Not many people know it, but the person who coined the term Bluegrass Music, in reference to the genre that included Bill Monroe and all of his ilk, was not Bill himself, but a guy named Carlton Haney. Haney promoted the first multi-day Bluegrass festival in Fincastle, Virginia in 1965. A musical narrative was part of that festival and it was called “The Story of Bluegrass”
What a great concept the multi-day Bluegrass festival is! I love it, and I am so grateful to all of the people that make it happen. Volunteers, organizers, promoters, musicians and fans. This weekend I will load up our vehicle and head out to what is perhaps my favorite of all the festivals I have ever been to over the years.
I’m talking about the Plymouth Bluegrass Festival. This year will mark a dozen years of the Plymouth festival. Every year I go, I hear the scuttlebutt that this Plymouth might be the last one ever. And I share that worry every time. Carlton Haney had one other Fincastle festival and then moved to Berryville, Virginia for ten years or so. A reunion was held in 2005 but I don’t know if the original Bluegrass festival will survive.
Somehow, don’t ask me how, Larry and Sondra Baker pull together a first rate festival year after year at Plymouth. And they produce other festivals as well during the year. I have to take my hat off to anybody who can create a venue where I can have so much fun year after year.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t been year after year in my case. I got a retinal tear last year and couldn’t make it as planned. Life happens. But I’ll never forget my first Plymouth. I went because I wanted to have my very young fiddle playing son get involved with the Kids on Stage program. The program at Plymouth was said to be more low key than the intense Grass Valley Version, Kids on Bluegrass. I marched Ethan over to meet Frank Sollivan, Sr at his camper. Frank cajoled my youngster into working up some tunes and getting out on a real stage to play music. I sat in on one of their rehearsals and I was completely blown away by what Frank was pulling off.
The next night I enjoyed a beautiful sunset and watched with my son as Michael Cleveland played the best live fiddle I have ever heard. If you heard Orange Blossom Special and Jerusalem Ridge as Ethan and I did in the gloaming that night, you would never want to be any place else.
I go back to Plymouth every year I can because it’s such a great festival. The weather can be hot there but you can sit in dense shade at the periphery and still hear the music very well. After the sun goes down you can get right up at the front and enjoy some amazing talent. That’s the thing that always impresses me about Plymouth. The talent seems out of proportion to the size of the venue and the fact that it’s in the middle of nowhere.
You should know by now where to find me this weekend. I hope I’ll see you there.
