Ever since we unloaded
our trailer from IBMA last October it has sat dormant in the corner of our back
parking lot, patiently waiting the soothing sounds of birds chirping, lawn
mowers and banjo music! The 2014 festival season is finally among us and it
seems to have arrived as fast as it left us last October as Gill and I drove
home from Raleigh, NC. As we began planning for this year’s season we were all
very set on making it to a couple festivals that we had not been able to attend
in the last few years.
Last year was an epic
festival season for both Capo’s Music Store and the bluegrass community. From
the cold misty rain in Galax for HoustonFest, the Mount Airy Old-Time and
Bluegrass Fiddlers Convention and a beautiful weekend with Ralph Stanley up on
the mountain for the Hills of Home Festival. The famous first full week in
August and my personal favorite week of the year is always spent in Felts Park
for the Galax Fiddlers convention. The 12 hour days I spend in our booth for
the store are always paid off with a nights of jamming with friends from across
the country that I only see once a year. As the year moves on through late summer,
we are blessed to be right down the road from one of music’s best kept secret
and a music festival unlike any other, Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion. It has gained a huge attendance and has seen
the likes of Steep Canyon Rangers, Sam Bush, Tony Rice and many more bluegrass
and Americana greats, grace the stages on and around State Street. The weekend
spent in Bristol is special, having some of the world’s greatest bands come to
our back yard instead of us going to them for once.
It seemed that as soon
as we got the trailer unloaded from Rhythm and Roots, Gill and I were headed
down to IBMA and the World of Bluegrass 2013. This was my first experience
attending IBMA and was very impressed with how welcoming the city of Raleigh
was to the bluegrass community. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and I got
straight to business, catching Balsam Range and The Boxcars back to back in a
little hole in the wall venue downtown. Again, spending three days stuck at our
booth was worth all the new friends we met, music we played and history we got
to witness. The Awards Ceremony offered up the biggest moment our music world
has witnessed in many years. Seeing Tony Rice not only play for the first time
in years but talk in his normal voice put goose bumps on the whole room and
gave everyone hope that one day, Tony will be back on stage not only playing
but singing!
Festivals have become
much more than an excuse to drive too far or stay up way too late to listening and
playing music for me. A music festival is a place where you make friends with
the family that is camped beside you or you share a tent with another fan while
listening to your favorite band in the blazing sun. I have never been part of a
closer bunch of fans than the bluegrass world. I have ran into the same people
that attend Bristol Rhythm and Roots and been sitting right beside them on a
city bus after a day at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco,
CA. I have stood beside a group of friends listening to The Infamous
Stringdusters at Telluride Bluegrass Festival and they have walked into Capo’s
Music Store the next week. Do yourself a favor and get out there this season
and attend a festival and experience what I have grown to love over the past
few years of my life. Don’t forget to look for Capo’s while you’re there too!
-Emory
