MusicFest 'n Sugar Grove at the Doc Watson Museum
All photos and illustrations by Pat Johns ©2007
|
|
The music began at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 13 and continued into late night Saturday the 14th. Crowd favorites The Kruger Brothers and Amantha Mill were joined this year by the Steep Canyon Rangers and Jim Lauderdale and for the first time in a few years, Doc Watson. Admission to the Music Fest also included access to the Doc and Merle Watson Folk Art Museum inside the Old Cove Creek School with its collection of Doc and Merle Watson memorabilia. All of the proceeds from the MusicFest benefit the museum. |
 
Recommended Listening:Steep Canyon Rangers: One Dime At a Time " Audio CDClick on the CD cover at right to learn more at Amazon.com Review from Amazon.com (see link below) : "Although there are no overnight success stories in the field of bluegrass, the Steep Canyon Rangers have come a long way since turning professional in 2001. Graham Sharp (banjo & vocals), Woody Platt (guitar & vocals) and Charles Humphrey III (upright bass) met while they were students at the University of North Carolina, drawn together by their love of acoustic music. As their impromptu jams progressed, they were drawn more and more to bluegrass and started learning the genre’s classic tunes. Mike Guggino, a friend of Platt’s, joined on mandolin & vocals shortly thereafter and the band started gigging regularly (note: fiddler Nicky Sanders joined the group in 2004). Since none of them had ever been in a band before, they felt free to blaze their own path, generating most of their own material and creating a style all their own. By the time they graduated, they were getting enough gigs to eschew the 9 to 5 life and become full time musicians. Their first three albums; Old Dreams & New Dreams, Mr. Taylor’s New Home and Steep Canyon Rangers; all combined carefully chosen covers with ten or more originals by band members. One Dime At A Time follows their winning formula with another collection of diverse, mostly self-penned material guaranteed to please long time fans and introduce younger listeners to the high, lonesome sound of bluegrass, one of America’s most unique art forms.." Crowd-pleasing newcomers to this years' event were the Steep Canyon Rangers, a group which formed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The group received numerous standing ovations from the audience. Their fine talent, fresh sound and great showmanship made them a standout. |
"Over the last 50 years the guitar has had a very powerful influence on American music. Predominantly a rhythm instrument at the turn of the century, the guitar began to step out of the rhythm section in the 1930s and 40s and has maintained a dominant presence in every form of music from rock, to folk, to country, bluegrass, blues and old-time. While Elvis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and other pop icons of the 50s and 60s certainly played a large role in bolstering the guitar's popularity, the man who has had the deepest, most enduring and most profound influence on the way the acoustic flat top guitar is played as a lead instrument in folk, old-time and bluegrass music today is Arthel "Doc" Watson." ~ "A Biography of Doc Watson" by Dan Miller, edited by Steve Carr (see link below) "Most guitarists don't have to rummage through their memories for long to recall the first time and place they heard Doc Watson. For young flatpicking phenom Bryan Sutton, it was the Stomping Ground in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, when he was about ten years old. "He was the first guitar player I ever saw live who was doing what I was trying to do," Sutton recalls. "I'd never heard anybody flatpick like that." |
Early on Saturday morning the gathering crowd was treated to a performance by 11-year old "violinist/fiddler" Maura Shawn Scanlin who lives just down the road in the Cove Creek Community. Maura Shawn performed Celtic music on the main stage and then lead the audience (see photo at right) to the new Southern Exposure's Solar Stage where she performed again ! Maura Shawn performs with 2 other young violinists/fiddlers in the group they call The Forget~Me~Knots. According to her biography on their website (see link below) she began playing the violin in 1999 and currently studies at the Appalachian State University Community Music School. According to the site, " She enjoys playing soccer, swimming, horseback riding, gardening, reading, drawing, and painting in addition to her musical interests." |
Bald Guy Brew roasted coffee beans and provided hot coffee to the crowd on both unusually cool evenings. Links to references in this article and to sites related to the MusicFest in Sugar Grove: |
