"BLUEGRASS RAMBLE" May 25th, 2009

I have many things to write about today, that my guess is I will surely forget a couple of things I meant to say.  To keep from having so many entries in the blog I'll skip a space and type in sub-titles in bold print.

Grave's Mountain Festival of Music

That's right, coming up this weekend, May 28th, 29th & 30th, 2009 is the 17th annual Graves Mountain Festival of Music.  As best as I can recall this is the first time that at least one day of the festival did not fall in June.  I'm not gonna list every band here, but I want to touch on the highlights.  On Thursday we'll get to hear the wonderful voice of Junior Sisk as Junior Sisk & Rambler's Choice perform.  Also, Larry Cordle the great Bluegrass and Country songwriter ("Murder on Music Row") will be at Graves with his band Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time.  Wrapping up the day on Thursday is the great family band that refuses to call itself a family band, Cherryholmes.

Friday has so much going on that I'm gonna have to tell you about almost all of it.  First up on Friday is a little known band called Next Best Thing.  This band has both of Rhonda Vincent's daughters, making them the 5th generation of the Vincent family to perform Bluegrass music.  Next up is the great Navy Bluegrass band founded by Bill Emerson, Country Current.  If you like your Bluegrass from the heart and traditional then look no farther than The James King Band.  Sammy Shelor has kept the brand alive by keeping The Lonesome River Band staffed with top notch musicians; one listen and you'll agree.  Next up will be Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, serving up some of the clearest tenor lead singing you're likely to hear and great high harmonies.  Probably the highlight of the weekend, for me, will be the second re-union of The Heights of Grass, featuring Don Grubb, Billy Lux, Vernon Hughes, Richard Ward and several other "Heights" alumni (Sammy Shelor was one!).

Saturday gets underway with hard driving traditional sounds of The Bluegrass Brothers.  Follow that up with the annual appearance of The Mark Newton Band and you've got Saturday going with gusto.  Next up is a great new name in Bluegrass, Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain.  Carrie will blow you away with her strong vocals.  Next up is a new contemporary band, The SteelDrivers.  These guys have always performed their own music and, to my knowledge, have never performed a "cover" of anyone else's music.  There's nothing I can say by way of superlatives other than also on Saturday The Seldom Scene and Rhonda Vincent & The Rage will appear.  Things will wrap up on Saturday with an all-star Bluegrass jam featuring the imminent Carl Jackson along with Mark Newton and many others.  I'll be heading towards Graves on Wednesday.  Sure hope I see a lot of you there!

My Weekend at The Central Virginia Family Bluegrass Music Festival

Along with at least a couple thousand others I enjoyed a wonderful weekend at what is lovingly called the Amelia Festival by most of us.  There were heavy downpours of rain in all directions, but for some reason Amelia was not the usual "rain-magnet" as in years past.  We enjoyed a beautiful weather and many hours of great Bluegrass.  The jamming was everywhere and at times a bit boisterous, but always lots of fun.  I am counting the days until August 14th, 15th & 16th when the summer edition of Amelia Bluegrass will continue the great times in Amelia.  I have to believe this festival was the most successful with the largest crowd of any other held at the Amelia Family Campground.

Great Times at PreddyFest

I drove down to Franklinton, NC this past Saturday to enjoy a few hours at PreddyFest.  Rodney Preddy, who presents the festival, has been wrestling with choosing the best dates to have it.  The first years were held on the first weekend of August.  All that could be said about that weekend was , hot, hot, hot.  Then last year he chose to move it to the weekend vacated by the closing of The Christopher Run Bluegrass Festival.  Wow!  Last year that weekend was the hottest weekend of all of 2008.  This year, not wishing to compete with any other event, and after learning the The Bass Mountain Bluegrass Festvial was ended, Rodney chose to have PreddyFest on Memorial Day Weekend.  Even though the festival at Bass Mountain was revived, PreddyFest was a huge success, blessed with great weather and many great bands.  I think that two festivals could occur the same weekend less than 75 miles apart, and each achieve the success desired, attests to the strong and growing fan base of Bluegrass.

