Marigold Meadows was literally humming with activity last
weekend with our first annual Lloyd Loar’s Hometown Bluegrass Festival! We couldn’t have asked for a better “first”. We did have a brief downpour of rain, but it
didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of crowd or the musicians. At one point, we counted over 120 attendees
just under the shelter. There were additional
jammers and listeners scattered around the meadow.
Festival Highlights:
- Bluegrass
Express from
- Carol
Jean (Smith) Trulson surprised me with a visit. Carol Jean is the late Oliver Smith’s
daughter. For years, Oliver and his
family hosted the internationally recognized Harmony Pines Bluegrass
Festival in
- We were blessed with several local musicians who were the backbone of the festival, helping with odds and ends from start to finish, filling in when other band members weren’t able to come, etc.
- Fred
and Carol Barrett who are the hosts of the wonderful Bluegrass Festival at
- Members of Bluegrass Express have assisted with other youth programs at various Bluegrass Festivals. They have offered to help us organize youth workshops for our future festivals.
- Phil Belcher was Johnnie-on-the-Spot offering to help as we were getting ready, being our festival photographer and offering a demonstration at the festival of his handmade mountain instruments! What a craftsman he is!
- Steve
Hatfield’s band,
- My sister-in-law, Marcia had an opportunity to bake in her new wood-burning oven that my brother, Art built last winter. Known for miles for her pie baking skills, Marcia’s new oven will bake 16 pies at one time! No one was disappointed in how the oven or Marcia performed!
- Steve
Smith from Barnyard Guitars in
- Tony
Williamson owns a collection of Lloyd Loar mandolins. While he was not able to join us this
year, he sent us CDs at a discounted price to help us raise money to
encourage youth in
- Mark Wheeler, Steve Smith and Bill Kuhn were individual musicians who shared their talents with us.
- Gary, my brother Art & I had the honor of joining in with various musicians.
- We were astounded to have a young man show up in the meadow one day when we were preparing for the festival. He introduced himself and said, “My wife and I think what you are doing is just wonderful and we want to do whatever we can to help.” Pete and Stephanie Scrogum were a God-send to us from that point on and I’m sure they will be an ongoing part of our lives. What a blessing!
Although he desired to be here, due to his traveling
schedule, we missed the opportunity by about 24 hours to have the Lloyd Loar’s
historian, Roger Siminoff join us. Roger
owns several of Lloyd Loar’s instrument prototypes, blueprints, compositions
etc. As everyone’s “go to” man regarding
Lloyd Loar, Roger has been very encouraging and helpful from start to
finish. Hopefully, Roger will be able to
join us next year with his historical presentation about the musical genius,
Lloyd Loar.
There is no doubt in my mind that next year’s festival will
be even better. Musicians are already
lining-up to join us on stage, as well as offering to hold workshops, etc. Festival attendees are already spreading the
word and we learned a thing or two that will hopefully make our future
festivals even more enjoyable for everyone.
Mark your calendars for the last Friday, Saturday and Sunday in
June. You won’t wanna miss it and we’d
love to have you!
Whole-Heartedly,
Bonnie
P.S. Please
feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder
or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/. You may also contact me at:
Bonnie
Jaeckle
In Search
of the Whole-Hearted Life
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