The Old Fiddler's Convention in Galax, Virginia

Each year around the second week in August musicians and lovers of bluegrass music gather in the small mountain town of Galax, Virginia. Not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway, you will find some of the best bluegrass musicians in the area, country and the world at this week long festival.

It all started in 1935 and has grown into a huge convention with competition for all ages and for the thousands of fans who come to listen and watch.

My favorite competition is on Monday night. It is the youth competition and watching those little four and five year old children playing fiddles, banjos and singing is just the cutest thing.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, musicians play their favorite instrument hoping to win a prize.

The bands play on Friday and Saturday nights and awards are given late Saturday night.

The next few posts are some of my impressions and pictures of The 76th Fiddler's Convention, 2011.

Vendors Row

You can smell vendors row before it comes into view. The distinct aroma of grilled onions, hot dogs and cotton candy waft through the crowd gathering in the August evening.

Food vendors hand pizza, ham biscuits, lemonade, hamburgers and even alligator-on-a-stick to customers waiting in line. Ice cream, strawberry shortcake and carmel apples tempt the hungry crowd.

Walk down the road to purchase a 76th annual Old Fiddlers Convention tee shirt or ball cap. There are lottery tickets, quilts and pieces of jewelry for sale. A favorite musician/artist friend, Willard Gayheart, displays pencil drawings of everyone from Wayne Henderson to Doc Watson. Willard it always in his booth with a big smile, greeting the people passing by. Feel free to chat a while with Willard. He is a great story teller. Further down the road there are booths selling guitar pics, music CDs and sheet music. It is a musicians' paradise here, banjos, guitars and harmonicas wait to make music.

Sit and listen to one of the many groups of musicians jamming under the stars. Request a tune, flatfoot if the mood strikes and be sure and eat the strawberry shortcake because it is simply the best!

The Kill-Basa Bill Road Show

The Announcer calls out:

"And now, bluegrass band number 117, The Kill-Basa Bill Road Show!"

The crowd roars as the band takes the stage. These guys are regulars at the Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax, Virginia, and please the crowd every year.

Dressed in rainbow colored, tie-dyed shirts and loud patterned lounge pants, Kill-Basa Bill (A.K.A. William Guthrie) with his long white beard, looks like Santa Clause turned hippie. The Danbury, North Carolina, native takes a few licks on his big bass fiddle and launches into a song that the crowd has heard many times before called, "I Just Don't Look Good Naked Anymore."

The fourth verse goes like this:

I went to the doctor for my annual medical exam,
Stood there in the buff and suddenly he said "Man!"
I said "What is it, Doc, some fatal disease?
I've just got to know the score."
He said "No, you just don't look good naked anymore."

The crowd cheers as Bill sings the last few lines of the song:

"Well, my arches fell, my chest went to hell and my butts dragging the floor. No, I just don't look good naked anymore."

As the band leaves the stage, Kill-Basa Bill turns and yells out:

"And I can prove it!"

The Last Night In Galax

It is 11:30 on Friday night and as I lie in bed in my camper with ear plugs planted firmly in my ears and a fan near my head whirling on high speed, I can still hear the now familiar voice of Carlos yelling over the loudspeaker:

"Old time bluegrass bands! Buggity Buggity! Come on down! Come on down to the big yellow tent and sign in now. Old time bluegrass bands! We are waiting for you. Come on down! Thank you for your cooperation. This is your last call and when I say last call, I mean LAST CALL! Bluegrass bands, come on down to the big yellow tent- RIGHT NOW!"

The announcement momentarily drowns out the constant boom, boom, ba-boom of the bass fiddle sounds coming from our next door neighbors, beating out a rhythm to whatever bluegrass song the band is now playing. The guitars and banjos are too far away for me to hear the music. I only hear the obnoxious boom of the bass and feel the vibrations which rattle the fragile siding of my house on wheels.

I want to yell out the window, "GO TO SLEEP! What is wrong with you people?" but I know it would make things worse. In fact the entire band and audience drinking beer would probably move closer to my bedroom window. I am too old for this!

