Riverbend Bluegrass Festival, Ocilla, GA - Review

Drive onto the grounds of the Riverbend Bluegrass Festival and you find yourself in the midst of the beauty of the agricultural south. The performance area as well as much of the campground lies in the midst of a grove of stately pecan trees, at this time of year dropping their fruit for folks to pick up and crack open. Beside the campground in one direction are fields of cotton, ripe and ready to be harvested. Nearby one of Georgia’s other major crops, peanuts, are nearly ready to go to the warehouse. In the pretty nearby town of Ocilla, the annual sweet potato festival will take place on the same Saturday as the big day of the festival. We arrive early in the afternoon on Wednesday to find many RVs already parked and the rather small covered shed nearly filled with chairs already. We’re happy to find our spot is quite near the stage and convenient to all facilities and even happier to learn that this isolated small event has a broadband service of sorts. By Friday, the grounds are nearly full, and promoter Verniece Kennedy is looking for spots to shoehorn rigs into. The vendors have set up, some of the musicians begin to appear, and the bluegrass community is set for another weekend.

Thursday evening features open mic performances, which we decide to ignore in favor of watching the first game of the World Series. Most people here appear blissfully unaware that baseball is being played anywhere and, indeed, during the weekend we only talk to one other person who cares. Music begins on Friday evening at 6:00 PM with the host band, The Riverbend Bluegrass Band opening up. Verniece sings creditably while husband Dale and the other band members are entertaining. The four of the five professional bands for the weekend follow. Fontanna Sunset is the only band we haven’t heard before. Fronted by Frances Mooney, one of the Daughters of Bluegrass, this band is one of those delightful regional bands that always provide surprises at bluegrass festivals. Frances Mooney has been in bluegrass music forever. She has a fine voice, deep timbred and full, she and slaps a pretty good bass, too. Her support is strong and this band deserves more attention. Her son Mark plays a very good rhythm guitar as well as doing some creditable flat-picking. Their voices blend as only those or relatives can, close and clear, they’re a pleasure to hear. Other band members provide experienced, solid support. Most band members are from Georgia and their schedule doesn’t take them too far afield, although they’ll be seen in Tennsessee, Florida, and Mississippi in the coming year. Frances will make some appearances with the Daughters of Bluegrass, a group which is more a recording effort than a performing one, but which will be increasingly in demand to perform together.

Four of the five featured bands appeared on Friday as well as Saturday. Lorraine Jordan and Carolina Road led off with one of the best sets we’ve seen them do. The crowd was alive and responsive, lifting Carolina Road to a higher level of performance than even their usual very professional and high quality work. During the past year, this band has developed cohesiveness, increased its warmth, broadened its appeal, and raised its standard of performance. The personnel have been stabilized, yielding real variety and quality. Lorraine remains the decided band front, yet has ceded some of the emcee duties to the genial Jerry Butler, who has established a relaxed camaraderie with her that is fun to watch. Benny Greene is always reliable on banjo as is Todd Meade on bass. On Saturday, dressed in drag, we finally heard Todd sing, too, as Josh Goforth had to meet another obligation. With Josh on fiddle as well as playing a very good finger picking guitar, this band can provide a real breadth of quality music even as it adhere’s pretty closely to Monroe style bluegrass. By including some classic country and a few novelty numbers, this excellent band can always be counted on.

The Gary Waldrep Band can also always be counted on the provide a solid and enjoyable performance. Waldrep, coming from northeastern Alabama, plays in what is called the Sand Mountain style. I’m not enough of an analyst to describe the essentials of his approach, but Waldrep’s band features his blazing fast banjo in both Scruggs style picking and clawhammer, with a very strong primitive gospel component. Waldrep communicates clearly and fervently his deep religious conviction in songs like his signature, Thomas. Two standouts in Gary’s band are guitarist and tenor singer Mindy Rakestraw and bassist Jane Baxter. Waldrep is one of the few bluegrass band leaders to place two (sometimes three, although fiddler Shirley Simes has moved on.) female performers in key positions in his band and is to be applauded for this. Rakestraw plays very solid rhythm guitar and has several opportunities to sing solos as well. Baxter, who’s been in bluegrass since before she was born, is a versatile bassist and sings both gospel and blues with real depth. Stan Wilemon, an experienced bluegrasser, is excellent on mandolin and backup harmonies. Waldrep is an exciting performer who is also an extremely generous bandleader. He deserves broader exposure.

I am not a fan of Goldwing Express. This band, based in Branson, MO gives a slick, sometimes amusing, canned performance which is exactly right for Branson type audiences and attracts a number of devoted fans to their performances on the road. This being said, the band tries to have it both ways as the father, Bob Baldridge, portrays the dirty old man making allusions to his sex life and continually returning to bathroom talk while his dutiful sons try to keep him from making comments. By using this approach, the sons appear to be clean cut and straight while the father can say anything the group wants to say. His use of the insulting ethnic slur “Polock” is unacceptable before any audience. This is accentuated by the group’s double message in referring to their Cherokee heritage while calling their father “white man” and singing about the infamous “Trail of Tears.” From time to time I found myself laughing at his act and then wanting to go wash my mouth out with soap. The cynical and manipulative appeal to motherhood, country and God used as the finale to their last set set comes across as insincere and makes this group seem untrustworthy to me.

We’ve been watching the Wilson Family Band from Folkston, GA for nearly a year now and they just keep getting better. Robert Wilson has been around bluegrass music for quite some time, beginning his career touring with the River Grass Review in the eighties. He and wife Melissa have built a family band around their two children, Clint, age 17 and Katie – 12. With the addition of Drew Jones on bass, this young band is maturing almost by the day. Katie, a gifted singer/songwriter who plays the fiddle has continued to improve in every aspect of her performance. At Riverbend it was clear that she has developed a deeper understanding of her instrument and its potential inside a bluegrass band. She is taking risks and hits much more often than she misses. She has become a solid mainstay of a good band, and is not to be seen as a novelty kid who can perform. Brother Clint has also continued to mature and expand. This weekend was the first time we had seen him perform on the mandolin and guitar as well as his primary instrument, banjo. He made significant contributions at the workshop the family conducted on Saturday morning, too. Even though the band’s focus is on the kids, Melissa is taking more and more intricate mandolin breaks as her confidence before an audience increases. Drew Jones provides a solid beat at bass and also offered some strong flat picking on the guitar. The Wilson Family Band is the kind of band that audiences respond to strongly. They play a solid mixture of gospel and traditional bluegrass as well as several songs written by the kids. They will only continue to improve as they mature with their instruments and their connection to the music.

Riverbend attracted a very enthusiastic and large audience this year, completely filling the available campsites to overflowing. Gene Daniel did a good job on sound and Jo Odum was a lively and engaging emcee. A good variety of food was offered and a real sense of connection between the crowd and the performers prevailed. Riverbend Music Park offers two festivals in the year, April and October and should be considered as a stop on your bluegrass trail, particularly if you like a strong component of gospel with your traditional bluegrass.

Halloween Silliness

Gary Waldrep
Todd Meade
Lorraine Jordan

Jane Baxter

Jo Odum

Georgia Agrirama- Tifton, Georgia

The Georgia Agrirama sits on 90 acres just off exit 63 of I-75 in Tifton, Georgia. This living history museum is designed to recreate rural Georgia farm life in the south-central portion of the state known as Wiregrass after the hardy grass growing under the long needle Georgia pines of the region. We pull into the nearly empty parking lot around 11:00 in the morning and wait at the cash register for someone to take out money. Then we head out onto the grounds. Our first impression is that there’s not too much enthusiasm among the staff for this museum, and we can’t get a handle on the grounds right away. We enter a late nineteenth century home called the Tift House. Captain Henry Harding Tift, originally from Mystic, CT built this home in the thriving town of Tifton where his development efforts created a thriving market town. The house has lovely wood and high quality moldings, but seems stark and unlived-in. It is a comfortable home, but probably not of the standard a person of the same standing would have had in his home town of Mystic had he stayed there.