Donnie Mason Scheduled for Gastric Bypass June 15th, 2009

Donnie Mason of the band In The Tradition wanted me to tell all you that his health insurance company has finally agreed to allow his gastric bypass surgery.  It is scheduled for June 15th.  Donnie again wanted to express his heartfelt thanks to all who contributed toward this great day that will finally happen.  To write Donnie with your best wishes you may contact him via email by clicking here.

Christopher Run Campground to host "A Bluegrass Weekend" June 5th & 6th, 2009

Once again this year the Christopher Run Campground will host another "camp & pick" at the campgrounds this June 5th & 6th.  They will open up the old Bluegrass festival camping area with electric and water in that area costing $15 per night.  Remember camping on the "fence row?"  There'll be no bands on stage, and for that matter there'll be no stage, but there'll be a great chance to get together with old friends and to tell a few lies and pick and sing together.  For details and information on reservations, etc, click here.

JULY meeting of The Virginia Bluegrass Family will be moved to July 14th, Second Tuesday.

Due to a conflict with Jahnke Road Baptist Church's "Vacation Bible School" we will not be able to have our meeting on the 1st Tuesday of July.  Instead we will meet on the second Tuesday, which is July 14th.  I will make every effort to get this information  to everyone at the June meeting which will be on June 2nd.

Well I don't want to wear you out, so I'll wrap up this edition of the Bluegrass Ramble by saying......

'NUFF SAID!

Festival Season is in Full Swing: Central VA Family Bluegrass Music Festival - May 14th thru 16th: PreddyFest May 21st thru 23rd: Graves MT. Festival of Music - May 28th thru 30th, 2009

Yeah, I know that's really fat headline. but I wanted to cover all of this in just one post so you wouldn't have to scan the entire blog for info.  I will, however, insert hyperlinks to my original post on each festival and also hyperlinks to the web site of each festival.

Before getting to the festivals I wanted to mention a Tuesday night jam.  It's pretty far away, but they do have jams every Tuesday and if you're heading toward southwest Virginia you might want to stop by Gerta's House of Music right off exit
77 on I-81/77 just down from the Wilco/Hess Truckstop/Wash. For more information please feel free to email Sarah Strang by clicking here.

I also wanted to make sure you got the word about the Isaacs concert coming up at the West End Assembly of God, 401 Parham Road, Richmond, VA 23229, Doors open at 6:30 PM, Music starts at 7:30 PM, $15 in advance/$20 at door, nice group discounts available for 10 or more, see www.JAMinc.org or call 804 320-7067 Give Mom a ticket for Mothers' day (May 10).  JAMinc is a non-profit organization whose mission is stated as: Mission: "To open minds, hearts and ears to music deserving a
wider audience through education, performance and support." I think the goals of JAMinc are wonderful and whenever I can I support them.  Won't you do the same?

Also, there is a wonderful multi-part documentary now showing on PBS entitled, " Appalachia, A History of Mountains and People."  For more information about the series go to the web site by clicking here.  There is also a companion CD of the music from the series.  More information about how to obtain a copy is available by clicking here.  I plan to review the CD within the next few weeks.

Now, to the festivals!  Coming up in in 12 short days (May 14th, 15th & 16th) from the date of this blog is the Central Virginia Family Bluegrass Music Festival.  John & Fern Hutchinson have been presenting this fine festival for 29 years and this year will mark the 30th year of Bluegrass at the Amelia Family Campgrounds.  Clink on the link for details concerning the 30th Anniversary festival and camping information.  Also to read my previous blog entry about the Amelia Festival (that's what we all affectionately call it!) click here.  Coming up just 5 short days after the Amelia Festival is PreddyFest, in Freanklinton, NC, on May 21st, 22nd & 23rd.  To connect to the PreddyFest web site click here for more details.  To read my previous post about PreddyFest click here.  The last festival in Central Virginia in May is the Grave's Mountain Festival of Music.  Virginia's largest festival takes place on May 28th, 29th & 30th. For detailed information about the festival and all the other activities throughout the year at Grave's Mountain click here.  To read my previous blog with a more detailed description click here.  One way or another I'll be attending all of these great Bluegrass festivals.  I really hope I see you at each and every one of them.

