What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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8 WHAT'S UP! AUGUST 12-18, 2018 Tree Of Life Roots Fest digs deep with legend Del McCoury BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette I f Del McCoury knows he's a legend, it doesn't show in an interview. He doesn't want to talk about how he's changed roots music, but rather how roots music changed him. And at 79 — more than 50 years into his career — there's very little point in trying to rein him in. "My mother could play the piano — and played the pump organ at the church we went to," he remembers. "My music came from her." He started playing guitar at the age of 9, banjo when he was 11 — a decision he credits to the recording of "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms" by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. "I'd never heard a banjo before. I wanted to play that!" He was 23 — he thinks — when he met Bill Monroe, the man he calls the "father of bluegrass." That would make the year about 1962. "When I worked for Monroe, he was traveling in a 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 station wagon," McCoury remembers. "Some of the entertainers in Nashville had buses. But Bill Monroe, he used to have a baseball team in the 1940s. So they'd travel and play all these little towns and put their tent up. They'd play baseball in the afternoon, and that night they'd put on a show. He worked those boys hard — they had to put the tent up, too!" Then McCoury segues into a story about Monroe working alongside the men putting up the tent without ever revealing his identity — a parable of his humility — and explains that when he went to work for Monroe, the fact he could drive a truck got the tour upgraded from a station wagon to a bus — a used bus — illustrating Monroe's frugal nature. "One trip, we left Nashville in it, went to Miami, Fla. — this was before interstates — then to Tampa the next day, from Tampa to New York City, then to Wheeling, W.Va., then to Los Angeles. I think we ran Route 66," McCoury says. "Those were the days!" At that point in time, bluegrass wasn't clearly defined, McCoury says — making no assumption it is now. "They were calling this music bluegrass by that time, but we were playing with the country stars," he says. "Nobody had ever had a bluegrass festival until I started mine." Neither did Bryan Hembree intend to start a five-day event nine years ago. The Fayetteville Roots Festival was a one-off — one day, one year — and Hembree, one of its founders, says it still functions like that in many ways. "We just plan to make this year as good as possible," he says. "Every year, we focus on that year. I don't think we ever set any long-term expectations." COVER STORY Courtesy Photo "The first time I formally met Del was backstage at an event in Nashville back around 2013," says Jenee Fleenor, a Springdale native and a fiddler on tour with Blake Shelton. "He is a giant in bluegrass music, and sometimes I get kind of nervous meeting people I hold in such high regard. Fortunately, most of my musical heroes have been the most down to earth people, and Del most definitely was that! The main reason I wanted to shake his hand was to thank him for cutting a song I co-wrote with well-known bluegrass and country songwriter Larry Cordle that made it onto his 'Streets of Baltimore' album. The record ended up winning a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album in 2014, and the song we wrote is called 'Big Blue Raindrops.' It went to No. 1 on the bluegrass charts, and I was absolutely on cloud nine over the fact that Del cut a song of mine!" FYI Roots Festival Free Programming Aug. 23 7 p.m. — Harlem River Noise, Bike Rack Brewing Co. in Bentonville Aug. 24 10 a.m. — Workshop: Bayard Guitars workshop tour, 9:45 a.m., Chancellor Hotel in Fayetteville Noon — Live KUAF "Ozarks at Large" broadcast, Fayetteville Public Library 2:30 p.m. — Workshop: Kent Bonar, Arkansas botanist, Fayetteville Public Library 7 p.m. — Harlem River Noise, Bike Rack Brewing Co. in Bentonville 9 p.m. — Fayetteville square dance, May Bell Music Aug. 25 10 a.m. — All ages family concert, Fayetteville Public Library 10 a.m. — Workshop: "Know Your Axe" with Jake Herzog, Chancellor Hotel 10 a.m. — Workshop: Crooked Crow songwriting with J Wagner, Chancel- lor Hotel 11:30 a.m. — Live KUAF broadcast, Fayetteville Public Library 1 p.m. — Workshop: Clawhammer banjo with Nathan McAllister, May Bell Music in Fayetteville 2 p.m. — Workshop: Old Time Guitar with Aviva Steigmeyer, May Bell Music 7 p.m. — Lost John, Bike Rack Brewing Co. in Bentonville Aug. 26 Noon — Dana Louise & the Glorious Birds, Maxine's Taproom 1 p.m. — Workshop: Old Time Fiddle with Peter Howard, May Bell Music 1:15 p.m. — Ain't Dead Yet: Woody Guthrie's Message in the 21st Century with Deana McCloud, Joe Purdy, Mary Gauthier & Branjae, Fayetteville Public Library 2 p.m. — Workshop: Old Time Singing with Allison Williams, May Bell Music 5:30 p.m. — Randy Newman Tribute, Maxine's Taproom — Source: therootsfest.org FAQ The Del McCoury Band WHEN — 8:50 p.m. Aug. 23 WHERE — Roots Festival Folk Family Reunion at Pratt Place in Fayetteville COST — Still available via the culinary pass INFO — therootsfest.org