After paying proper respect to Captain Tift and his home, our visit to the Agrirama took a decided step upwards. The museum is divided into several distinct social and economic regions including a bare subsistence farm, a more substantial farmstead, a progressive farm of the late 1890’s, a small town main street with several businesses, and a steam powered train to help visitors get an overview of the entire operation. Buildings have been brought from various towns in the region and lovingly restored. Interpreters in appropriate costume were well informed and refreshingly candid, when they didn’t know an answer, they declined to fake it. More delightfully, almost all the people we talked with were eager to discuss their jobs, the world they were portraying, and their sense that this world is an important element for educating young people to a world that is fast disappearing. Many of the employees are retired from other pursuits and are people who were brought up on farms in the region, understand rural life in South Georgia, and mourn the loss of rural values and pursuits. We were fortunate in that on this very pleasantly warm day in late October, almost no one was visiting the Agrirama and everyone had plenty of time to chat about their role and its relationship to their lives.

We heard the wail of the steam train whistle as it chugged into the station and hurried over to board in time for a ride around the 95 acre grounds. Few people today have ever seen a steam locomotive, yet alone had a chance to ride behind one. The friendly conductor boarded us and the two other people who were on this trip, and we lurched out of the station with the whistle blowing. The trip headed into the woods and then circumnavigated the large pond dominating the edge of the facility. It circled past several of the farms and returns to the station, having given us a useful overview for the rest of our stay.

We walked away through the woods to the gristmill where the miller was grinding white corn meal on a water powered stone grinder. He described the way the mill was brought to the location in pieces and the difficulty museum personnel had in reconstructing it until a miller more familiar with the process was brought in to erect it. We happily bought a bag of corn meal which will, no doubt, produce fresh and tasty muffins soon enough. From there we walked on through the woods to the industrial area where we came upon the steam-powered sawmill. Working with thick tree trunks, the sawyer was cutting 1x12 boards with a smooth and easy familiarity. The belt driven system drove the saw, moved the log through it, and transported the sawdust to a pile. A crosscut saw, which we didn’t see in operation, was also a part of the system. The huge blade ate easily through the tree. Other buildings in the industrial area included a print shop where the Museum Guide and a mock-up newspaper of local nineteenth century paper. The printer and his assistant, a lively woman we later learned is 90 years old, provided much information concerning the equipment and its importance to life of the times. Nearby was the Variety Works building where steam driven equipment including a lathe, band saw, planer, and other tools were used to manufacture necessary equipment. A complex of buildings containing a feed store and drug store were less satisfactory as the contents of the two buildings were sparse. It’s important to note that this museum is still a work in progress, having opened on the bicentennial day of July 4, 1976. It relies on donors to give artifacts to it. Many of the exhibits would benefit greatly from continued dressing up of their contents. Many of the employees have clear ideas about ways that their exhibits could be improved.

Perhaps the highlight of the museum for us was the cotton gin. This region is still a cotton producer and during the turn-of-the-century portrayed here, cotton was an even more important crop. Powered, again, by steam, the gin shows clearly how agriculture benefitted from the mechanization of a process that must have been nearly impossible before the gin’s invention. The two hosts of this exhibit were very enthusiastic about the equipment they run.

At Miller’s house farmstead, several local school girls on a field trip were dressed in costume and doing cross-stitch under the tutelage of the hostess. They were eager to tell us about the building and really quite delightful. There were some farm animals about, including a mule being trained to haul a wagon carrying visitors.

The main building contains a museum which clearly is being developed at this time. A new exhibit, not yet completed, portrays the difficult turpentine industry. Within a wooden shack, a film runs showing an elderly black man collecting pine pitch for later distillation into spirits of turpentine. Such animated exhibits will greatly improve the overall effectiveness of this museum. This is a large facility containing 35 buildings in four distinct areas using about a third of the 95 acre tract. It depicts rural and small town life in South Georgia during a time when the rising prosperity of much of the country had not yet fully penetrated the region. One element sadly underemphasized is the importance of black people to the economy and the difficulties encountered in recovering from both the economic and social disruptions of the post reconstruction period following the Civil War.

The Georgia Agrirama is owned by the State. It provides a valuable insight into rural farm and town life in late nineteenth century Georgia, and more generally rural America. Admission is only $7.00. It is open Tuesday through Saturday and is well worth several hours’ visit.

Carolina in the Fall and The Kruger Brothers - Review

If you’re looking for a bluegrass festival, this isn’t it. How about an Americana music festival? Well…no. Mountain music? Not that either. It’s not folk music either. But if you’re after just plain great music leavened with the taste and great picking of the Kruger Brothers, Carolina in the Fall is the place you want to be on the third weekend in October. In a sense Carolina in the Fall isn’t a Music Festival as you might think of one. There aren’t a bunch of bands who come here to perform and then leave. There’s no easily recognizable schedule, so you won’t be able to return to your rig to jam until the band you want to see takes the stage. There’s no camping on the Shepherd Farm. There’s the Kruger Brothers and an eclectic bunch of their friends from the U.S. and Europe. There are old time mountain people like Maynard Holbrook, and Clint Howard, hot pickers like Scott Fore and Steve Kilby, singer/songwriters like Charles Tesh and Si Kahn, family singer/pickers like Zeb and Samantha Snyder and the Cockman Family. Over the day and a half, you’ll hear just about any kind of acoustic…well, there’s electric, too…music you may want. And overarching all are the glorious sounds and expansive spirits of the Krugers themselves.

There is simply no one who plays a banjo better than Jens Kruger. Uwe Kruger is a marvelous flat picker and rhythm guitarist and a fine singer. Joel Landsburg is incomparable on the bass. One of the three hits a chord and, as if by magic, all three are on the same musical page, playing so well they don’t have to pay attention to their instruments, leaving themselves time and energy to be totally in tune with each other. During their workshop in the morning, Jens, Uwe, and Joel just sat on stage and chatted with the audience about their instruments, strings, learning to play, making a living playing in Europe, practice, scales…the whole world of music. Whenever they wanted to illustrate a point, one would strike a chord and immediately all three were into the middle of the piece with no introduction or discussion at all. Their precision and verve not only gave the audience education in the world of music, but presented models of how people get to be in tune with each other.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about watching the Krugers work with all sorts of people during the two days was the way their performance always served the music first. It’s not as if they have no ego. Each man in the trio knows how good he is, but ego is subordinated to the music. Each performer invited to Carolina in the Fall brought a particular sound or skill level. A number of children performed. Simple country men, or at least as simple as years of performing at festivals leaves a person, talked and sang. Sophisticated singer/songwriters and world champion flat pickers sat on the stage with men of local renown. In their solo sets, the Krugers played favorites from their albums, improvised on a variety of forms, sang, and talked and joked with the crowd in a relaxed and genuinely welcoming fashion. In every case, the Krugers stayed on stage with them and provided the backup to help make their music sound its very best.

A good example of this occurred on Friday night. BackPorch Bluegrass is a very good local band composed of men who play gigs regularly in the region, but who have either by choice or necessity kept their day jobs and continued to play as an avocation and to supplement their incomes. Billy Ray Sunderlin is an accomplished banjo picker, but there are hundreds of men across the country who pick at the same level. Near the completion of their performance kicking off the festival on Friday, the Krugers took the stage to pick with them. Billy Ray indicated his willingness to let Jens, the master, take the lead, but Jens kept him forefront. Together they ripped off “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” that classic Earl Scruggs piece known to nearly everyone through the film “Bonnie and Clyde.” The obvious pride Billy Ray took in playing on stage with Jens was only equaled by Jens’ pleasure at playing with him. While it is always within Jens’ capacity to make another player appear the lesser, he never did anything but play in such a way as to make the person he was on stage with sound better.

