Hometown Opry at Minton's -N. Wilkesboro, NC

The Hometown Opry is carried live on WKBC Radio, 880 AM, every Friday morning from 7:00 until 9:00 at Minton's Music & Pawn in North Wilkesboro, NC. On any given Friday morning visitors might hear a local bluegrass band, the drop thumbpickers, or a music celebrity on his or her way through town. I understand Rhonda Vincent once dropped in for a performance. This morning, the release party for Tut Taylor's new CD called "OOzin' yhr Blues" was scheduled. Despite the fact that Tut is ill and in the hospital, the band showed up with Donnie Swaim filling in on Dobro. There is, of course, no substitute for Tut. When we visited him in the hospital on Wednesday, he was optimistic he would be released the next day and be able to perform on Friday. Sadly, it was not to be. The performance this morning was dedicated to Tut and his lovely wife Lee with the hope and prayer he would soon be coming along.

Tut Taylor Playing the Tutbro

We arrived at Minton's around 6:45 AM and were by no means the first people there. Over the next fifteen or twenty minutes enough people showed up to fill the 50 or so seats provided. The band took the stage and were introduced by radio host Steve Handy as they came on the air after the news at 7:00. The walls of the performance area at Minton's are hung with all sorts of instruments as well posters and signed pictures from the dozens of well-known musicians who have been through the store. Minton's is, indeed, one of those fabled music destinations all lovers of acoustic music should visit as a sort of pilgrimage. Beyond that, they deal in excellent instruments at good prices.


The band, containing members of the recording band who had made "OOzin' the Blues" performed from the stage, singing and playing songs from the new CD produced by Tut Taylor. From the recording band, Lorrie Barker sang and Steve Barker played lovely blues/jazz guitar. Dwight Burks played mandolin and fiddle as well as doing some singing. Donnie Swaim filled in for Tut more than capably on Dobro while his wife Lynn provided the solid bass on the doghouse. Songs like Honey Babe Blues, Wayfaring Stranger, Columbus Stockade Blues, and Sittin' Alone in the Moonlight were played with a bluesy tone in solid interpretations by Lorrie Barker, a very fine singer. Tut had said the other day that the music was different, and it is. And it's very good. "Oozin the Blues" can be ordered for $15.00 directly from:

Tut Lee Records
808 Old 60
N. Wilkesboro, NC28659

There may be a shipping and handling charge.

The Barker & Taylor Band

Steve Barker

Lorrie Barker

Dwight Burks

Donnie Swaim

Lynn Swaim

In addition to the roll-out of a new CD featuring the still creative and innovative Tut Taylor at age 85, we were involved in a local radio station that's quite a favorite. Host Steve Handy arrived just in time to go on-air, glowing with enthusiasm and energy. He hit the decks running and kept the event lively and interesting through the next two hours. I commented to someone that I'd rather go to WKBC's Hometown Opry than attend The Grand Old Opry in Nashville. The hometown flavor and immediacy of a live radio program kept things interesting. During the program, Steve undertook to give away a number of small gifts and CD's in drawings, conduct a taste test for a variety of hot sauces, have two new guests to the Opry blow into Grandpa's Moose Call to the amusement of all, and to introduce fellow on air personality Ed Racey as both Edgar Alan Racey to read a poem and Sherlock Racey to recount an amusing crime story. Racey, in his regular role, reads the news.

Steve Handy - WKBC Radio Host

Edgar Alan or is it Sherlock Racey?

Grandpa's Moose Call

Hot Sauce Contest

Minton's is owned by Jerry Minton and Mike Palmer who provide space for this weekly event. By nine o'clock it's all over, and local people head off to work. Visitors to today's Opry come from as far away as England, Key West, Fl, Tennsesse, and, of course, there's a couple from New Hampshire there, too. The Hometown Opry at Minton's Music & Pawn is a local event featuring fine music, good fun, and a friendly environment. It's a not to be missed visit!

