Friday is for Fiddling (or Banjo too)

We had a great Alive After Five last night, even after the weather and the severe storm siren conspired to scare folks away. Steep Canyon Rangers were even better than I'd expected. On top of being great musicians performing mostly their own original music, the band members were probably the best dressed group on our series in some time. And given how hot things were before the frontal system blew through, I was amazed they were willing to wear jackets for even a few seconds.

The audience included more than a few folks who were visiting from out of town, and I think we had some local folks who might not have been to one of our events in some time. I think we were lucky on the weather since it cooled things down about 5 - 10 degrees, and even luckier to get such a great band here when they are routinely playing big festivals. On top of that they've been playing with the original wild and crazy guy (Steve Martin) for some well-received performances in Los Angeles and New York City.

And we're blessed to be getting a second night of live music of greatness! Native son Earl Scruggs is back in town to perform tonight on the Malcolm Brown stage. Everyone's heard Earl on records to MP3's and seen him on TV, heard him on radio, but this will be the first time for me to experience him in person. I put him in the category of Bluegrass Legend, and I'm glad to be adding him to a life-list of people like Ralph Stanley, Grandpa Jones, and Doc Watson that I've seen up close in great performances.

While it might be unusual to get such high quality performances in rapid fire succession, we oughtto be getting used to having more live music in our community. When Art of Sound comes back around, and then the Don Gibson Theater opening, we will be a regional center for live music.

But you don't just build a theater and become a musical draw for 100 mile radius. it turns out that Shelby and other key pockets of the foothills are traditionally hotbeds of music. It turns out that I grew up in another one of those pockets up in Surry County, just south of the Virginia line. Shelby is just north of the state line, so maybe there's some magic in those imaginary lines on the map!