Another example of Jens’ sheer humanity comes from a more personal place. On Friday afternoon I approached Jens to tell him I had bought a Deering 30^th Anniversary banjo and how much I loved it. He said he’d like to see it and play it. On Saturday we lugged it over and early in the morning I pulled it out to show him. His eyes lit up as he looked at it and played a few notes on it. He said, “You’ve got a real professional tool here.” He then indicated the instrument needed some set-up and asked if I would mind if he changed the bridge, put on a new set of strings, and made some other adjustments. I leapt at the offer and he named a general time period later in the day. As the day went along, I decided that the Krugers were surely much too busy for the dreamed tune-up to ever happen and prepared to carry my banjo back to the truck. I was chatting with Uwe Kruger when Jens came up carrying a small tool box and said, “I’m ready.”

We went into the musicians tent behind the stage and Jens took the resonator off my instrument, played a few notes and started replaced the bridge with a new Snuffy Smith. He then put on a new set of d’Addario strings and filed the bridge and the nut as well as adjusted the tension rods and the head tension. When he sighted down the neck, I was a little worried, but he seemed happy. Every once in a while he’d play a few notes before making slight adjustments to the head tension. His movements were sure and quick, but never hurried. Before he replaced the resonator, I asked him to sign it on the inside, where he wrote “Alles sind Gutt,” and signed and dated it. He then played both his patented triplet laden runs up and down the neck as well as a bluegrass break, bending the neck to provide his particular touch. He had deepened the tone, increased the sustain, and brightened the high end all at once. He nodded, smiled and looking at Steve Kilby, the great flat picker from Wilkesboro, and said, “It sounds better than mine.” Talk about swell with pride! On Sunday afternoon I finally got a chance to play it myself. Guess what. I still don’t sound like Jens Kruger, but the instrument has a deeper and more resonant sound and is even more responsive than before. And I’ve had another priceless gift from the world we’ve only discovered in the past five years. Thanks, Jens.

Robert and Brenda Shepherd have shaped a marvelous experience for music lovers on their lovely farm located at 579 Armory Road in North Wilkesboro, NC. They say the festival developed out of their outgrowing the basement of their home where folks used to stop in to listen to and pick with the Krugers. They’ve provided an intimate two day event, which they want to remain small and informal. I guess, rather than call Carolina in the Fall a festival, I’d characterize it as a celebration – a celebration of music in almost any format, but most of all of the Kruger Brothers and the contributions they make to bringing together diverse strands into a magnificent unity.

Robert, Brenda, and Monica Shepherd

Carolina in the Fall is held in North Wilkesboro, NC on the third weekend in October each year. Visit their website for more information. Rather than write detailed analyses of the many player at this event, I’ll put up more pictures.

Andy Owens

Fiddle Jam

Steve Kilby

Charles Tesh

Maynard Holbrook

Amazing Grace

Minton’s Music and Pawn and Hometown Opry

Music and pawn shops seem to go together in some way. Musicians travel and sometimes they get down on their luck. It’s a natural for them to seek out a pawn shop and to trade their beloved instrument for much needed cash. Most pawn shops have a collection of guitars and other instruments hanging on the walls. Years ago an uncle of mine picked up a now rare and much sought after White Laydie banjo for $50.00 at a pawn shop in California. It was a prized possession of his until someone broke into his studio in New York and stole it. In our visits to Wilkesboro for Merlefest over the past five years, we had heard much about Minton’s and the Friday morning Hometown Opry, broadcast over WKBC 800 AM from 7:00 AM until 9:00 weekly. We arrived in Wilkesboro on Sunday and dropped into Minton’s on Monday morning. Even though we got there early in the week, there hasn’t been enough time to dig into all the opportunities for learning and enjoyment we’ve been introduced to there.

Minton Music and Loan has been around for a while, owned and operated by Jerry Minton, but it has taken on a different tone and direction since Mike Palmer became a partner about seven years ago. After a career in business, Mike was looking for a change and saw the musical opportunities such a venture might offer. Every instrument has a story, and if wall could talk, there’d be some kind of noise coming from the instruments hung at Minton’s. But as long as neither the walls nor the instruments can talk, Mike Palmer has enough stories to fill the bill. Mike picks guitar himself and was one of the organizers of the first Merlefest through his friendship with Bill Young. He’s known any number of musicians through his earlier business and music contacts and met many more since joining Jerry Minton. It’s never a surprise to walk into Minton’s and find one or more people chatting about or making music. Mike’s wife Kathy says that sometimes Mike and Jerry have kept an instrument much longer than the 90 days required by the pawn agreement in order to make it possible for a musician to get his treasured piece back. Mike is exceptionally gregarious and the store has grown and changed focus over the years he’s been there. The addition of a performance area/studio/stage seating perhaps a hundred and spaces for teaching lessons along with the dozens of quality instruments on the walls provide the visible evidence.

We arrived at Minton’s just after 6:30 AM to get a good seat and watch the proceedings. The even faintly similar experience we’ve had was going to Fred’s Lounge (here’s a link, but Google Fred’s for more info) in Mamou, LA for the Saturday morning Cajun radio show and dance there. The crowd, an interesting combination of family, tourists, and local folks on their way to work, assembled. The band, Back Porch Bluegrass, Mike Palmer and the radio station engineer were setting up the sound and video systems as the audience straggled in, obviously a little short of enough coffee for this hour of the morning. Just before 7:00, the radio guy Steve Hamby, a smiling, energetic man dressed in black, bounded in, put on his headgear, made sure there was a battery in his microphone and kicked off the show.

BackPorch Bluegrass is today’s featured band and they will also kick off Carolina in the Fall, the Kruger’s Brothers’ festival, in the evening. In bluegrass country, it’s a mistake to characterize a band too narrowly as “local” guys. These are seasoned musicians who are used to performing in public and who work at their craft. What often distinguishes a touring band from a local or regional one can be found in some pretty large choices musicians must make before taking the big step of giving up a day job and going on the road. To do so, a person must give up a steady paycheck, health and retirement benefits, and take the hits to family solidarity that frequent and sometimes prolonged absence creates. This is an especially large issue in bluegrass, where even the top people don’t approach a rock band or an opera singer in income. Bluegrass is a labor of love and everywhere in bluegrass country there are bands that are worth listening to. Back Porch Bluegrass is one of these bands. We had seen Billy Ray Summerlin pick his banjo at the Wilkes Acoustic Folk Society tents at Merlefest. He’s fast and good. Bassist Randall Couch provides a solid beat and takes interesting and intricate bass breaks. Josh Winters sings a classic high tenor and contributes well on mandolin. Lead singer David Culler was fighting a cold, but the trio still worked well. Rodney Reavis contributes well on fiddle, playing fiddles he built himself.

In the end, however, the show is the enjoyment of being involved in a live, remote radio program, an historic artifact that has pretty much disappeared from the scene. There’s a birthday drawing, Steve raffling off CDs and other folderol he’s accumulated in his mail. We won a fund raiser flyer from Easter Seals. He involves a first-time visitor in an experience best not spoiled by further discussion, but funny and enjoyable for everyone, including the new person. Co-station owner Ed Racey appears as Edgar Allen Racey to read a short humorous poem and as Edgar Holmes Racey to reveal the mistakes of a dumb crook. Everyone had a good time and went on to the rest of the day as soon as the show ended at 9:00.

After the show, we adjourned to Harold’s Restaurant up route 115. Harold’s is one of those “don’t let appearances fool you” local restaurants that serves up drop dead delicious country food in an informal and friendly manner.

Minton’s Music and Loan is located at 302 E.Main St in N. Wilkesboro, NC. You can find it here. It’s one of those unique American institutions that needs to be seen to be truly experienced. Stop by and meet Jerry Minton, Mike Palmer, and their sons, sit down and jaw a while, come in and pick, or come for the Hometown Opry. You won’t be disappointed.

Tut Taylor - Interview

I walked into Minton’s Music and Pawn in N. Wilkesboro, NC on Wednesday morning to chat for a moment or two with Mike Palmer, one of the owners, about a couple of questions I had. There sat Tut Taylor chatting with another customer. After a while I introduced myself to the legendary Dobro player and pulled up a stool beside him. Tut had chatted with me in a relaxed and pleasant way until Mike came over and mentioned he had read the blog and it was OK. I took out my notebook and Tut started spinning tales from his long life in Music. He asked me what I thought of Merle Haggard’s new bluegrass CD, saying he had really liked the video of “Holding Things Together” with Marty Stuart, Rob Ickes, and Carl Jackson. He was particularly complimentary of Carl Jackson as a player and song writer.