Mike Palmer videos the festivities

Jerry Minton

Minton's Music and Pawn

Carolina in the Fall - Steffey and Hicks to Join Krugers

Kruger Brothers Perform at Carolina in the Fall

Monday and Tuesday in Wilkesboro have been filled by visits with old friends, opportunities to turn acquaintances into new friends, and catching up on deferred activities like laundry, banking, mail, and such. First, for a bit of news. This blog doesn’t usually go in for scoops, but here’s an interesting bit. The Kruger Brothers have added two members to their group and will debut a new bluegrass band at their festival, Carolina in the Fall, on Saturday. The new Kruger Brothers bluegrass band will feature Adam Steffey on mandolin and Bobby Hicks on fiddle, along with the usual trio of Jens Kruger, indisputably the best banjo player in the world, Uwe Kruger on guitar and vocals, and Joel Landsberg on bass. The boys are being very careful not to tip their hand about the plans they have for this group, but it looks to me as if they’re going to go on a limited tour this summer. They could be the most thoughtful and innovative bluegrass band to hit the ground in years, perhaps since the Bluegrass Album Band. At a couple of parties in the past two days, I’ve watched Jens in bluegrass mode create licks and figures and arpeggios so dazzling in their conception, and seemingly so easily achieved, that few other pickers would either conceive of them or try to replicate them. This could be an interesting and ground breaking event for bluegrass, especially considering the brothers’ great regard for the history and background of bluegrass music and their creative energy in developing new ways for the banjo, guitar, bass trio to express itself.

Bobby Hicks (Photo by David Roye)

Adam Steffey

Bobby Hicks, at age seventy-five, brings a bluegrass pedigree without peer. At the age of eleven he won a North Carolina State Championship on Fiddle. He joined Bill Montoe’s Bluegrass Boys in 1954 and played with them off and on. Hicks spent twenty –three years playing with Ricky Skaggs in both country and bluegrass settings, while continuing to play with Bill Monroe as well as Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys. No one could add more bluegrass luster to the Kruger Brothers than Hicks. Adam Steffey is six time IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year, including 2008. His storied career includes lengthy stints with Allison Krause and Union Station and Moutain Heart. This year he has toured with the all-star Dan Tyminski Band. Steffey has distinguished himself as both a traditional and progressive bluegrass mandolinist. His strong bass voice is always excellent. If you’re going to put together a bluegrass band, why not make it the best?

Philip Zanon's Home in the Hills

Krugers Jam on Philip's Porch

Maynard Holbrook Sings with Uwe Kruger

Joel Landsberg Plays Upright Bass (?)

Jens Kruger Jamming

On Monday we were invited to Philip Zenon’s home for a barbecue and picking. Philip is the Kruger’s sound engineer and a fellow immigrant from Switzerland. Philip’s sister and family were visiting North Carolina for the first time. Also present was the Waddington family band, young group from North Dakota. It’s quite amazing that a group of five youngsters growing up in the bluegrass desert of the Great Plains. The kids are traveling with their parents and two younger children and will be appearing at Carolina in the Fall this weekend. The next day we went to Uwe Kruger’s home for supper and more music and conversation. The welcoming warmth of this large and interesting family, like so much of the music community we seem to have joined, exceeds any we’ve experienced elsewhere.

Waddington Family Picks in Uwe Kruger's Living Room

Uwe at Home

Seth Waddington (17) Plays My Thirtieth Anniversary Deering

The Carolina in the Fall event, coming up at the Sheperd Farm in N. Wilkesboro on Friday evening and all day Saturday (October 17 and 18) seeks to bring this environment into a festival setting. Various guests, many close friends of the Krugers will appear on stage and perform with the Kruger Brothers. Check here for a list of performers and add Steffey, Hicks, Ron Block, Terry Baucom, and a big banjo championship to the list. The setting is lovely, and the host band truly acts as hosts throughout the weekend as well as offering extensive performances. The addition of their new bluegrass band should appeal to many.

