A Bluegrass Spectacular - Denton, NC 1986

Описание: Sometime in the dark, cold Swedish winter of 1986 I was looking through the annual Bluegrass Unlimited issue with all the festivals listed. For an observer from the 64th Latitude, the traditional cradle of bluegrass music, Ky, Va, NC, WV, SC and Ga... seemed lightyears away. Sorry, of course TN should be part of that list... The list of great BG festivals was endless but there was one that stood out to me. One in Dahlonega, Ga. Both Bill Monroe and Tony Rice were gonna be playing there and I just HAD TO GO…Back in those days I was saying DahloNEEGA with the main stress on the last syllable... I had no Atlas (world map) that was detailed enough to show the geographical location of Dahlonega. I knew where Georgia was but that was about it.
So, I customarily, as it was back in those pre Internet days, went to the city library to find a map over the Southern states. I found Dahlonega after a little search. It was located in the North Ga Hills. The same general area that Norman Blake has described so eloquently and with such beauty in his music. I looked in some encyclopedias etc but didn't learn too much besides finding out about the gold rush era. However, there were definitely no encyclopedic references to one Norman Adams, insurance agent and bluegrass festival promoter, Dahlonega, Ga...
Fast forward to June of that same year. I had decided to take six months off from the academic world and just head over to the States and go to BG Festivals. After that I was planning to get back to the university in Umea. After some time it was clear that the university missed me just as little as I missed them. I was pretty "eat up" with the bluegrass and it took most of my focus, to say the least.
So, in June I flew to Roanoke, Va and spent some time with my old friends from my US trip in 1981, Ken and Debbie Rattenbury and their son, Jack. The Rattenbury's have been running the Fret Mill in Roanoke, Va. Generations of musicians know of the Fret Mill and a tightknit community of friends/students/regulars/ teachers have evolved over the years.
After several days with the Rattenbury's I went up Charlottesville, Va to see another good friend I had met in 1981 at the Fret Mill. That fella is none other than the eminent, Bill Evans who in 1986 was still living in the state of Va and working with Steve Smith, Missy Raines and Charlie Rancke in the band Cloud Valley. Bill was a great visionary already and somebody who had the drive and passion to go far. These days, Bill is one of the best know performers/pedagogues/composers in our music. When I was sick and hospitalized in Owensboro in 1994, Bill was at the same time working with the IBMA and lived in Owensboro. He and Dan Hays would come to see me at the hospital every day.

My next stop was the Snuffy Jenkins festival at Cliffside, NC. Cliffside is another place that is completely ignored in publications for prospective European tourists to the US of A.
Bill took me to the Trailways station in Charlottesville and we said out goodbyes.
When I exited that bus in Charlotte I learned what real heat is. Think about the sensation you get when you are standing near for example a huge heavy duty truck and heat is generated by the engine... that's my first reaction when I stepped off that bus. From the AC on the bus straight out into the hot and muggy North Carolina summer...
I had underestimated the heat and humidity factors in the South when I was planning my trip. As a result here I was, conspicuously dressed in a flannel shirt, blue jeans and clogs carrying a back pack and a fiddle case. Sweating like the proverbial pig accompanied by a seemingly unquenchable thirst, I walked up to a cab and knocked on the window of the driver's side.
I showed him the ad in Bluegrass Unlimited which included a map. “Can you drive me here?” He looked at the map and started to shake his head.
“I dunno, man” ‘’it’s way out there”. Cliffside is located 20 miles North of Spartanburg, SC and 15 miles South of Rutherfordtown, NC (Ruffertown) right off US Highway 22. It took a little negotiating but I paid him in advance with cash so he agreed to take me out there. The distance from Charlotte is roughly 60 miles.
After an uneventful trip, the taxi arrived with its only passenger. I got out of the cab and was immediately greeted by friendly people. ‘’Hey man, you need a drink?’’, or ‘’lemme get ya a T shirt – you are not in the arctic anymore”.
John and Barbara Powel from Greenville, SC invited me to cool off in their camper. While visiting with them I shared my plans to try to get to Dahlonega to which Barbara responded ‘’ I know the guy who is doing sound at Dahlonega next week. I bet you can ride with the sound crew down there. So, when the festival was over I went to Greenville with the hospitable Powell’s and stayed there until the MRH sound truck arrived and I left with Marc Keller for Dahlonega.
MRH sound stand for Milton Ray Harkey Sound