I asked Tut about playing with John Hartford, with particular reference to two pretty straight guys like him and Vassar Clements playing with two hippies like John Hartford and Norman Blake. He noted that Hartford was a very accomplished banjo picker and played as fast and accurately as anyone. Hartford had formed the Aereoplane Band in Nashville and then arranged a gig in England. They arrived to find a country crowd, dressed in cowboy gear including chaps and gun belts. Needless to say, this crowd of wannabee cowboys was not very interested in the band that inspired Sam Bush and others to create what became New Grass. Tut emphasized that the cultural differences between him and the hippies was less important than the bond forged by the music. The out takes of this band’s work were released in 2002 as “Steam Powered Aereo-Takes.” The cover picture of clean shaven and short haired Taylor and Clements standing beside bushy Hartford and Blake is almost as classic as the music. Tut commented that it was too bad that John Hartford and Jens Kruger never got a chance to pick together.

I asked Tut whether he had ever made a living from music. He laughed and shook his head, saying he was a sign painter by trade. As with his music, he says he was inventive and creative as a sign painter. “I’ve seen lots of fine artists who were broke, but I never met a sign painter who was,” he laughed. This from a man who has been an innovative force on the Dobro for half a century, inventing a flat picking method of playing the instrument because he didn’t know any better. “Music is a fun thing for me,” he said as he smiled and talked about the people he’s met and the times he’d had. Throughout his life he has been interested in technology, and has amassed a huge collection of tapes, films, and recordings of himself and those he’s played with, most of which have never been seen publicly. At age 84 he’s working on trying to catalog his collection and bring some order to it. He’s proud that an early recording of his sold on eBay recently for $146.00 and that his latest recording, “Shacktown Road” with Norman and Nancy Blake has recently been released. He says, “It’s nice to look at and watch, but the real pleasure comes when you share something.” He started making tapes in 1955.

Tut talked about his heroes. Bill Monroe, who “people say didn’t like Dobro. But you can’t be into blues like Monroe and not like Dobro. He just didn’t want one in his band.” Roy Acuff was a friend of Tut’s from way before Nashville days. As a kid, Tut had hitchhiked from Nashville to Macon, GA to see an Acuff performance. Afterwards, he went to the bus station to go home, but the station was closed. He started walk and got eight miles before getting to Cleo’s BBQ. Walking out back he found a black man turning the pig on a spit. He asked if it was all right to sleep there. The next morning he got up and caught the bus back to his home in Milledgeville, GA. Later, on the night of the last Grand Ol’ Opry performance at the fabled Ryman Auditorium, he asked Acuff if he could play mandolin chops in the background of his band on the final “Wabash Cannonball.” Acuff assented and then, during the performance introduced Tut to play a mandolin break, cold. Once he filmed Lester and Earl backstage with Flatt eating a piece of chicken, but the film seems to be lost, unless he can find it when he catalogs his collection.

At 84, Tut is old, but alert with a sparkle in his pale blue eyes. His ankles are swollen, but his ego isn’t. He’s open to meeting new people and sharing his world with them. His fingers aren’t as fast now as they were a while ago, but his taste and musicality are still very much there. Last year at Merlefest we heard him pick on the stage and at the Wilkes County Folk Society tent before the festival even began. Even though he retains his creative urge, he says, “I listen to some of things I did back then, and it scares me.” As we parted, Tut invited us to come to his home the next day.

At 10:00 AM on a humid and overcast Thursday morning, Irene and I pulled into the Taylor driveway in front of a modest ranch style home. A few years ago, Tut’s wife Lee fell and while she was in the hospital their son David remodeled a two car garage, turning it into an all purpose room and making it so Lee would not have to climb stairs any more. This warm and homey space contains Tut’s instruments and a selection of VHS tapes, as well as Lee’s collection of dolls and needlework, shelves of canned fruits, pickles, and vegetables, and plenty of room for friends to drop in, hang out, an pick. Tut also has a computer room towards the rear of the house where he can listen to old tapes, watch VHS tapes and CDs and remember the many people he has played with. Lee is a sweet-faced gentle woman who makes us feel welcome right away. She’s the ideal wife for a musician who has, no doubt, brought fellow musicians home, often without notice, for most of the 63 years they’ve been married. She also managed to have eight children. She’s trim and pretty, with a wonderful, warm smile. Tut plays some cuts from his new CD “Shacktown Road” made with old friends Norman and Nancy Blake. It contains narrative material from Tut’s childhood and youth in rural Georgia as well as other material. His gravelly voice, occasionally breaking into song, evokes the world of the long lost rural South.

After a while, Tut takes us back to their computer room. Lee, he says, plays games on her computer while Tut works to catalog his vast collection of audio tapes, VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs. He plans to get them into shape so that he can find any performance or jam or studio tape he has at a moment’s notice. He sits and plays moments from the past, often commenting on them as they run. Some are scratchy recordings made over the air in Georgia from WSM in Nashville of Grand Ol’ Opry. We listen to Bill Monroe with Flatt and Scruggs as well as Roy Acuff. These were recorded from a radio hooked up to a twelve volt battery out in the country in rural Georgia during the 1940’s. Tut has been recording music history since he was a young man. He listens intently, heavy head lowered sometimes as if it’s hard for his neck to hold it up. His voice is always strong and his memory for moments, pickers, and detail phenomenal. We listen to a jam session with John Hartford, Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, and Tut. He plays a tape of a studio recording with Jens Kruger of his song “Mist on the Mountains,” inspired by a trip he took to Switzerland to visit the Krugers. Another haunting song he plays is “Where Have the Buffalo Gone?” which he explains popped into his head as he thought about an Indian chief looking across the prairie and seeing no living thing. It is one of the saddest songs we’ve ever heard, full of loss and emptiness. Look for it on “Shacktown Road.”

He played the tape of his playing a mandolin break on the last Roy Acuff performance of “Wabash Cannonball” in Ryman Auditorium. Tut had lived in Nashville for a while, going into the instrument business with George Gruhn, selling out his share a year later. Gruhn now owns the finest place in the world to purchase vintage instruments. At one point, he plays a cut and then turns to us and says, “I guess no one’s alive who’s been as lucky as me to play with some of the people I’ve played with.” Later he plays another and says, “I’m the only person on that song besides Charlie Collins who’s still alive.”

Tut Taylor is particularly well known for being the only Dobro player who picks with a flat pick. Most Dobro players use a thumb pick and two finger picks, playing rolls much like banjo players and using a slide to select notes. Tut says he got his first Dobro when his brother went off to World War II. He picked it up and just started flat picking it, and never changed. “We wasn’t trying to be good or nothin’, we just played. Beyond playing Dobro, Tut figures he’s made perhaps several hundred on them himself. His son Mark continues in the business of making fine instruments at his company Crafters of Tennessee.

We moved back out to the sitting room where Lee had been patiently waiting while we listened and chatted in the computer room. Tut showed us a tape of a one and only Lloyd Loar A style mandolin he once owned, and then pulled out a mandolin that son Mark had made for him based on the Loar and played it, pointing out he no longer played mandolin. We asked him to pick a song on the Dobro, which he graciously agreed to do. At 84 he may have lost some of his speed, but none of the tone or taste that has always characterized his picking. He then asked Irene to bring him the Tutbro, a simple box Dobro made of plywood his David had made. While simple looking, it had marvelous sustain and, according to Tut, pickers who turn up their noses when they see it learn to love it. We had been fascinated guests in the Taylor home for more than four hours. As we took our leave, we thanked him and Lee for their hospitality, but our words were insufficient to express the gift we feel we’ve been given to spend a few hours with this marvelous man and his lovely wife. We hope that we’ve made new friends and that we see them again soon.