Yet Another "Bluegrass Ramble" April 18, 2009

Good Morning Bluegrass friends.  I've got a lot to cram in this ramble so I better get right to it.  First I want to mention the thing that is farthermost in the future, as far as this writing goes anyway.  The Virginia Folk Music Association, better know to all of us as the VFMA  will bring us their festival "Jumpin' Bluegrass '09 this coming September 17th, 18th, 19th followed by the official Virginia Bluegrass Championship contest on Sunday September 20th.  I'll be mentioning this in the future, but felt I should bring it up now so you can mark your calendar and reserve your leave time.  Bands that will be performing over the course of the weekend are: The Lonesome River Band, Michelle Nixon & Drive, The James King Band, Code Blue, Copper Ridge, Borrowed Time, Thunder Creek and Virginia City Grass.  For a printable copy of the official flyer click here.  In an effort to boost attendance this year you can attend each and every day for only $5.  That's right you read it right, only $5 for the day or only $20 for the entire weekend.   Also don't forget the "Cornbread & Soup Beans Pot Luck Supper" on Thursday.  Remember that our club The Virginia Bluegrass Family provides the BBQ and Rolls that day.

Coming up tomorrow are two Bluegrass shows right here in Central Virginia.  First up at 1PM Borrowed Time will be playing at Namaw's Restaurant in Amelia at 1PM.  Ralph Westfall will be standing in as guest on Banjo.  Then at 7:30PM The Big Boss Combo will be performing at Lulu's on 17th Street across from the farmer's market.  There is a nominal $7 cover charge which includes a light dinner buffet.  I'm gonna try to make both shows, so maybe I'll see you at one or the other.

Next weekend presents a huge problem as there are two very good Bluegrass events happening at the same time.  Unfortunately, choices have to be made.  The Virginia Bluegrass & Country Music Foundation, Inc. will present the 23rd Bluegrass & Country Music Festival at "George Winn Memorial Park,' in Lawrenceville, Virginia at the corner of Rt. 678 (Rose Drive) and Rt. 733.  Bands playing will be: George Winn & The Bluegrass Partners, Becky Taylor & Open Fire, Against The Grain, Special Order, Robert Nelson, The Watts Brothers, Rome County, Take Two- Jo & Wilma, Vicki Hayes & Friends and The Sargent Family.  On this very same weekend about 100 miles north is Mr. B's "Spring Into Bluegrass" Festival, held at Mr. B's Park in Ladysmith, Virginia.  There's a full article about Mr. B's on the blog.  Click here to access that blog entry.

To access my blog entry for "The Central Virginia Family Bluegrass Music Festival," click here.  My entry for "PreddyFest" can be accesssed by clicking here.

I will close this blog by urging you to purchase the series if DVDs being offered by the Country Music Hall of Fame of the Flatt & Scruggs TV Shows.  I especially wanted to tell you about Volume 7.  Every volume has great classic live Bluegrass performed by one of the seminal and most important Bluegrass bands of all time, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys Volume 7 is special because it contains the earliest known film of the Flatt & Scruggs TV Show.  It is an amazingly complete and fine show.  Upon first seeing the show you might think the film is in awful condition, but you really don't have an idea how bad the film actually was.  After the show there is a special feature showing the amazing way the film was restored.

I'll close out this "Bluegrass Ramble" with a piece of Bluegrass Gossip i heard last night while enjoying a fine performance by North Ridge at Farmer's Cafe in Blackstone, Virginia.  Someone there said the James King got married last weekend.  Congratulations James!

"NUFF SAID!"

"Bluegrass Ramble" April 4th,2009

Hi folks,  This is my first article after the closing of my ten years of publishing "Bluegrass Virginia" the newsletter.  Those ten years were full of good times and I'm hoping that I can offer some interesting Bluegrass related stuff for you here in "Bluegrass Virginia, The Blog."  This is an extension of a column I had in the newsletter called the Bluegrass Ramble.  Whenever you see an article with Bluegrass Ramble in the title be prepared for just that.  I'll ramble from here to there with my thoughts about Bluegrass and some actual useful information along with, perhaps, some personal happenings as I make my way through life.

