I've been interested in bluegrass for a long time now and for the past 4 years I've played bass in the Britannia Bluegrass Band based in Liverpool. Bluegrass is definitely minority music over here; there is a lot of country music (Garth Brooks, Shania Twain etc.), but not too much bluegrass.

Within travelling distance of Liverpool there are about 4 clubs. Most of them are loosely organised sessions, but at our club we try to get people to stand up and perform, with us backing them if they want. Attendance is low, sometimes only 20.

There are also about 6 largish weekend festivals whichusually haveabout six or seven British bands and often an American guest band. We also get visiting touring bands - in the last couple of years in Liverpool we've seen Del McCoury, The Lonesome River Band, 5 For the Gospel, Bluegrass Etc., Alan Munde and Joe Carr, the Shankman Twins and more. There was also a big concert in London with the Nashville Bluegrass Band, The Country Gentleman and J.D.Crowe and the New South.

So when I visited America a couple of years ago I was looking forward to hearing a lot of good music. However, I visited Cape Cod and Orlando and although the holiday was great, there was less music than in England. All I got to was an open mike session in Hyannis where everyone sang his or her own compositions and we even had poetry reading with harmonica accompaniment.

My visit in 2000 was a lot better. We spent three days in Washington sightseeing, a week staying with some friends in Blackstone, Virginia and, finally, another week touring around the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley.

After 3 days in Washington doing the tourist sites we went to Madams Organ a bar in the Adams Morgan area. This was a lively bar packed with young people, mainly. The band Bob Perilla and The Big Hillbilly Bluegrass Band was excellent and Bob was very friendly when I talked to him during the interval. They played exciting, loud, hard-driving music and although the audience was noisy they were very appreciative. It was obvious that a lot were Wednesday night regulars.

After the city life in Washington we moved to the rural environment of our friends' farm outside Blackstone. There was no music, but they looked after us really well and we had a terrific time there. When I arrived I found they had saved me an article from the local paper about Judy Rainwater, who played bass with Flatt and Scruggs. He lives in Crewe, which is the next town to Blackstone. Interestingly, Crewe turned out to be a railway town with a number of goods yardsand a railway museum.In the north west of England we also have a town called Crewe, which is one of the main railway towns where railways first developed. Although that industry has declined its still one of our main line stations in spite of the fact that it is not a majorcity.

One of the big disappointments of my vacation was that I did not make it to Richmond and the Virginia Bluegrass Family Club. I had managed to contact Gary Robinson over the Internet from England while trying to find out what music might be on during my visit. He was very kind and invited me for a meal on the night of the Virginia Bluegrass Family. Unfortunately, I could not make it but we have kept in touch with each other since I returned to Liverpool and he suggested should write this account of my trip. I hope we can manage a visit next time I'm in the US.

After leaving Blackstone, we drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains and stayed in Staunton, Monterey, Natural Springs and Roanoke before returning to Blackstone for a night and then onto Washington and back to England. I could write a (boring) travelogue about the scenery, the wildlife, the tourist centres all of which were magnificent, but I'll stick to a couple of nights we had listening to music.

The first was at the Floyd Country Store, a 50 mile drive from our hotel. That probably seems like nothing to an American but to us it is a ridiculously long way to go for a night out. Anyway, we arrived at Floyd, had a nice homelymeal in the Blue Ridge Restaurant and walked round the corner to the Floyd Country Store.

There were people milling around in the main road outside with at least 3 separate sessions going on. When we finally got in ($2 each) we had an unforgettable experience - and free entry to a raffle for a local ham. The place was obviously a real 'country store' with the centre cleared to give seating for about 100 and a small dance floor. It was packed but we finally found some space standing on the stairs. There was lots of localproduce on shelves around the room, some excellent sketches of Doc Watson, Jimmy Martin and others, and some interesting posters of people who had played there in the past. If you've heard of them, their poster was on thewall. As ever the folk were really friendly and interested that folk from England were keen on Bluegrass music.

The first band, playing traditional bluegrass, was led by the guy who ran the barbers shop next door and the second band was moreold timey. They were both good to listen to but what amazed us was the dancing. There were boys of 8 and men of 80. There were guys dressed to kill with special dancing shoes and others in dungarees. But whoever they were the flatfoot dancing was amazing and the physical effort was unbelievable. We could only hit the floor for a waltz but we wish we'd been able to do some of the other stuff. And all this on bottles of water and ice creams from the store. Back home in the UK people would need a lot of drink to loosen up like that.

We drove back to Roanoke on a high from the atmosphere. Don't pass up on a chance to visit there or if you can't look at their web site www.floydcountrystore.com to get a slice of the atmosphere.

After the country store we searched the local papers to find some more music and we found the Roanoke Banjo & Fiddle Club, (free entrance, donations), at the Roanoke Civic Centre. We turned up at 6.00 p.m. expecting a small session, only to find a 1,000 seat theatre which was nearly full, where we had 4 hours of solid bluegrass without a break. As one band was leaving the stage the next came on from another entrance and was already setting up.

There were seven bands. Most of them were very good and three in particular were as good as any of the American touring bands I have seen. I was, however, pleased to see that even this sort of venue could accommodate a band that we could compare ourselves to. One was Acoustic Endeavours who playedsolid bluegrass with superb harmonies and excellent instrumental work and to top this they worked well around a single mic. Another good band was family band The Bluegrass Brothers, which included the father and 2 sons. They were joined at one point by their 13-year-old brother who played mandolin and sang a surprisingly mature version of Ruby. The headline band were In The Tradition, which mixed some old time and some country in with the bluegrass. I couldn't believe the quality of all the bands and it was all free!

Then my holiday was over for another year. Three more regrets: not meeting Gary, missing the Virginia Bluegrass Family Club, missing Galax (which started the week we left). However, we have lots and lots of brilliant memories - city life in Washington, the more relaxed life of Blackstone and the Blue Ridge Mountains, some brilliant bluegrass, but most of all the friendliness of everybody we met. We can't wait for our next visit.

Please keep in touch at pete@pdmackie.freeserve.co.uk or have a our bands web site at http://www.pdmackie.freeserve.co.uk.

Pete Mackie, Formby, Merseyside [ Write to | Website ]

3rd Feb 2001