2011 marks the 4th Galax Fiddlers Convention for me and it may just be my last. I don't think I am up to it anymore, but then, who knows how I will feel next year. I may forget the sleep deprived nights and hot, steamy August days. I may not mind that the electrical outlet won't support our air conditioner or microwave. I may not remember the cold showers, rain and mud. I may even crave a funnel cake.

My husband loves this craziness. He is a musician, what can I say?

Sunny!

My husband has a new toy. It is a new weather station that sits on the table next to his recliner. It is very high tech but ever so cute. There is a girl on the screen and when it the outside temperature above 80 degrees, she wears a sleeveless tee shirt and mini skirt. Below 80 degrees, she gets a little chilly and adds short sleeves. Below 70, she suddenly dons long pants. As the temperature drops, she adds long sleeves, a stocking cap and mittens. Then we know it is cold outside! That and the icicles that hang from the eaves. We are debating "weather" (get it?) or not to call her "Sunny." I like it but Andy isn't sure. We named my GPS Miss Daisy, as in "Driving Miss Daisy" and his GPS, Tom Tom, for obvious reasons. I don't know why we name inanimate objects. It just seems like the thing to do.

Readers Comments and More 1960's Memories

Dear Readers,

After my last post I heard from so many friends from high school in Wichita, Kansas. Back in the 1960s, we went dancing!!! Dance bands were everywhere and so many people reminded me of Dearmores and Rock Castle as well as my favorite, The Seneca Lounge. We also went to The Flame and The Embers.I had forgotten a lot of names of band members but many of you remembered Mike Finnigan and the Surfs, Gary Stephens and Jack Skinner (who looked like Johnny Cash.) You also remember dragging Douglas, slumber parties, and running around in our Dad's cars all night on 50 cents worth of gas. We ate french fries and hamburgers at Sandys and Griffs Burger Bar, pizza at Pizza Hut (of course,) burritos at Taco Grande and ice cream at Armstrongs. Hamburgers from Kings X came two in a cardboard box and Cero's made the best candy.

We all loved Joyland and swimming at Kiddyland on a season pass. Other memories of popular songs were "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and "Shout Shout" (Knock Yourself Out) which was a one hit wonder by Ernie Maresca. Mo town was big with Sam Cook, The Temptations, Marvin Gay and Smokey Robinson. We danced the Watusi, Twist and "Mashed Potatoes." Wow! As my mother used to say, "I danced a million miles to those songs!"

My grandmother would hand me her "charge plate" and send me downtown on the bus to shop at Innes for a pattern and fabric so she could make me a prom dress or new outfit for school. She was a wonderful seamstress and was always sewing for my sister and me. We also shopped at Hinkles, The Model, Henrys, Lewins, Bucks and Thurstons, now all gone. I remember the beautiful polished wood and glass display cases in the department stores and going to the Innes Tea Room for lunch and a fashion show. We wore gloves, of course. You didn't go downtown in the 50s and early 60s without a nice dress, gloves, stockings and heels. You just didn't!

I remember driving around East High School with a big cardboard washing machine (or dryer) box on top of my friend Cyndi's mothers car. We cut holes in the box so four of us could hold it in place up there. Why? Who knows! Cyndi doesn't remember it at all! There goes my iffy swiss cheese memory again, but I think it actually happened.

A bunch of us sat in Sandy's parking lot and sang folk songs until they told us to leave. Going to Southeast High School football games. Art club. Drive in movies- sneaking in kids in the trunk. Going to The Beanery to hear the beatniks read poetry. Saturday night was date night, Friday night was out with the girls night, or out with the boys night for the guys. Toilet papering houses. Working at Dockum Drugs and avoiding the pharmacist who liked to pinch the girls. Parties with friends, movies at the Orpheum, Crest or the Boulevard theaters.

So many memories, so long ago. Sweet young friends with so much promise and hope. Some taken away too early. Some lifelong friends, some drifted away, some reunited years later. It was innocent times in the 1960s. I am glad I was a teenager then and I love to look back and remember those good old days.

When I go "home" to Wichita, my brother Gregg and sister Rhonda and I always drag Douglas and eat a Nu-Way. It is a tradition!

If you would like to leave a memory, something funny or crazy, please do! I would love to pass it on.

