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Bluegrass Memoirs: Jackson, Kentucky Bluegrass[Editor's note: Photos by Carl Fleischhauer] On Monday August 7, 1972, with fresh memories of Maritimes old-time and bluegrass, I drove from New Brunswick to New England to join my wife and kids, who were house-sitting for my in-laws in Norwich, Vermont. On Thursday the 10th I headed south. A…
Bluegrass Memoirs: The First Canadian Bluegrass Festival (Part 2)[Editor's note: Read part one of Neil's Memoir on the First Canadian Bluegrass Festival here.] On Wednesday, August 2, 1972, after an overnight ferry voyage, I arrived in North Sydney, Nova Scotia. A four-hour drive brought me to Fred and Audrey Isenor’s mobile home in Lantz, 50 km (30 miles)…
Bluegrass Memoirs: The First Canadian Bluegrass Festival (Part 1)The first Canadian festival, a modest affair billed as a “Bluegrass Jamboree,” took place in August 1972. I was involved in its organization and presentation. Subsequently, the Jamboree grew into an annual festival that’s still running. The Nova Scotia-based Downeast Bluegrass & Oldtime Music Society's website reads: The annual family…
Bluegrass Memoirs: 'Industrial Strength Bluegrass' and the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion (Part 4)(Editor’s Note: Read part one of our series on the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion here. Read part two here. Read part three here.) My series of memoirs on the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion closes with a gallery of snapshots taken during the day's proceedings. I had a new Japanese automatic camera of the type…
Bluegrass MemoirsApr 2, 2021
(Editor's note: Read part 1 of Neil V. Rosenberg's series on the 1987 Earl Scruggs Celebration here.) My diary for Saturday September 26, 1987 -- Earl Scruggs Celebration day at Gardner-Webb College in Boiling Springs, North Carolina -- begins with an entry on foodways: I meet Tom (Hanchett) and Carol (Sawyer) at 7:30 and we…
Bluegrass MemoirsFeb 10, 2021
I first heard the music of Etta Baker on a record in 1957. Not until thirty years later did I see her perform live, in the context of a bluegrass-oriented event, on September 26, 1987 at Gardner-Webb College's Second Annual Earl Scruggs Music Celebration. Gardner-Webb (G-W) is in Boiling Springs, N.C., an hour's drive south…
Bluegrass MemoirsDec 9, 2020
On October 3, 2020, during IBMA's Virtual World of Bluegrass, I watched the Bluegrass Situation's presentation of Shout & Shine Online, the fifth annual showcase celebrating equity and inclusion in bluegrass and roots music. This year it featured Black performers, including Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton, the blues, folk, bluegrass, and jazz multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from…
Bluegrass MemoirsOct 19, 2020
On the morning of March 24, 2020 I learned Eric Weissberg had passed away when a friend posted a long and detailed obit. I found several other substantial ones online -- Rolling Stone, Variety, New York Times. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Weissberg's family had a press release ready; he'd been in decline,…
Bluegrass MemoirsSep 18, 2020
In December 1953, Decca released "Plunkin' Rag" by the Shenandoah Valley Boys. It was the first recording by a banjoist other than Earl Scruggs to use Scruggs pegs: Hubert Davis. Born in Shelby, North Carolina, in 1932, Davis grew up in a musical family. He was already playing the banjo when, at the age of…