Just four short years ago I received an email from a young woman named Kim Gold.  She had heard from the IBMA that I, through our club, The Virginia Bluegrass Family, was doing some booking of showcase bands at the IBMA World of Bluegrass in Louisville, Kentucky.  She wrote to me that her three daughters had formed a band named Gold Heart, and they were interested in showcasing as part of my "Night Owl Concerts."  Always interested in new talent, I booked them without having heard a single note of music.  In the interim between booking them to play and the week of IBMA I met them when they came down to Chesterfield, Virginia to attend the VFMA "Jumpin' Bluegrass 05."  We were pleasantly rewarded with Gold Heart making a special guest appearance during the weekend of the festival.  Since that time they have performed all around Virginia and up and down the east coast.  Soon they will travel for a two week tour of the United Kingdom where I know they'll be welcomed and in turn they will treat those British Isles to some good old Virginia styled Bluegrass.  Probably the neatest thing I have to share about Gold Heart is that they have just been signed as Rural Rhythm Records newest recording artists.  To read the official announcement by their booking agent Hope River Entertainment and Rural Rhythm Records click here.  I'm so proud and happy for this fine family.  Here's a few photos of Gold Heart.

 

Hey, folks I wanted to tell you something about some recent posts here on "Bluegrass Virginia."  A couple of weeks ago I sent out a notice telling you there were 11 new posts on the blog, but when you went to look at them there were only 5 or 6 of them visible.  It turns out that the wonderful Internet service that allows me to present this journal to you free of charge archives all posts beyond the five most recent.  So, that means all of the posts are there.  You simply have to click on the words "older posts" that appear at the very bottom of the series of post that are visible right now.  Do take a little time to take a look.  Thanks!

"NUFF SAID!"

Some Assemby Required "Tools Of The Trade"

A review, by Gary Robertson

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of musicians happier about the release of a new project than my friends, the members of Some Assembly Required.  They had worked hard and long on this project and the waiting was absolutely driving them crazy.  well it finally came out and I’ve been handed a copy for my listening pleasure and for review.  All in all the band has chosen an eclectic group of songs to record, but that is reasonable since their live sets are also filled with eclectic tunes.  

The first song on the CD is a rather standard Bluegrass tune called “Wrong Road Again,” sung in fine style Guitarist by Lynn Stephens.  Next up is the great Hank Williams song “There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight,”  sung here very effectively by Leo  Szydlowski, Mandolinist for the group.  The third song called “Callie’s Reel” is sung by Leo and is interesting in that the tune is mentioned in the song which is known as Devil’s Dream.  Eric Gibson of the Gibson Brothers did a fine job putting words to an old instrumental tune.  “This Little House of Mine” written by Kimberly Fox & Susanne Munpower.  This is a ballad of the sadness and growth of moving through life.  Lynn does a fine job with the lead with Leo joining in singing a strong harmony line.

Leo wrote “Just Like Candy” based on his first and most likely only experience with chewing tobacco.   “Footprints” written by Russell Johnson & Julie Elkins that put the old anonymous poem about the footprints in the sand into a fine ballad, sung here strongly by Lynn.  A beautiful song sung with feeling.   “Go My Way” is a Gordon Lightfoot song done here effectively by Lynn with a fine intro by guest Dobroist Bob Burroughs.  Leo joins Lynn singing a strong tenor on the chorus.  “By The Mark” recently recorded by Dailey & Vincent is well covered here by Some Assembly Required.  

The next song on the project is an old country standard called “Just Someone I Used To Know.”  Again Bob Burroughs joins the band on Dobro for this song.  “Red Clay Halo” written by Gillian Welch (As was By The Mark) is a perky song about a girl who grew up in the country surrounded by red clay soil.  Lynn performs this song beautifully and has made it a tour-de-force.  The last song on the CD is entitled “A Place To Rest,” was written by Leo and is sung here by Leo joined by Lynn in a sentimental song about life at home with Grandpa.  This is a fine song and was really quite a surprise for me.  I believe this is Leo’s best work. 