Stage at Carolina in the Fall

Hillside to Vendors at Carolina in the Fall

Willow Oak Park BGF - Roxboro, NC - Review

As we drove through the tobacco fields of north-central North Carolina toward Willow Oak Music Park, I remembered one of the problems with this festival. Too many people in the audience smoke with casual disregard for the comfort of those around them. Nothing happened during the long weekend to erase that memory from our minds or nostrils. Willow Oak is a pleasant, simple music park with streets carved out to provide numerous shaded camping spaces, convenient standpipes for water, and plenty of porta-johns which are frequently cleaned. The newly built stage sits in a grassy, natural amphitheater providing good sight lines. Sound, provided by Doug Crabtree, was quite good; up to his usual standard. There were several problems with this festival, mostly growing from inept decisions made by promoter Clyde “Peaches” Solomon, who seems to make many rookie decisions despite having run festivals at Willow Oak for six years.

Two major programming mistakes led to the general weakness in the overall lineup of this festival at Willow Oak. The first is one that many other promoters seem to be making these days. Many promoters have been relying on scheduling major headliners to draw in customers. Rhonda Vincent, one of the most important performers in the business, played two well-received sets on Thursday to a small, but appreciative audience. Scheduling Vincent, regardless of the deal Peaches was able to make, must have cost at least as much as two or three very good mid-range national bands. Saturday night’s fireworks display also depleted the entertainment budget by the cost of another good national band without attracting any additional audience. People don’t attend a bluegrass festival to see fireworks, even though they might be a nice addition on July 4^th. The result of these expenditures was that a good regional band and a rising national band were each required to play six sets over three days. No band, with the possible exception of Del McCoury, has sufficient readily available material to provide six distinct sets. These bands were forced to repeat material and thus lose listeners as the weekend progressed. Furthermore, three other bands performed four full sets. Such programming leads to a generally weak festival and depresses attendance.

Finally, there’s the issue of rules. Willow Oak has a clearly defined performance area with signs posted prohibiting dogs, alcohol, and golf carts within the area. The golf carts stayed out. The printed program for the festival also had a No alcohol prohibition. Emcee Buddy Michaels made several weak attempts to encourage people who smoke to move to the side. Each time he made this statement, we observed people sitting around us light up, almost in contempt for the announcement. When the promoter sits in the front seats and lights a cigarette, there’s no question what his attitude toward the smoking issue is and what message it sends. As the three evenings progressed, the number of drunks and open drinking within the performance area rose as did the noise from the audience. These shenanigans made listening to the music and enjoying the environment increasingly difficult.

Audience Member Showing Respect for Rules

and

Other Members of the Crowd

Last week at IBMA we met the promoter of the Thomas Point Beach bluegrass festival, held for the past thirty years in Maine and, by all accounts, one of the best festivals anywhere. This year Thomas Point Beach won IBMA’s award for Bluegrass Event of the Year. This is worth mentioning here, because the promoters there have earned a reputation for taking no guff from their fans. They have clear rules, and people not abiding by these rules are required to leave the festival grounds…no ifs, ands or buts. The result has been a festival boasting one of the best and most balanced lineups anywhere that draws bluegrass fans from a wide area to a rather remote location for a weekend of great music. Promoter Pati Crooker Mulligan regretfully decided to close Thomas Point Beach after this year’s event culminated thirty years of successful festivals. This emphasis is used to point to the comfort people feel in knowing that posted rules and regulations will be enforced with vigor and conviction.