Willow Oak BGF in Roxboro, NC - Review

We moved north on Wednesday from Myrtle Beach to Roxboro, NC, taking US 501 almost the entire distance. The road leads through and around small towns, bypassing most of the larger cities and avoiding the Interstate Highway system, which has become increasingly rough and rutted while the speeds have steadily risen. Our trip along the bypass routes and small section of I-85 through Chapel Hill and Durham was uneventful and countryside quickly reasserted itself as we drove north towards Roxboro. We found Willow Oak Music Park a little way off hiway 158 deep in the woods a few miles below the Virginia border. We were disappointed to learn that the water and electric hookups we had thought we were going to have were not available. After filling our water tank at a standpipe, we found a very pretty campsite under the trees a short walk from the stage. The grounds are spacious, sloping, and do not contain carefully marked off campsites, allowing campers to use the available land to group and spread out. There’s been a severe drought here in North Carolina, so it’s quite dusty, but the owners thoughtfully water the roads a couple of times a day to reduce the dustiness in the air.

The Bluegrass Brothers kicked off the festivities at 3:00 PM with a set of their hard driving, traditional bluegrass. Fronted by father Victor Dowdy, beyond capable on the bass as he pounds out the rhythms and takes more frequent and skillful breaks than many bass players as well as singing lead on many songs, the band also includes his brother Robert on banjo, and two sons on Guitar. Younger son Don plays left handed and upside down making his chords look strange, but he plays a solid rhythm guitar along with hitting occasional breaks. Brother Steve is a pretty fair flat picker. Travers Chandler on mandolin catches my attention as he is a frequent contributer on both Mandolin Café and Bluegrass Rules. It’s always a pleasure for me to meet people I encounter on the Internet. Travers has caught my eye before because of his thoughtful, trenchant comments. His picking is excellent and his stage demeanor and movement add bounce to this already very high energy group. Travers is also interesting to talk to as he has very clear ideas about what would encourage the future of bluegrass music and spread it to a younger audience brought up on various forms of rock.

Here are two interrelated questions for you. Would the Anita Fisher band be better without Anita Fisher and Ray Deaton? Is IIIrd Tyme Out a better band now that Ray Deaton has left? My answer to both questions is yes. Fisher has assembled some quite good musicians at guitar, fiddle, and banjo. Her own singing is reasonably effective, but she breaks with bluegrass tradition in that she plays no instrument. Deaton, whose deep bass voice has been a mainstay of IIIrd Tyme Out since its inception relies too heavily on it in this group, apparently believing that his voice and over-amped electric bass are essential for this band to sound good. Meanwhile, fiddler Ken Passmore brings lively playing, reminiscent of Jimmy Mattingly, as well as some of his own songs and the voice to sell them. Nick Powell, on mandolin, adds high quality playing and a pleasant voice. On banjo, Jim Redden is fast and accurate. Shane Blackwell, who I think is Mindy Rakestraw,s brother, bears watching as a first rate flatpicker.

Meanwhile, IIIrd Tyme Out sounds and looks more like a team as it has filled the hole left by Deaton with a couple of changes. Of course, any band blessed with a voice like Russell Moore’s is already in a good place. Moore is nearly the perfect bluegrass lead singer. His voice is clear and he sings in an unornamented style while selling his songs with conviction and emotion. Hard to beat. His interaction with long-time band mate Steve Dilling on banjo is humorous and relaxed. Dilling, although suffering from distonia affecting his left index finger can still pick better with two and a half fingers than many with three. He may have altered his style slightly, but not so most folks can notice. Edgar Loudermilk on bass does a very good job and sings tenor in the trio. He’s only been with the band a few weeks, but shows promise. Wayne Benson, one of the great mandolin pickers who is comfortable in a variety of styles, has returned to IIIrd Tyme Out and strengthened the band, even though Alan Perdue was more than competent. To fill the need for a bass singer on gospel quartets, the band has gone to a surprising place and, surprisingly, it works. For years, Doug Driscoll has driven the bus and learned from Ray Deaton. He has a rich bass voice and an unassuming manner. He’s still learning to be comfortable performing, but he had the support of the crowd and did a good job. The band is filled out by Justin Haynes on fiddle. All in all, this version of IIIrd Tyme Out seems more like a team than the band I’ve seen before and should be able to keep its fans and gain
more.

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The crowd here at Willow Oak knows James King and his band and loves him. He reciprocated with a lively and responsive performance. Despite the cold weather, a welcome but radical change from recent weather here, James put on a terrific show. His traditional, dusky singing voice is perfect for the catalog he sings. His humor and good nature combine with his “pitiful sad” songs to create a wonderful stage persona, the slightly bad little boy who can tug at your heart and reach out to your soul at the same time. King almost never fails to bring truly enjoyable entertainment to the bluegrass stage. One of the vendors, a Jamaican, commented to me that he had tears in his eyes listening to “The Bed By the Window,” He felt better when I told him this was a common response to King, topped only by those times when James himself cries at his own singing.

Much of Friday repeated the performances of Thursday, with the Anita Fisher Band singing all the same songs, as far as I could tell. It was good to see Jr. Siske with his reconstituted Rambler’s Choice back singing bluegrass after the break-up of Blueridge. Jr. was in fine voice, and his mandolin player, Chris Harris bears watching as another young and gifted picker. Tim Massey on bass provided an anchor to the band as well as complementing Jr.’s voice. This band is still a little rough, has too small a catalog, and Jr. seems somewhat ill at ease in the role of band spokesman. I have to hope that he’ll bring it together. His singing and song writing need a forum that serves him well and gives him a chance to showcase his wonderful voice.

Grasstowne arrived for the first of four sets on Friday afternoon. They seemed to have recovered from their week at IBMA, and Roxboro was fairly close to home for most of the guys. Emcee Buddy Michaels, who has bluegrass programs on three radio stations, introduced the group with enthusiasm, speaking of learning about their formation, hearing them being played on XM radio, listening to their CD, and playing it for his listeners enthusiastically. I’ve written about Steve Gulley, Phil Leadbetter, and Alan Bibey, the three principal musicians in Grasstowne, each in the prime of his career as he reaches his mid-forties. Jason Davis on banjo and Jayme Booher on bass bring the same high quality of musicianship to the band as their more senior colleagues and are receiving advanced degrees in bandmanship from them. Davis, only nineteen years old, began touring with Michelle Nixon at age fourteen. He spent some time with the Kenny and Amanda Smith Band before joining Blueridge a few months before its breakup and was brought to Grasstowne by Alan Bibey. He appears on the Huber banjo project “Cuppa Joe.” Many young banjo players are all about blazing speed and showy performance. Jason has the speed and adds to it a mature versatility that many would envy. In addition, his picking demonstrates the elegance and restraint of the Grasstowne sound. Jayme, only a couple of years older than Jason, has played for years with the Booher family band from Johnson City, TN. His bass playing demonstrates not only the solid beat required of the instrument, but intricate and understated picking that adds depth to Grasstowne’s sound. He also doubles in technical support, helping the sound man make sure their head sets worked properly for them.

One of the interesting elements of the lineup at Willow Oak was the complex inter-relationships of great musicians appearing at the same festival. Sammy Shelor once used to pick up Alan Bibey to drive him to gigs, as Alan was too young to drive. Kenny Smith played for the Lonesome River Band, Alan and Terry Baucom played together in a couple of bands. Alan was one of the original members of IIIrd Tyme Out. Wayne Benson has returned to IIIrd Tyme Out. Terry Baucom has joined the Kenny and Amanda Smith Band where Jason Davis once played. I’m sure I’ve missed some of the connections, but imagine the wonderful jam that could have happened had all these great pickers hit the stage at once! It was also delightful to get a chance to chat with Cindy Baucom who was there on a sort of busman’s holiday with Terry and the Kenny and Amanda Smith Band. Cindy’s deep knowledge of the world of bluegrass helped me get a deeper understanding of the music and the people who play it.

