Not so long ago most people found out about the music that was making a stir by turning on the television set. My generation just had to watch the Beetles live on the Ed Sullivan Show. Before that there was Elvis Presley and after that Michael Jackson. So simple. Plop down on your couch, turn on the groove tube and be entertained. The Grand Old Opry was on TV. Flatt & Scruggs had a regular show, lots of stuff.
These days, it’s not often that I come across a television program where live Bluegrass music is being played but this past Friday night was one such occasion. I was bored and I wandered down to the TV room to do some channel surfing. I knew the Warriors-Hawks game was over so I checked the score first and then a few channels that I usually find good stuff on. Nothing seemed very interesting so I just dialed up the channels in order. We probably get a hundred channels on the satellite and most of them are not even worth watching.
By chance I stumbled across KCSM out of San Mateo. Honestly, I didn’t even know I had this particular PBS station on my satellite. They were playing some really good stuff from a band called Volume 5. Unfortunately the program was almost finished so I only got to hear a couple of their songs, both original, and then the theme song of the program: Cherokee Shuffle. The program was called Song of the Mountain and they ran some promo stuff at the end of the show . I wonder how many of you out there have seen this program.
It features a live concert from the Lincoln Theater in downtown Marion, Virginia. Marion is a town of fewer than 7,000 inhabitants but for about ten years the producers of the show have somehow managed to attract major stars to perform live for a nationally syndicated PBS audience. Doyle Lawson, Tom T Hall, Doc Watson, Rhonda Vincent…(just to name a few) have all played in this little town at the Lincoln Theater.
Tim White, the host of the show, is an artist and he recently painted an 80 foot mural celebrating Song Of The Mountains and the history of bluegrass in Marion on the side of the retail outlet for Virginia Sweetwater Distillery, the state’s first legal moonshine manufacturer. It is located across the street from the Lincoln Theater.
Depicted are White, the Lincoln, local music legends Wayne Henderson, Carson Cooper, Bill Harrell, Cousin Zeke Leonard, and Hobart Smith, plus several iconic images relating to old time and bluegrass music in the area.
I’m hooked. One of my bluegrass friends told me about RFD TV, which has a lot of great old country and bluegrass shows running. Unfortunately it is not part of my standard cable package and I’m not the type to pay extra. But Song of the Mountains has been on my TV every week for free and I never realized it! You can be sure I’ll be listening every chance I get. Just like I listen to Marcos and Peter and Ray every chance I get on the radio.
That is until the rain stops and the weather warms and I can get out to the live music of a Bluegrass festival. I’ll be watching less TV and listening to less radio come summer.
