

Nothin' Fancy & Williams & Clark Expedition - Appomattox Bluegrass Series, February 22, 2009

As February rolls around the Appomattox County High School Athletic Boosters Club presents Nothin' Fancy and Williams & Clark Expedition on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009. There have already been two great shows in January featuring The Bluegrass Brothers and Dailey & Vincent.  Both of these shows were great and the February show promises the same.  We all know Nothin’ Fancy from around the Buena Vista/Lexington area of Virginia.  These guys not only present great original Bluegrass, but are a truly entertaining group.  Williams & Clark Expedition may well be making their first expedition into Central Virginia with the Appomattox Series perhaps being the best venue from which to be introduced. 

March has three great shows featuring; Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver on March 1st, IIIrd Tyme Out on March 8th
and Rhonda Vincent & The Rage on March 15th.  Take that drive to Appomattox and join me on February 22nd with Nothin’ Fancy and Williams & Clark Expedition.