As with most bands the lead pickers and singers tend to get mentioned over and over and those who are the bedrock upon which the band rest are often neglected.  I want to correct that right now by complimenting Ernie Freeby on his rock solid and unobtrusive Bass playing throughout the project.  It is my opinion that Some Assembly Required has produced a recorded  project they can all be proud of.  Let me say that if your enjoy seeing and hearing Some Assembly Required in a live setting then you will very much enjoy this CD, “Tools Of The Trade.”

My Festival Memories By: Gary Robertson

I came to Bluegrass as an end of a search for music.  As a teenager I tried to be part of my generation by listening to the popular rock music of the time, but I also was listening to a music that was called Soul
music.  These performers included people like Otis Redding, Jr. Walker & The All-stars, Wilson Picket and others.  The rock music I gravitated toward was more of the type known today a “Bubble Gum” music. 
It included folks like The Association, Herman’s Hermits and others.

As I aged into my twenties and no
longer had the pressure of peers directing my way I began a search that led me to some very different musics.  I listened to March Band music.  Yeah, John Philip Sousa stuff.  Then I drifted toward Big Band music; Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and many others.  I still enjoy Big Band, but never purposefully listen to it anymore.  I still hadn’t found “my” music.

My brother, Jim, had a father-in-law (Garland Davis) that played the Mandolin.  Jim got interested in listening to him and bought a really cheap Guitar to try to learn to play.  Garland showed him the basic chords  and Jim began working on learning.  I’m not sure how I heard him play the Guitar, but I did and I thought “Wow, that’s
pretty neat.”

Christmas was coming up and I went to Lail’s Music in Colonial Heights and found an old long neck (Pete Seeger style) Silvertone Banjo for $40, so I bought it for Jim.  That was two months before Christmas, so it was lying around the house, so I started fooling with it and the sounds I heard were very
pleasing to me.  Finally the holiday did arrive and I had to give it to Jim.  Soon he began taking Banjo lessons from the late Arthur Rucker as part of an adult education program presented by the YMCA in
Manchester.  When I heard Jim start playing Cripple Creek, well it was then I decided I wanted a Banjo of my own.

At about that same time Gibson was doing a nationwide push of Banjos and Guitars and they had a representative from Gibson at Lail’s Music playing the Banjo.  Wow!  Upon hearing this guy play I knew I had to get a Banjo.  They had a big sale going on and were selling brand new Epiphone Banjos for $125 each.  Jim and I both bought one that day.  I started taking lessons along with
Jim and I began my journey into learning all about Bluegrass Music.

This was back in 1972 and the following spring we heard about a thing called a Bluegrass Festival.  “Pop. The Storekeeper” on WXGI mentioned this upcoming festival every day.  It was in Amelia County tucked right up against the 4-lane Rt. 360 and it was called “Bluegrass Grove.”  It was presented by Roy McCraw.  Jim and I decided to go there on the Sunday show.  We were initiated and immersed into the world of the Bluegrass festival.  I remember
we bands like, The Conrad Hinson Family, The Hughes Family, The Grass Reflection and The Cabin Hill Bluegrass Band.

Let me zoom forward about 25 years for a moment.  I was at the Graves’ Mountain
Festival and there was a fellow there trying to introduce a new Bluegrass and Acoustic music magazine.  I knew he had been the assistant editor at Bluegrass Unlimited, but that was all I recalled.  I passed by and we
spoke briefly when he asked me if I remembered those day at Bluegrass Grove?  I told him I did, but I wondered how he knew I went there.  He explained that he and his brother were part of The Cabin Hill Bluegrass Band and he remembered me from all those years before.  We are a big family of Bluegrass folks.