Saturday’s lineup was so jam-packed that two bands were short changed. Lost and Found, an old and respected band that has recently suffered the tragic loss of Dempsey Young was lost in the shuffle of unfortunate time slots and higher profile bands. Michelle Nixon’s appearance was not advertised and she arrived for a 9:00 PM performance on a cold evening with many fans already having returned to their RVs or clustered around campfires for jamming. Despite the chill and small crowd, she put on your usual high energy, enthusiastic performance. Furthermore, local bands Constant Change and GrassStreet presented noteworthy performances and deserve more attention. Both bands were entertaining and engaging.

The Kenny and Amanda Smith Band has added Terry Baucom to its number. His addition solidifies this already wonderful band. Baucom’s unassuming yet powerful banjo style fits in perfectly with the two name players. Kenny Smith needs to take back seat to no one among flat pickers. It’s truly a delight to hear a guitar solo on every number, and Kenny’s wickedly fast and intricate breaks never lose sight of the tune he’s elaborating on. Also, having the guitar as a regular solo instrument takes some of the performance pressure off the mandolin and banjo while strengthening the overall sound of the band. Amanda’s sweet, pure voice and perfect enunciation make the content of every song foremost. Furthermore, unlike many female lead singers, Amanda plays a very solid rhythm guitar. Aaron Williams, winner of the 2007 mandolin contest at Merlefest, is only fifteen years old, but is already a mature picker who can only improve with seasoning. Zak McLamb is a seasoned performer on bass. Altogether, the Kenny and Amanda Smith band is exciting to listen to. Their gospel numbers clearly express their genuine faith, while the rest of their program shows their versatility.

The Lonesome River Band offered up two sets of their incomparable play. Brandon Rickman continues to wow the crowd by breaking a string on almost every set and managing to continue to sing lead while changing strings on the fly. This is really quite a feat. Andy Ball, since joining the band has continued to improve, and Mike Anglin plays a rockin’ electric bass. What more can I write about Sammy Shelor?

Promoter “Peaches” Solomon has put together an exceptionally strong lineup for this fall festival. The setting was nearly perfect. Parenthetically, there’s really something to be said for the promoter’s owning the porta-potti company, as these sometimes ignored necessaries were kept cleaned throughout the festival, making the camping in the rough much less rough. We look forward to returning to this venue in the future.

Pickin’ in the Park – Moncks Corner, SC

The Old Santee Canal Park, a state park run by the largest public utility in South Carolina, is located in Moncks Corner, once a small town north of Charleston, but rapidly joining the other booming suburbs surrounding this charming city. The park is a rolling, grassy oasis containing a stately plantation home, the Berkely County museum, and a modern center. An elevated boardwalk leads off into a nearby swamp. The park is an ideal place to hold a bluegrass festival. Saturday was another in a string of hot, muggy early Fall days that have plagued the south this year along with months of too little rain. As the day wore on, much of the humidity left the air, the sky cleared, and a bright sunny day made the event nearly perfect.

Richard (Chip) Chipman is the owner of the Low Country Music Store, Promoter of Pickin’ in the Park, and a teacher well known in the area for giving young musicians their first taste of playing bluegrass music. His passion for introducing junior bluegrassers is a major part of the motivation for putting on this delightful small festival. He also provides a welcome stage for some very good local and regional bands as a headlining at least one national touring band. This year that band was Grasstowne, a band formed only at the first of the year, which is exploding into the consciousness of bluegrass fans. You can search the web for this store, this festival, and Chip himself with very little success, for he doesn’t advertise much, but this event is a delight if you happen to be in the area on the first Saturday in October.

We arrived shortly after noon to find Mike Morris sitting on the tail-
gate of his pickup jamming on his new Holt banjo with members of other bands. People started setting up their lawn chairs, Gary Payne of GP Sound bustled about getting his gear in place, vendors arrived and got the barbecue grills running, and the surroundings of a bluegrass festival began to take shape.

The first two bands offered very strongly gospel oriented sets. New Hope provides a female trio of singer/pickers whose voices blend well with each other and whose musicianship is quite good. Supported by a bass and a fiddle, their set included a blend of deeply felt gospel music with some pleasant bluegrass standards as well as bluegrassed versions of country standards like the Everly Brothers “Dream” and Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”

The day’s highlight non-touring band turned out to be Flatt City. This Charleston-based band deserves to get wider recognition based on their musicianship, their energy and stage presence, and the diversity of their musical choices. Leader Stephen Schabel, provides a solid Monroe style mandolin, often sings lead, and does most of the talking. His laid back style complements his driving picking. John Svenson also did a notable job on Guitar and Dobro, as did Michael Bruner on banjo. Their set list ranges from traditional vocals and instrumentals (Angeline the Baker was particularly good) to a lovely and affecting rendition of John Hartford’s “Tall Buildings.” They also sing some Jimmy Martin, Monroe standards, and Flatt (after whom the band is named) and Scruggs. They are entertaining and lively.

Flatt City

Bluegrass Academy

Chip Chipman’s Bluegrass Academy took the stage next. Chipman owns and operates the Low Country Music Center, which has been located in Moncks Corner for twenty years. There he teaches bluegrass (and other) instruments. The Academy is a special effort to bring bluegrass to young people, and Chipman has succeeded in attracting and teaching a variety of talented and enthusiastic kids. We first became aware of his results when we saw the very young Gregg brothers jamming with other young pickers at a meeting of the Rivertown Bluegrass Society in Conway, SC about five years ago. Since then, the brothers have moved to Knoxville, but returned to Moncks Corner for this event. The young people of the Bluegrass Academy play and sing with enthusiasm and skill. Chipman obviously and legitimately takes great pride in the accomplishments of his students. I have no idea how many such programs exist around the country. We’ve seen these kids, as well as the very accomplished band sponsored by the Bluegrass Parlor in Tampa, and there must be others. As long as such efforts are reaching out to young people, bluegrass’s future seems well assured. With the reduction of funding for public school music programs, with the only music in many districts provided to support the continuation of a marching band, music store instruction has become increasingly more important. One could only wish for more public school attention to bluegrass in those parts of the country where the music remains an indigenous part of the culture. The Bluegrass Academy provides such a program and should receive plenty of recognition.

Grasstowne

The day’s only touring bluegrass band, Grasstowne, concluded the day. Begun only in January, Grasstowne’s popularity at festivals, on conventional and satellite radio, and in CD sales has grown rapidly since its inception. Principal artists Alan Bibey, Steve Gulley, and Phil Leadbetter have each been recognized for years as masters of bluegrass music. Bibey has played with top bands and long been recognized as one of the most refined and thoughtful innovators on the mandolin, where his signature triplets are legendary. Gulley’s expressive, soulful voice is one of the best in the genre. Now that he is back closer to his roots than he was with Mountain Heart, his singing has become even more effective. Phil Leadbetter, who was named IBMA Dobro Player of the Year for 2005, is never flashy, always tasteful. In fact, Earl Scruggs, years before Grasstowne was formed, defined the elements that make them outstanding – taste, tone, and timing.

In creating a new band, Grasstowne was faced with the challenge of defining a sound uniquely their own. They have succeeded by finding the crease between traditional bluegrass as played by the founders and the more progressive sounds of contemporary bands. Their synthesis creates a sound that pleases the ear while never jarring the mind with too new sounds or numbing with endless interpretations of earlier greats. Who could ask for more? I have things I want to say about Jamie Booher and Jason Davis, too, but since we’re seeing them again this weekend, I’ll save my further comments for next week. Suffice it to say that this new, but seasoned, group is headed for the top.

More Bluegrass Academy

2007 IBMA Awards - Analysis

The IBMA awards were covered live by XM radio with Kyle Cantrell doing the honors last night. While the portion we listened to was enjoyable and professional with Kyle conducting skillful interviews to fill the inevitable on-stage lulls, we simply couldn’t stay up until one in the morning to listen to the show. The Bluegrass Blog had a live Internet connection backstage and live blogged throughout the evening. For the most part Brance and John did straight reporting with very little rooting or cheering, even though blogging relieves the writer of having to exercise editorial objectivity as if he or she were a journalist. Nevertheless, I’m grateful to John and Brance for their professionalism, so I’m relying on their blog for my reactions this morning.

