Grass Stock '09 Part Three

Thursday morning 7 a.m., after being asleep only about five hours, there was a tapping on the outside of my tent inviting me to have breakfast. I have never been one to turn down a good meal and proceeded to ready myself. For those of you that have camped out in a dome tent, you know how much fun it is to try and get pants on in a kneeling position. Or, for that matter, a shirt, even in a sitting position. I need to upgrade my tent to a taller one with a little more space so I can move around.

At any rate, I dined on biscuits and homemade gravy with cornbread and molasses on the side and sliced tomatoes and cantaloupe. It was a meal fit for a king, and I ate with all the robust energy I could.

Following a super meal, I began my day by walking around to the various camps and meeting with some of the nicest people that you would ever want to meet. I ended up near the show grounds area and picked up a couple of new t-shirts with the Grass Stock logo on them. One was from last year, but I didn't care; I like t-shirts.

Cecil Chatfield and I went to his motor home and made use of some quiet time to listen to J.D. Sumner, The Blackwood Brothers and The Statesmen that I have on one of my external hard drives I carry with me while on the road. Then, we topped the afternoon off by watching a little of Hopalong Cassidy in "Hidden Gold," a 1940 film.

As 4:15 rolled around, I spotted a blue HHR Chevy like mine with Iowa tags on it and just knew it belonged to DJ Uncle Billy Dunbar. Cecil and I returned my computer to my car and went to meet him. We shared the next few moments with Billy getting to know this internet friend a little better.

At 4:30, they started the evening show with all the DJ's on stage saying howdy to the fans of bluegrass that had come from all over the United States and a few from Canada. Blue Maggie was the first band to be on stage. They came in from Charleston, West Virginia and consisted of Richard & Cheryl Patrick & Brent Stapleton. They belted out many songs during their 45-minute time slot, including "Cigarettes & Black Coffee" and "Punkin Headed Baby" and also did a Gospel number called "Lord Come Down.”

Next was "Poaceous" from Greenup , Kentucky. Dennis and Sheree Page headed up this group, and they really impressed me with their style of Bluegrass. It was a down home type of singing, and Sheree did a great job singing and strumming on her Blonde bass fiddle. She has a red bass for the winter time when her hair changes color to bright red like the leaves on trees. Forty-five minutes did not seem like enough time, and we in the audience applauded them and asked for one more tune. They were very happy to accommodate us with a beautiful old Gospel number.

Tunnel Hill was next and, like each band, had their own unique style of Bluegrass. They treated us to yet another 45 minutes of beautiful music. Appalachian Leftovers were next and gave us the taste of older style folk music that Bluegrass cut its teeth on in the early years. The quiet type of music was well received by all in the audience.

Union Valley came onstage next, and I thought I had seen just about everything there was in Bluegrass. I was really impressed again by the talent onstage. One by one, they did their own recordings of another different style again of Bluegrass. They kept the audience clapping throughout their entire set.

Then, we were treated to another band from Kentucky called Hurley Ridge. Gracie Muldoon made a statement about them, and it was, "Hurleyriginals is hauntingly authentic & original mountain Bluegrass music from the actual hills of Kentucky and should be experienced". Gracie is the General Manager of World Wide Bluegrass on the internet. A couple of the titles from their CD were done, like "No Moon In Kentucky Tonight," "Old Tall Cedar" and "Bluegrass Obsession."

We then were treated to Jordon Run, a group of very talented people headed up by Ron Workman. He owns the farm where Grass Stock has been at for the past three years. They did "Hey Moon," "Dark As The Night" and "Red Clay Halo," just to name a few. I was really impressed by this all star group as they let their voices ring out in the clear Southeast Ohio skies and made everyone in the audience call out for more.

The last group to appear was Lonesome Meadow, a father, daughter and two-son act that has grown in popularity over the past few years. The oldest is Anne Marie, a beautiful red haired musician that plays fiddle as well as mandolin. She does a great job in singing a lot of the harmony with her brothers John and Gary. Gary, by the way, is just 13 and has been sponsored by Bishline Banjos. If you ever get a chance to see these young people at an event, you are in for a treat.

After the stage shows were over, we retreated back to Camp Aussie (Heather Mandich's tent) and listened to many talented artists that came by to pick with them. Three of the artists that were doing a lot of the picking were Jon Eric from Virginia originally, Les Sears, also from Virginia, and Johnny Button from England.

I stayed up until after 2 a.m. listening to them and others that came by to join in on the beautiful songs that were coming from the heart. Oh, by the way, none of these artists had ever played together before and just blended in as if they had been playing concerts for years.

I finally hit the sack around 3 a.m. after being up for yet another 20-hour day. It was just as if I were back on the road again, only I was feeling it a lot more this time.

To be continued ...

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