Jim & I were absolute rank beginners and it would be another five years before we go up the nerve to bring our instruments to a festival.  However it was at this first festival that I saw a vendor selling strings, picks and
other related Bluegrass stuff.  I bought a book called “The Bluegrass Fakebook.”  It had the words to 1,000 songs, some of which were part of the Bluegrass repertoire, but most were folk and rock ballads.  It didn’t have any chords listed, just the words.  Also, that day I bought a metal thumb pick made by Dunlap.  I had the problem of my plastic pick scraping the strings like a fiddle bow.  This metal pick was smooth and from that day to now I still use metal thumb picks made by Dunlop.  While we were at Bluegrass Grove we heard
about another festival coming up at another park in Amelia at Pete Pike’s farm,  We went to that one too, but again just for on single day.  After that first year Jim and I made regular trips to Amelia to both of those festivals.

A few years later Claude Warden started a Bluegrass festival in Amelia at Tom Scott Park.  His friend, Barney Jones, helped him with these festivals until after a few years, Claude found Jesus and was re-born and didn’t feel he could continue with presenting Bluegrass festivals and still be a good Christian.  It was around 1979 when Barney, along with the Powers Brothers, began presenting the festival at Tom Scott Park.

At around this same time period Martha White Mills created the Martha White Caravan (An 18 wheeler with a portable stage) and began presenting festivals with Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass as the host band.  The first Martha White Caravan Festival was held in Mineral, Virginia at Walton Park in 1978.  Jim and Steve Waddell and I traveled to this festival and stayed in a motel nearby called Sacra’s Motel.  I remember I had an old 1972 Ford LTD and when we got to the motel and got out of the car there was this most awful
smell in the air.  We commented that if that restaurant smelled that bad we wouldn’t be eating there.  It turned out that my voltage regulator had went bad and I had been over-charging the battery.  When we opened the hood the top of the battery was moving and it was boiling hot and did it ever stink.  We got a new voltage regulator and everything was fine.

This was the same weekend when we sat in Sacra’s Restaurant with Lester Flatt and all those other Bluegrass greats.  A wonderful memory.  Another first happened at this festival.  This was the very first time that Steve, Jim and I got the nerve to get our instruments out and play in public.  Now, we weren’t very public because we got them out way out in the day parking far away from the “good pickers” down in the
festival proper.  We met a couple guys there that weekend named Simp Grant and Johnny Lett. We all played together the whole day and we discovered they lived near Hopewell, Virginia.  We began playing
together and decided to become a band.  I think the best thing about our band was the name.  Jim’s middle name is “Lee” and so we put that together with Simp’s last name “Grant” and named the band Lee & Grant & The Appomattox River Boys.  A great name for a pitifully poor group ofwould be musicians.

A year later John Hutchinson started presenting festivals at his Amelia Family Campground.  Jim and I were still making trips to festivals, but only for single days.  This is the way I attended the first couple of years at  Amelia Family Campground.  So now there were four festivals each season and during the summer of 1981 Jim and I were at an auction when we spotted a little tag-along camper.  We decided to bid on it and we got it for $500.  That September we decided we were going to spend the entire weekend at the “East Virginia Bluegrass
Festival” (That’s what the “fall” festival at the Amelia Family Campground was called back then.)  So, we got there and found a site right in the center of the campground.  And man-o-man, there was a big jam going
on while we were setting up camp.  This was gonna be really neat.  And it was.  There were some really great pickers in that jam including Barney Jones on Bass, Vic Sielski on Banjo and others.  The jam went
on all day and into the night.  This is the point when Jim figured out that staying at a festival all night was not for him.  He wanted to sleep, but these guys just kept on picking.  Jim didn’t get the sleep he wanted
and after that weekend I began travelling to festivals by myself.

I was fortunate to meet some folks at that
festival who have become fast friends and a large part on my Bluegrass life.  Camped right behind Jim and I were Scott & Elizabeth Westfall and their son and daughter-in-law Ralph & Rose Westfall.   Camped nearby was another couple, Chris & Chuck Humphreys.  Time has caused many changes since our first meeting, but we have all remained good friends to this day.

Just a year of so later I was at one of the last festivals presented by Barney Jones
when one of Richmond’s most beloved Bluegrass performers, Uncle Leroy, actually had a heart attack and fell dead on the stage.  I was not actually watching the stage show, but I heard the crash as he fell.  It reverberated throughout the park through the sound system.  Things got very quiet and within moments someone came to the campsite and told us Uncle Leroy had died.  There was a pall cast over the remainder of the festival, but those of us who were there will never forget that day.