Ordinarily, IBMA awards are pretty ho-hum with few surprises and the usual suspects winning. Over time, there are categories where there have been few different winners and many deserving performers have never won an IBMA award. For instance, there have been only three Dobro players of the year in the entire history of IBMA (Rob Ickes, Jerry Douglas, and Phil Leadbetter). Similarly only four performers (Adam Steffey, Chris Thile, Ronnie McCoury, and Sam Bush) have won mandolin player of the year. Rhonda Vincent won seven consecutive female vocalist awards. Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder have won eight Instrumental Group of the Year awards and Del McCoury won Entertainer of the Year nine times. I’m not for a moment suggesting that any of these recipients aren’t worthy or that they don’t represent bluegrass music at the highest standard. My comment is meant to suggest, however, that the voting members of IBMA are generally not inclined to take risks in their choices or to look widely for standout performances in a given year. An overview of the awards provides a core list of music and musicians who should be in your collection of The Best of Bluegrass.

The 2007 Awards stand as a very pleasant surprise. Awards did not necessarily go to the old standbys and some remarkable 2007 recorded events and performers were recognized. The Infamous Stringdusters burst onto the bluegrass scene this year with a refreshing sound that does honor to the traditions of bluegrass while forging a new instrumental and vocal flourish that is instantly recognizable and always pleasing and exciting. Their Fork in the Road was awarded Song of the Year. They were recognized as Emerging Artist of the Year and Fork in the Road tied with J.D. Crowe and the New South’s Lefty’s Old Guitar for 2007 Album of the Year. This is quite a haul for a new band composed of young pickers who two years ago were mostly session players new to Nashville. This group will bear close watching over the coming years, and their next album will be eagerly awaited by all. Their schedule of festival appearances will become even more crowded than it already is.

Perhaps the big winner in this year’s IBMA was the very deserving Tony Trischka. Tony Trischka has never before won Banjo Player of the Year, despite being widely recognized as one of the most skillful and innovative pickers out there. He joins a distinguished list of winners that still isn’t graced by the granddaddy of them all – Earle Scruggs. That isn’t to say that the people who have won awards aren’t deserving. They are, but voting members need to consider the choices more broadly and recognize outstanding achievement as it emerges. Trischka also won awards for his Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular as Instrumental Album of the Year, and Recorded Event of the Year. Tony’s playing and teaching have influenced every major progressive banjo player in bluegrass music, and no-one deserves recognition more than he.

There were some other surprises, some of the wonderful choices. Dale Ann Bradley was named Female Vocalist of the Year. Her sweet, melodic voice and commanding stage presence stand as proof positive that bluegrass music is still focused on sound, style, and substance. No singer has created a better catalog and she deserves this award royally. More confusing is the choice of Bradley Walker, who has a fine voice, but whose recorded music, at least as played on XM sounds more like classic country than it does like bluegrass to me. We’ve never seen him perform, so my judgment is based purely on his recorded voice on satellite radio. While Sam Bush richly deserves recognition again as Mandolin Player of the Year, it bewilders me how IBMA has consistently neglected Alan Bibey. There is no more elegant or accomplished picker in bluegrass. Bush’s recognition, however, stands as an indication of the widening acceptance of progressive, rock oriented sounds within the bluegrass community. The irony of Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper featuring Audie Blaylock winning Instrumental Group of the Year is obvious, as the Blaylock has already left the group after less than a year together. I'm told, however, that Flamekeeper is alive and more than well. Awards to Tony Rice and J.D. Crowe are particularly nice to see, as their work has shown renewed vigor and continued creativity during the past year.

These are my preliminary reactions to this year’s IBMA awards. The comments are not meant to be comprehensive, and I may want to revise and extend my remarks, as they say in Congress, but I want to post this. During the day I’ll try to add pictures to the text.

IBMA and the Bluegrass Blog

I’m consumed with jealousy as I read the daily blogging by Brance Gillihan and John Lawless of The Bluegrass Blog from the IBMA annual convention in Nashville. They are getting terrific mileage and lots of scoops from their work. I expect to listen to tonight’s IBMA awards show live on Bluegrass Junction at XM radio while reading their live blogging simultaneously. Their posts on Josh Williams leaving Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Carrie Hassler’s very good showcase appearance, Grasstowne, and Mountain Heart all added important information about what’s happening in the world of bluegrass music. This morning they wrote about the formation of the Dan Tyminski Band, which will tour this year while Allison Krause takes a sabbatical. Of particular interest to us will be Tyminski’s appearance at the Jenny Brook Family Festival in Weston, VT on the last weekend in June. The news of the Tyminski Band apparently appeared in The Bluegrass Blog before any other reference to it, other than their booking at Jenny Brook, showed up on the web. The note that Adam Steffey will be touring with the Tyminski band raises a question about whether Steffey will be leaving Mountain Heart on the heels of Steve Gulley and Clay Jones.

Since its inception a little of two years ago, The Bluegrass Blog has recorded over a million page visits by providing up-to-date news and views about the world of bluegrass. By developing The B, an internal blog, John and Brance have invited people to blog on their blog and opened new sources of information and viewpoint. (By contrast, this blog is approaching 15,000 recorded page views during its eight month life, although it actually has a few more because I only started my hit counter after I had begun blogging.) The Bluegrass Blog stands as an invaluable resource to the bluegrass community. As its reputation for accuracy and lack of hidden agenda has spread, so has its access to news. It appears to me that it has become a first contact for many musicians and promoters seeking to highlight news of movements, changes, and opportunities in bluegrass music. Because of Brance’s technological expertise, The Bluegrass Blog is pioneering in providing news, information, and more recently, entertainment through the use of video and audio. The failure of their podcasts (called Grasscasts) was sad to me, because I learned a whole lot from listening to the people they interviewed. I can only hope they decide to re-introduce these interesting and useful audio features.

For a person and fellow blogger trying to follow Bluegrass music and report on it, The Bluegrass Blog is an invaluable resource, and I’m grateful to them for their efforts and happy for their successes.

Carolina Road at Vanceboro United Methodist Church

Royce and Janice Jordan celebrated their 55^th wedding anniversary on Sunday at the Vanceboro, NC United Methodist Church by giving their church a lovely gift. Their daughter, Lorraine Jordan and her band Carolina Road, gave an all bluegrass gospel concert as part of the regular Sunday worship service. Pastor D. Stephen Stutts graciously gave his pulpit to Carolina Road for a different kind of worship service, and Carolina Road served the purpose well. After opening prayers, a short children’s sermon, which explained this new kind of worship to the young people of the church, and the regular collection, Mr. Stutts introduced the band, and they took it from there. Lorraine gave testimony to her faith through song and a few brief words as well as celebrating her family and their love for each other. The congregation responded with warmth, laughter,and enthusiastic encouragement as Carolina Road picked and sang gospel material from their regular festival and concert program, songs from their gospel CD, and gospel songs they may not ordinarily perform. The morning culminated with members of the congregation and Pastor Stutts joining the band for “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” which drew all the people in the sanctuary into a single community. As fans and friends of Carolina Road, Irene and I felt honored and humbled to be invited and welcomed to such a lovely event. After church, the Jordan’s hosted a huge chicken dinner, assisted by the church family, for the congregati, which cemented the day

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Lorraine, Josh, Jerry

Lorraine with Brother and Sister-in-Law

Lorraine with Nephew, Niece and Brother-in-Law

Pastor Stutts

Happy 55th Anniversary
Royce and Janice Jordan

White Oak Shores Bluegrass Festival - Review

White Oak Shores Campground and RV Resort is a relatively new RV park located along the White Oak River a few miles west of Emerald Isle in the backup waters behind North Carolina’s southern Outer Banks. This waterman’s world, extending from just south of Virginia Beach, VA to near Wilmington, NC on its southern end is protected by the most beautiful barrier islands along the Atlantic coast. The waterways behind the barriers provide the spawning grounds for the commercial fishery along the Atlantic Coast as well as cruising and sport fishing for millions of people. Until a generation ago, this region was little known and mostly uncrowded. Towns like Washington, NC, New Bern, Beaufort, Southport, and Wilmington are shipping, commercial fishing, and, more recently, retirement living centers.

