The 38th annual MerleFest this past weekend was one for the books.
For decades, music fans have descended upon the town of Wilkesboro, NC – situated in the foothills beneath the Blue Ridge Mountains – at the end of April for a renowned bluegrass-centric music festival. Founded in 1988 by legendary bluegrass artist Doc Watson – who resided in nearby Deep Gap – MerleFest was started as a tribute for Watson’s late son Merle. A spectacular musician in his own right, Merle Watson had tragically passed away a few years earlier at just 36 years old following a tractor accident.
A dry festival held on the grounds of Wilkes Community College, MerleFest offers a family-friendly experience where everyone in attendance is focused on the music rather than the party, and while I love a rowdy music festival as much as the next guy, it makes for a uniquely special environment to appreciate the world-class musicians taking the stage and carrying on the Watsons’ legacy.
Having trailblazed his own bluegrass sound with his virtuosic flatpicking guitar style, Watson always maintained that MerleFest was intended to be a “traditional-plus” festival, a term he and Merle often used to describe their traditional bluegrass “plus whatever other styles we were in the mood to play.” Accordingly, the lineup has always included country, blues, and roots rock artists amidst a who’s who of bluegrass’ top talent. And this year’s lineup was no exception.
Charles Wesley Godwin headlined the Watson Stage on Night 1 this past Thursday, Old Crow Medicine Show headlined Friday, Blackberry Smoke on Saturday, and Alison Krauss & Union Station wrapped things up on Sunday. The festival featured nearly 100 different artists and bands across the four-day event, many of whom played multiple sets across 10+ stages.
I was lucky to be in attendance on Saturday for a particularly stacked lineup that in addition to Blackberry Smoke and Old Crow Medicine Show featured legendary bluegrass acts like Sam Bush and Railroad Earth as well as a slew of other must-hear bands from every corner of the “traditional-plus” scene. As always, deciding on an efficient schedule that allows me to see as many artists as possible was a difficult task, and I inevitably had to miss some artists I wanted to see. Nevertheless, I was able to catch 14 different acts in 16 sets on Saturday, and even found the time to catch up with a few of my favorite bands on the line up.
Asking each band similar questions about MerleFest, bluegrass, and everything else they have going on, I kicked off the day by chatting with The Wilder Blue before the first note of the day was even played, caught up with Valley Flower after their blistering set, and sat down with Old Crow Medicine Show’s bassist and founding member Morgan Jahnig later in the afternoon. Check out what everyone had to say here:
Old Crow Medicine Show:
Of all the bands on MerleFest’s lineup, these guys don’t need an introduction. One of the festival’s most beloved bands, Doc Watson and his daughter discovered OCMS in 2000 busking outside of Boone Drug in Boone, NC, and Doc’s invitation to join the MerleFest lineup that year was their first big break. To say the band has a deep connection with the festival would be an understatement. After headlining the previous night, they drew a massive crowd to a side stage Saturday afternoon, creating a scene that you just had to see for yourself to appreciate its magnitude. Here’s what bassist Morgan Jahnig had to say:
Q: I caught the first few songs of your set over on the Hillside Stage. I know Old Crow is a big deal everywhere, and especially at MerleFest, but man I couldn’t even find a place to stand in front of the stage it was so packed. I had to just listen from the parking lot.
A: “Yeah, it’s great. We were just talking about how when we come back—because we headlined the main stage last night—part of us just wants to go headline the Hillside Stage. It’s such a great place. Years ago, that was the pinnacle of what we ever wanted to do, was play the Hillside Stage.
Early on, we famously created our own stage here at MerleFest called the fountain stage, about 25 years ago. And we actually were asked to leave at one point because there was a certain corn byproduct we had brought onto campus that is forbidden. But it was probably four or five years ago they actually had us come back and recreate the fountain stage.
So we we were kind of banned from MerleFest for several years, and when they had us back, they really let us know that we had to earn our way back. We were doing school visits, clinics, playing multiple sets a day. They got their money’s worth out of Old Crow. But we’ve always loved coming back here and to the Hillside Stage.”