Since those days many more festivals have come into existence and many of those older ones have faded away.  Through the years I have had three different campers.  There was that first one Jim and I bought together.  I used it for a long time,
but found a motor home at an auction sale.  It was in awful condition, but I thought I could make it usable.  I spent money on a new engine, but while attendingone “Central Virginia Family Bluegrass Music Festivals” the bed crumbledand I fell through it.  I drove it back home and never again started it up.  I finally gave it away.  Then I bought the little camper I use to this day.  It is an old camper, made in 1974, but it serves the purpose of giving me a place to sleep and keep all of my Bluegrass junk.

I still attend the two festivals in Amelia presented by John & Fern Hutchinson and I also camp at “Graves’ Mountain Festival of Music.”  I think I should mention here a wonderful festival that has come and gone, but is part of my fondest memories of Bluegrass.  This festival was “The Christopher Run Bluegrass Festival.”  It was presented at the Christopher Run Campground on Lake Anna near Mineral, Virginia by Jean & Sam Bazzanella.  This was a beautiful spot for a festival and Jean & Sam did it right.  I really miss Christopher Run.

Now there are many festivals, some of which I only make day trips and others at which I take the camper and enjoy the very
different experience of actually living at the festival.   The camping experience truly is very different.  It means you can stay up very late enjoying jams, whether you participate or simply stand around and listen.  It means getting up to the sounds of Bluegrass and smelling bacon and eggs being cooked all around the campground.  It is being seen and seeing folks that are part of your Bluegrass family.  Hey, I never liked camping, and if I were to tell you the truth I probably still don’t, but I do dearly love the feeling of togetherness that can only come from camping together among others who are there for the very same reason as you.  They love Bluegrass music!

We’ve just returned from the “Cabin Fever Pickin’ Party” and we are now anxiously awaiting the warms days of spring and those first Bluegrass festivals.  I’ve been attending Bluegrass festivals for about 37 years and if it were possible I would do it another 37.  I do know I will go to and be a part of Bluegrass festivals as long as I possibly can.  Please join me and share my love for that special phenomenon that is The Bluegrass Festival.

Carolina Road Homecoming Bluegrass Festival March 27th & 28th, 2009 - Ramada Inn, Burlington, NC

I know you’re just itching to begin the festival season and I can’t think of a better way to get your feet wet than the “Carolina Road Homecoming Bluegrass Festival” at the Ramada Inn in Burlington, N. C.

Lorraine Jordan and her band Carolina Road have been hosting this event for several years now and each year it grows in stature as the kick-off event for the Bluegrass festival season in the central Atlantic region.   This is an indoor event, but unlike Cabin Fever it is not a jamming weekend.  Even though there is a large room for open jams, the spotlight is on the performances of the bands.  And what a line up of bands will be there.  Of course Carolina Road will perform both days.  But, there are many other bands performing over the course of the weekend.

On Friday these bands are playing: Chris Jobe & Jordan, Nixon, Blevins, Gage & McDonald, Frances Mooney & Fontana Sunset, Blu-Js, Al Batten & Bluegrass Reunion, Constant Change and Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road.

Then on Saturday comes: Chris Jobe & Jordan, Crossroads Gospel, Steel Magnolia, Damascus Ridge, Al Batten & Bluegrass Reunion, Code Blue, Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass, Roby Huffman & The Bluegrass Cut-ups, Carolina Sonshine, Big Country and Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road.  Wow!  That’s a weekend full of fine Bluegrass music.  The festival is at the Ramada Inn, Burlington off I-40 at exit 143.  Call 336-227-5541 for room reservations.

Ticket are $60 for a two day pass, however advance tickets ($50/two days) are available through March 25th.  You are guaranteed a reserved seat with an advance ticket, so I believe that would make it doubly worthwhile.  Call 919-779-5672 for last minute advance tickets.

The snows are gone and gas is fairly cheap right now, so go ahead and make that drive down to Burlington and be at the season’s first Bluegrass Festival.