Owners and developers Harold, Governor, and Robin Comer, in building an RV resort from the ground up, have had the opportunity to do things right, and are meeting the challenge. This lovely park is spread out across 150 acres of what once was a turf farm, so the grounds are grass covered; there is little dust and paving has been done judiciously, providing plenty of green and open space. Sites are large and well laid out. An elaborate swimming pool with a huge water-park style slide and plenty of room for lap swimming is located just behind the marshes, and a long, attractive fishing dock reaches out to the river. While almost all sites are full-service, a well-designed bath house has twelve full bathrooms with shower, sink, and toilet for guests to use. A Wi-Fi system provides Internet access at a reasonable price, and the service is being improved and broadened as this is written. The development is clearly designed to encourage park model development, but only a small portion of the lots are now so occupied. The developers contend that they will always provide plenty of spaces for transient visitors.

The White Oak Shores Bluegrass Festival is this park’s major fall event. A natural looking, grassy amphitheater stands at the top of the park near the main office and the bathroom complex. A large portable stage, brought in for this event, is larger than most stages used for bluegrass festivals. The lineup for this festival featured a good mixture of local and regional bands along with two headlining national touring bands. Lorraine Jordan and Carolina Road along with the incomparable Lonesome River Band headlined Saturday and provided the star quality a good festival needs. Several regionally known bands performed to their usual pleasing levels. Perhaps more interesting, however, were two or three new or little known bands appearing here early in promising careers.

TR and the Boys is a family band that has gradually begun to move from its base in gospel bluegrass to a more mixed program of traditional bluegrass and gospel. Brothers Devin and Trenton have strong voices which blend together very well. They should consider working up some songs as a brother duo. Banjo picker Terry Hunsucker brings fine banjo and a marvelous bass voice to add depth this group’s gospel quartets. While they have appeared at a couple of festivals, this group will gain in popularity as they widen their audience beyond just gospel music. They appeared at White Oak Shores as a replacement to a band that was not able to appear and provided a strong program on Friday.

Lost County 35, in a delightful note on their MySpace site, note that they seek to present the broad spectrum of bluegrass music in a way that keeps bluegrass tradition alive and promotes a love of bluegrass music in those that hear them. Appearing in their first festival, they sang and picked creditably, but need to add energy to their performances to develop an audience. As they develop greater stage presence, their performances will become more interesting.

Another band that bears watching is Carolina Junction, a band that appears regularly in the Piedmont at several venues, but was appearing in only its second festival at White Oak Shores. This band offers very good instrumentals, highlighted by Mark Roshelli’s flat picking on the guitar, which is truly excellent. Tim James on banjo and David Sampler on bass are also very good. James is also an able songwriter, and the band features several of his originals. This band bears watching as it seeks to broaden its audience.

Ted Jones & the Tarheel Boys were Friday’s featured band. Jones, rail thin and pale white, has an annoying stage presence, and the band lacks energy and verve, despite Jones’ very creditable Monroe and McReynolds influenced mandolin play. Jones is only 21 years old, and with experience and hard work he could step up.

Saturday dawned bright and happily cooler than the brutal sun and heat of the day before. It’s ironic that a girl group called Sweet Potato Pie would be performing on a day when the producer of a great album of women in bluegrass would be one of two headliners. Lorraine Jordan’s two albums featuring the “Daughters of American Bluegrass” showed the bluegrass community the high level of virtuoso performance that women in bluegrass have achieved. This group, whose members have only been playing bluegrass instruments a few years, is winsome and enjoyable. A couple of their songs are quite winning, including “Katelyn Grey” a piece about Missy’s new daughter and “Penny’s Banjo.” Their performance was winning, but suffered from amplification that was inappropriate to their mode. Playing into instrument microphones would significantly benefit their performance. This is made quite clear on their CD “Patches of Blue,” which showcases their instrumental and vocal skills more effectively than the sound at White Oak, which proved better than adequate for other performers. Sound, provided by Crabtree Acoustic Sound achieved consistently high quality, never blowing the audience away and keeping an excellent balance between instruments and voices. Their voices and harmony are strong, and lead singer Missy Pyne stands out. Sonya Stead’s song writing also draws attention. This group offers a warm alternative during a day of hard driving, traditional bluegrass and will continue to grow and develop.

Roby Huffman & the Bluegrass Cutups and The Marshal Stephenson Band are well known in the region. Huffman was a noted touring bluegrass in the seventies and Stephenson has been a mainstay on radio and in promoting bluegrass musicians for many years. They provided solid performances. Huffman’s pure tenor voice is wonderful. He also appeared in support of Stephenson. Perhaps as interesting was the evening appearance of Shannon Casey, banjo player Daniel Casey’s eleven year old daughter, who had won the Oreo Cookie jingle award the night before. She came home to an enthusiastic reception. The Boys from Carolina are a regional band that sings traditional bluegrass with a particular emphasis on excellent Country Gentlemen covers. Their voices and instrumentation are both strong and they help fill the middle of a good lineup.

Saturday’s lineup featured two bands that are both top bands at any festival. Sammy Shelor and the current manifestation of the Lonesome River Band were in top form for both their sets. In the afternoon they played a number of theirs well-know pieces. In their evening set they called the audience to edge of the stage and really wailed. Their rock-informed bluegrass style lit up the audience. Shelor, of course, is one of the great banjo players that the music has produced. His movement into and away from the microphone as well as around the stage in support of each of his players is sinuous and liquid. It is almost a dance form of its own. His timing and tone are impeccable. The current edition of the Lonesome River Band has been together as a unit for about six months and has become tighter and more exciting that they were when we first saw them in March. Andy Ball on mandolin has steadily improved. His picking is fine and his voice singing lead or harmony fits very well. Brandon Rickman, who only broke one string this day, sings bluesy-rocky style of country sound that works wonderfully with this band. Mike Anglin’s bass always provides a solid beat and more. Matt Leadbetter on Dobro picks virtuoso solos as well as providing the backup fill that only a fine Dobro can. In the end, Sammy Shelor is the show. In a long encore, The Lonesome River Band simply brought down the house.

Lorraine Jordan and Carolina Road closed both the afternoon and evening sessions. This fine touring band deserves better placement on the bill, as following LRB late in the evening Lorraine Jordan has melded together her best band ever. They’ve now been together for nearly a year and their hard work and enjoyment of each other shows clearly. The current band has no members that were in it when we first saw them four years ago. Each new addition has added instrumental and vocal strength yielding a band is gaining increasing recognition for its quality. Two young players, Todd Meade on bass and Josh Goforth on fiddle make strong contributions. Each is a supremely flexible multiple-instrumentalist who can provide the sound the band needs for particular songs. Their double fiddle work is very fine. Goforth is one of the best fiddlers in the business, in demand with many other bands. His voice is pleasant, and his drop thumb guitar picking good enough to support David Holt, who often works with Doc Watson. Benny Greene on banjo is solid on his solos and his backup is wonderful. He is quiet and unobtrusive with his presence and lack of flash, but he’s just what this band needs. The addition of Jerry Butler to the band has been a revelation. Jerry brings a very good lead voice and rhythm guitar, but more importantly, his relaxed demeanor, delightful smile, and warm delivery lighten the tone of Carolina Road. Lorraine herself, relieved of some of the emceeing responsibility as well as some of the lead singing has emerged in both her fine mandolin play and singing tenor harmonies. Her interplay with the rest of the band shows clearly her increased confidence in them and in herself.

White Oak Shores has established a good record over the past three years. Emcee Al Cotter kept the program moving on time and showed that despite the fact he is a radio and television personality in his own right, he can keep the focus on the bands and not on himself. Such self-effacing presentation helps to keep the emphasis where it should be – on the music. Sammy Shelor commented on the fine venue and noted that this festival is ready to step up to another level and can do so by adding a couple more headline bands. He’s right about both the setting and the management.