Q: What does it mean for y’all to be such a big part of a festival like MerleFest that honors Doc and Merle Watson and the other bluegrass greats that have come before you? I know that Doc is a particularly influential figure for your band in the first place.
A: “Doc was the flashpoint, he’s really the reason we got anywhere. For Doc to see us on the streets of Boone and invite us to MerleFest—that first year we got kicked out—that was one of the most important things we had. He was a legend of bluegrass music stopping to hear us outside of Boone Drug with his daughter, and lifting us up and giving us a platform. That was the first big thing that we were able to hang our hat on.
We were just talking that in two years, it’s going to be 40 years of MerleFest and 30 years of Old Crow. So to still be doing it this long in the tooth, we love coming here and seeing everybody. We were also just saying that we tour a ton, but places like this, at MerleFest, is the time that we get to see so many people we know and love and get to hang out. You know, the road is a lonely place but a festival like MerleFest is family.”
Q: What other artists here at MerleFest are you excited to see?
A: “Of course Molly Tuttle last night—we love Molly. I mean, she’s about to really be family. Jim Lauderdale was just ahead of us on the Hillside Stage, and we’ve known him forever. Donna the Buffalo is here, Donna was a big part of the early days. Especially Richie Stearns, he actually sat in with us on a couple of tours when we were down a banjo player.
AJ Lee was with us for New Year’s this last year. Maggie Rose. That’s the thing, is that there’s this opportunity to see a lot of friends, like I said, but then we’re doing this late night Grand Ole Opry thing tonight, where Old Crow is playing with a lot of people as the Opry band. We’re playing with Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke. Jake Shimabukuro, a ukelele virtuoso, we get to play with him. Then there’s others like DUG, and The Creekers, who were also on one of our New Year’s shows last year. They blew us away, we were so impressed.”
Q: Are there any bands coming up in your scene, whether they are at MerleFest or not, that you think people need to know about?
A: “Yeah, there’s a great singer-songwriter out of Montana named Madeline Hawthorne who is unbelievably great. We’re going to be doing a couple of shows with her out West. She’s about to put another record out this year and I did get to work on that with her. It’s fantastic, she’s so good. Vinnie Paolizzi is another great guy out of Nashville. The Creekers, like I had said, we had heard about them but never really seen them until they knocked our socks off when we did.”
Q: What’s next for Old Crow?
A: “On June 5th, our album ‘Union Made’ is coming out. It’s celebrating the semi-sesquicentennial, the 250th anniversary of our country. It’s a lot of songs about what we thing makes our country great and uplifts everybody that’s in it. It’s a particularly important record for me because I produced this record. Except for one song, I didn’t play on it. This was an exciting opportunity for me to exercise a different muscle and work with the the guys in different ways than just being the guy on the base.
I think it’s genuinely the best batch of songs that we’ve had in a while. And we have some great guests on it. Molly’s all over it, we have Maggie Rose, we’ve got Ray Benson from Asleep at the Wheel, Evan Felker. Luke Combs’ was a co-writer on a tune that just came out. On this record we got to work with Del McCoury for the first time in a long time. Del was so influential in our early days… I’m really looking forward to everyone getting to hear this album and to getting to play these songs live.
The Wilder Blue:
I had the pleasure of hanging with four of the five members of The Wilder Blue before their first set ever as a band at MerleFest. A road-dogging country outfit from the Lone Star State, their fifth bandmate and co-founder Paul Eason was catching some much-needed rest after driving the band into town. Nevertheless, frontman Zane Williams, drummer Lyndon Highes, bassist Sean Rodriguez, and multi-instrumentalist Andy Rogers had plenty of commentary. After having played the festival as a solo act in 2006, it took Williams 20 years to get back to MerleFest, and he celebrated his return with two killer sets full of cinematic songs and their iconic harmonies.
Q: What does it mean to y’all to be playing at a festival like MerleFest that honors Doc and Merle Watson and the other bluegrass greats that have come before you?