Two regional bands impressed this weekend. We had first seen Ricky Stroud and his Hager's Mountain Boys in Conway, SC about three years ago opening for Lou Reid. It was their second performance as a band, and they were rough, but eager. We saw them a year later, much improved. This year, appearing at Willow Oak for three days they showed why they have become busier and more visible, not only in North Carolina, but across a broader spectrum. Perhaps the band's greatest strength is bass player and singer Blake Johnson, whose singing is better than good, filled with soulful bluesy sounds and interesting interpretations. His rendition of "Freeborn Man" was clear, understandable, and sufficiently innovative to stand aside from others in the often cliched song. The band has become tighter, with Cliff Smith on banjo chiming in, and Cliff Waddell on guitar singing well and playing a formidable flat picking guitar as well as good rhythm. Straub's Chestnut mandolin rings out, as does his voice.

Cliff Waddell, Ricky Stroud, Blake Johnson

Hagar's Mountain Boys

Blake Johnson

Constant Change, another regional band hailing from the Raleigh area, performed with their usual very solid traditional bluegrass. Dan Wells on guitar is a very good lead singer in the high lonesome tradition. He's backed by a first rate band Brian and David Aldridge on banjo and mandolin as well as Clifton Preddy on fiddle and Gary Baird on bass. The band features very good harmonies and delivers its program with energy and conviction, if not exceptional showmanship.

Constant Change

Unfortunately for quality bluegrass bands like the Hagar's Mountain Boys and Constant Change, fans confuse energy, speed, and volume for quality. The Bluegrass Brothers put on a high energy, high volume program that pleases crowds while not exhibiting first rate singing or picking, despite recent kudos on Bluegrass-L. Fans, especially those well-lubricated by alcohol, whoop and holler, but don't get music whose lyrics are understandable or instrumentation which is tight or well presented. The formula seems to work for them, but for people wishing to hear well-presented bluegrass, they just don't cut it. The word "raw" is often applied to this band as if it were a compliment. For some, I guess it is.

Victor Dowdy

Robert Dowdy

Jr. Sisk and Rambler's Choice took on a big assignment with courage and commitment. This band, together again for a little over a year now, has shown great progress and now emerges on the national scene as a first rate, rising national band. Sisk, who has performed as a side man and lead singer with Wyatt Rice, an earlier version of Rambler's Choice, and for a number of years as a crucial member of Blueridge, has emerged as a band leader to complement his well known and appreciated lead singing and rhythm guitar. He shows increasing comfort and humor at the microphone introducing the songs, the members of his band, and providing amusing patter. The music provided by Rambler's Choice represents traditional bluegrass at its very best, presenting long established standards as well as new songs written by Jr. himself as well as his cousin Tim Massey on bass. Chris Harris on mandolin, while still quite young, is a rising star with great licks and a first rate voice. Sadly, his prized Adam Steffey mandolin was stolen at IBMA last week. All hope it is quickly recovered, but be on the lookout for it. Billy Hawkes on fiddle and David Wilkerson on banjo are both fine, both fitting well into the ensemble sound Jr. seeks. The Friday night jam with guests Johnny Ridge, Adam Poindexter, Viktor and Donnie Dowdy, and Alan Mills of Lost and Found, provided the highlight of the festival while serving to save Jr.'s voice for the additional sets he had.

Jr. Sisk

Chris Harris

Lost and Found has been touring for over twenty-five years with Allen Mills at its head. It's a reliable bluegrass band that always provides value. New mandolin player Scott Napier is making his mark as well as mentoring Mills' four year old grandson Zachary on stage. Scottie Sparks brings a first class bluegrass voice to the mix.

Scottie Sparks & Allan Mills

Zachary Potter & Scott Napier

Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and The Lonesome River Band provided the headliner performances expected of them. An interesting highlight of Rhonda's performance was the presence of Dorothy, who has written one of Rhonda's most requested Gospel testimonies.

Rhonda & Dorothy

Hunter Berry

Mickey Harris

Lonesome River Band
Sammy Shelor

Andy Ball

Brandon Rickman

The Expense of One Very Good Bluegrass Band

The Faces of Bluegrass
Stan - The Flyer Man

Don Dilling

Golf Cart Parade

A Long Weekend