What a blast I had recently at the Grave's Mountain Festival, Syria, near Madison, Virginia! The fantastic lineup included - Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mt. Boys, IIIrd Tyme Out (a reunion with Baucom and Bibey), The Lonesome River Band, The Seldom Scene, Eddie Adcock, Blueridge, Continental Divide, Reno Brothers, Cliff Waldron and the New Shades of Grass, The Larry Stephenson Band, The Reno Bros., The Lewis Family, Blueridge (Terry Baucom's band), The Del McCoury Band, Blue Highway, Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen, The Forbes Family, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Chesapeake and many others.

The highlights for me were two of the reunions:

The original Seldom Scene - John Starling, Tom Gray, Ben Eldridge and Mike Auldridge! Lou Reid stood in Duffy's place and John S. commented that they asked Lou to sit in, as they weren't really sure what to do. He said they thought about leaving Duffy's spot empty, but didn't know what to do. You could have heard a pin drop at that moment. Have to admit the tears were welling up in my eyes. Though John S. lost his voice and couldn't sing the final two or three tunes, it really brought back some terrific memories. Those were the guys who introduced me to bluegrass - every Thursday night at the Birchmere as a teenager!

The other reunion was the Country Gentlemen of 1970 - Charlie Waller, Bill Emerson, Bill Yates and Jimmy Gaudreau. Great songs and talk by Charlie and Bill Y!

An advance ticket for 3 day festival was $42 US (about £26). During the month of May leading up to the festival that same ticket increased to $48 (abt £29) and finally the at-the-gate price was $55 (£33), so it really paid to get the advance ticket. Camping during the festival, which began on Thursday, was free with the admission ticket. However, they allowed you to camp as early as the Sunday before for $8 (£5). Beer/Liquor was not sold at the concessions, but you could bring your own. If you brought it into the stage area, it had to be done discretely, i.e., in an unmarked cup or such other container.

As for the food - it was fantastic! I ate out of a cooler until Saturday night. They were offering a rib-eye steak dinner that I couldn't resist! For $10 (£6) you got a huge cut of rib-eye, green beans, home baked dinner roll, French fries, and home baked apples! It was more than I could eat and really hit the spot after eating out of a cooler all week! That entire region is known for it's apples so the baked apples were out of this world.

The festival was just plain fun and picking was better this year than it has been in past years - probably due in large part to decent weather, which was hot & humid! If you ever get a chance to go to this festival, do it. I think it's one of the best there is.

Chris Athey, Ashburn, Virginia, USA. | Write to Chris | Visit Chris' web site |

Updated 13 Aug 1999