NOTE:

Dear Readers,

I apologize for the format of the bottom half of the next post. It is a little hard to read and the words are sort of "scattered around." I cannot fix it due to my limited "Techy" ability. Please bear with me and come back often.

Thanks,
Lynn

Cool Jazz, 1960's music and a boy named Skip

While driving home from Winston-Salem recently, I turned on the radio and found "Jazz out of the Mainstream" on NPR. There is something about driving alone at night with cool jazz music drifting through the car that is both soothing and energizing. A contemporary Ramsey Lewis-ish trio played the theme from Casino Royale (remember Sean Connery as James Bond?) The music brought back memories of other Burt Bacharach movie theme songs from the 1960s including "What's New Pussycat" and "Raindrops Keep falling on my Head" from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid,"Alfie" and so many more.

The 1960 era songs and jazz playing on the radio took me back to 1963 when I dated Skip. Skip was a jazz pianist and a sweet young man. He was in a small band consisting of a piano, guitar and bass fiddle. I remember the group jamming in Skip's basement and going to a couple of small clubs to watch him perform.

One distinct memory was of a dress I wore to one of those night clubs. It was a summer dress, sleeveless with a scoop neck and big circular skirt, a wide black patent leather belt and big black buttons. The cool thing about that dress is that is was reversible. On one side was a white background with big black flowers while on the other side were big white flowers on a black background. Turned inside out, I had a different outfit! In 1963 we wore nylon stockings held up with a garter belt and low heeled pumps no higher than 2 inches. The shoes and matching (of course) clutch bag were black patent leather to match the belt. I loved that dress.

It was a good thing I didn't love Skip, although I did like him very much, because he never smiled at me the way he smiled when he played the piano. When Skip played, he seemed a million miles away from me and I realized, even at the young age of seventeen, that his first love was his music. Thankfully we were not in a serious relationship and it wasn't a big heartbreak when we broke up.

Music triggers memories for me because I associate songs with people and events from my past. Here are a few of those memories:

1) Lip syncing "The Preacher and the Bear" by Phil Harris with my siblings and
cousins in the basement of our house and knowing all of the words to
every song on the album.

2) My dad teaching me to dance the swing to big band music in my best friend's rec
room.

3) Tap dancing "out" to the song "Singing the Blues." My costume was: gray and white
burmuda shorts, white turtle neck shirt, white knee socks and tap shoes.

4) In 1961, playing my new 45 record "Runaway" by Del Shannon so many times that my mother took it away from me saying that she had finally lost her mind after hearing
Runaway over 1000 times. That was an exaggeration, I think.

5) Watching Elvis Presley on Ed Sullivan in 1956. There were a dozen kids crowded
around the T.V. in our living room.

6) "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" sung by Paul Anka after breaking up with Chuck D.
the summer before I started high school. I was in my "Drama Queen" mode before
the term was coined.

7) The British Invasion, especially the Beetles in 1964 when I was a senior in high school. I owned every album they made and was so in love with Paul! Wasn't every girl?

8) Dancing every single weekend my junior and senior year in high school. There were
dozens of dance clubs in Wichita and great rock and roll bands such as The Surfs
who played at the Seneca Lounge. My friends and I were groupies and knew all the
band members.

9) Dancing at the Huddle in Pittsburg, Kansas where I went to college. We danced the
Phi Sig stomp in 1966 and drank 3.2 beer.

And then years later(1982)when I was a mother, waiting for my sons Corey and Travis to come home from school so we could watch Micheal Jackson's "Thriller." We had been looking forward to seeing the music video for weeks.

I have fallen in love to music and have had my heart broken to songs that I still cannot bear to play. I have been able to appreciate bluegrass music even though I was never exposed to it until recently. My love of early rock and roll has only increased with age and I can still dance a mean West coast swing. I have tried my hand (or feet) at the "Shag" which is a popular East coast beach music dance. I love some classical and occasionally listen to country (even though my father would not allow what he called "hillbilly" music in the house.)

The cool jazz floating though my car the other night was a sweet break from my hectic life; a step back in the past and delicious memories of the 1960s, a boy named Skip and my youth.