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On
the Road with Bill Jorgenson
Discovering the Roots of
Bluegrass
Our October trip to Bluegrass
Country came about though a chance meeting on the Internet, when
Wayne Fetherbay, a talented bluegrass musician and Internet Guru of
unusual music midis invited us to visit him in Morganton, North
Carolina. As the uneventful flight left Milwaukee and arrived in
Greensboro, North Carolina we breathed a sigh of relief. More relief
quickly followed when the instruments arrived safely in one piece. I
guess those stickers with the American Flag and ‘Bluegrass Pickers
support the Airlines’ helped.
Driving through the foothills
of North Carolina to Wayne’s comfortable home in Morganton, a town
of about 17,000; we were treated to the deep blue sky of Carolina.
Wayne chatted about the history of the area and warned us that
everyone would give us the same answer if asked do you play an
instrument? "Oh, I play a little, they would say," and
then pick the heck out of a song.
Saturday was a wonderful day of
Bluegrass and history. It started with a visit to the COOK SHACK in
Union Grove, North Carolina
A little general store in the
Blue Ridge Mountains
(home of the oldest continuous
bluegrass festival in the world). This small and cramped little
store with its wood "liars" stove is one of the most warm
and inviting places I have ever visited. The sign over the door says
it all, "Groceries, cafe, guns, hunting licenses and
ammo!" Pal makes breakfast on a one-griddle stove while you
fill your eyes with the paraphernalia of years and years of musical
artifacts that decorate the walls. The entire rear of the store is
dedicated to music and the Saturday Bluegrass Jam. The sound system
is always on as musicians’ wander in to have breakfast and sit a
spell before breaking out their instruments. The Bluegrass talent is
out of this world. Pal and Myles Ireland, longtime owners of the
store, have been singing together since grade school, have a
wonderful blend together, and sing great western music. Myles is a
very talented musician. No space is wasted in the small store. The
shelves are full of goods and the walls full of pictures of music
icons. And in the back section of the store is the Saturday
Bluegrass Jam. Once they got used to Bill’s funny northern accent
they soon found they liked this bluegrass musician from the North.
One song, Two Little Girls in Blue got Pal out of her kitchen, she
said, "You go way back, first generation, Bill. I haven’t
heard that song in years." Pal gave us a CD of her fine singing
and we left Bill’s new CD (listen on line at
http://www.bjorgensonbluegrass.com)
behind along with a couple of signed Jorgenson bumper stickers to
help adorn the walls of the general store. If you are EVER in Union
Grove the Cook Shack is a MUST stop for all bluegrass pickers. What
a wonderful old store filled with good music and good friends.
After lunch it was back to Morganton and time to visit the Drexel,
NC Barbershop. The Barbershop is really just a front
for a large bluegrass jam that fills the back of the store and
spills out to the hair cutting area. Wonderful mandolin playing
filled the air as old-timer Herb Lambert showed the youngsters how
to do it. Drexel, NC is also the home of the famous Drexel Furniture
Company. All these fellows "play a little bit".
Traditional bluegrass and new tunes traded as the North meet the
South that afternoon. I didn’t know there were 16 versus to Knoxville
Girl. In the evening it was time to revisit with Charlie
Waller and the Country Gentlemen. Bill had played with them two
years ago at Manitowish Waters Wisconsin. The show was great.
Charlie is slowed up a bit with a stroke he suffered last year but
the bluegrass music and style were up to snuff.
Sunday Wayne invited a few of his
friends ‘who could play a little’ over to his house for a
cookout and Bluegrass Jam. Curtis Southall, a fine southern
gentlemen who can play any stringed instrument and about any style
of music was a special new friend to Bill and I. Banjo, bass,
guitar, mandolin players showed up. We even got Wayne going with
harmonica playing.
The next day it was time for travel and
a history lesson. We learned that the song Frankie and Johnny came
from Morganton and that she, Frankie (Francis?) Silvers (correct
spelling Silver), was the only woman ever hanged in North Carolina.
We drove past the old Burke County, NC courthouse and guessed which
tree had been used. It gives the song new meaning when you here the
background.
We got Wayne going on the local
bluegrass history and I was dumfounded to find out that the song Tom
Dooley (Dula is the correct spelling) came from this region and is
indeed buried just outside of Morganton. Tom was a ladies man for
sure and met his end in North Carolina. Coming from a folk
background I hung on every word of the story.
As we headed up the mountainside in
Wayne’s 4-wheel drive truck the paved road was left far behind. We
passed just south of Pilot Mountain where Andy Griffith was born.
Here were one-lane roads and bridges, rushing mountain streams and
small one-room general stores. "Moonshiners would never be
found in these hills," Wayne exclaimed.
I happened to see a sign that said Brown
Mountain off road trail system "Turn here! I cried. "Is
this the Brown Mountain of the song? The Brown Mountain Lights?
Wayne chuckled "We got it all here in North Carolina."
The legend is that a
southern planter got lost in the wild lands and that a trusty old
slave took a lantern and searched for him all over the mountain. And
while they’re both long gone the spirit appears to 
searching and the old
lantern still shines its light.
Local authorities have a number of
theories but the lights still appear and there are even turnouts in
the road where you can park at night to watch the lights – or
engage in other activities.
There is both a folk and a bluegrass
version of the song. It’s great to listen too but takes talented
musicians to perform properly.
Bbback through the mountains we saw
where a flood had devastated the entire town of had devastated the
entire town of Mortimer in 1928 and then again in 1940. Today only
an old boiler with its cement fastenings remained. We continued up
the mountains traveling higher and higher. Beautiful old one-lane
bridges traversed rushing mountain streams.
On to Grandfather Mountain where
you can hike up to a suspension bridge some 6,000 feet up to look
down upon the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mighty pretty I might say. The
air even gets a little thin in these parts.
Here is where Scotty and Lulabelle
Wiseman, Doc and Merle Watson, Raymond Fairchild, Jim Buchanan, the
Crow brothers and on and on call home.
Looking down on the fall colors of the
mountains you could see where the Roots of Bluegrass Lay.
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