A: Andy – “We’ve been talking about how a lot of bluegrass festivals— Telluride [Bluegrass Festival] or MerleFest—we’ve been wanting to get in to them and play for those groups of human beings that like to come and see this kind of music. Especially festivals like this where you’ve got Blue Highway then Blackberry Smoke and you’re going back and forth between acoustic and rock and roll, there’s a bunch of stuff going on at these kinds of festivals. A lot of times in Texas and other places you just have a country festival where it’s all the same type of band for the entire day. These places open people up to a lot of new stuff.”
Zane – “Probably would have been around 2006 or something, I won 3 out of 4 categories in [MerleFest’s] songwriting contest. Bluegrass was the category I didn’t win – country, gospel, and general. And I haven’t been back here since then, so I’ve really been looking forward to this for a long time.”
Q: Do any of y’all have a favorite bluegrass musician?
A: Andy – “I have several thousand. Of course Rob Ickes, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, The Punch Brothers. All that stuff. Old school wise, I’m a big Flatt & Scruggs fan.”
Lyndon – “I’ve been listening to The Earl Scruggs Revue a bunch.”
Andy – “Yeah, Earl Scruggs Revue was sort of the first electric bluegrass band almost. At the big barn dance we met his drummer, so we’ve all got into The Earl Scruggs Revue albums which is really cool.”
Zane – “I’m a big Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott fan. And Del McCoury, New Grass Revival.”
Q: Are there any bands coming up in your scene, whether they are at MerleFest or not, that you think people need to know about?
A: Andy – “We saw The Kruse Brothers in Nashville the other night, they’re pretty good. We like Bottomland, some of the bands we’ve had open for us.”
Sean – “I like the West Texas Exiles, I’m trying to get them back on the road with us.”
Zane – “I don’t know if you can consider Trey Hensley up and coming, but I’ve always thought he should be bigger than he is. So I’m looking forward to hanging with him today.”
Q: What’s next for The Wilder Blue?
Zane – “New music, man. We’re going to drop a single that’s standalone and then hopefully a full new album soon.”
Lyndon – “We’re road dogging it pretty hard this summer too, all over the country. And even Canada”
Sean – “If they let us in.”
Valley Flower:
Valley Flower is an eclectic five-piece outfit from Austin, TX whose bluegrass-centric sound boasts elements of jam, Americana, and rock. A killer live band fronted by Rose Lichtenfels, Valley Flower pulled off the difficult task of captivating a crowd of unfamiliar fans with their strong set of original music. The highlight for me, though, was the decision made by banjo picker Scott Stegall – a fellow North Carolina native – to rip a cover of Doc Watson’s take on the traditional track “The Cuckoo,” as seen in the Instagram video beneath the interview. Valley Flower is one of my favorite up-and-coming bluegrass bands at the moment, and I highly recommend you hop on the train, too.
Q: What does it mean to y’all to be playing at a festival like MerleFest that honors Doc and Merle Watson and the other bluegrass greats that have come before you?
A: “People who love bluegrass have a real reverence for the tradition and the legacy. I think something that’s so inherent to humanity is the folk aspect of passing stories or sounds or styles. It’s such an American tradition – whether it’s architecture, or music, or something else – passing these down to evolve over time. We [the band members] are all such students of the greats, we’re academic in that way. So for that influence to wind up in our music in a way that we’re invited to play MerleFest feels validating. It’s like we’re a part of the current that’s being passed through and we’re helping carry it forward.”
Q: Are there any bluegrass artists that have been particularly influential for you all or maybe even inspired you to start this band?
A: Rose – “Yeah, for me, some big ones in the last year have actually been Doc Watson and Ralph Stanley. I’ve been trying to write stuff that feels old and kind of has the gospel sound of Ralph. Then some of the darker stuff from Doc has influenced me a lot as well… And Peter Rowan, he’s foundational with Old & in the Way. The beginning of “Mountain Don’t Care” is like quintessentially Peter Rowan.
Jonah (fiddle) – “East Nash Grass. Dan Tyminski. I’m not really allowed to say this around here, but I don’t really love all of the super old founding father stuff. Ronnie Bowman. The ’90s stuff is what I really love.”
Q: Are there any artists here at MerleFest whose set you’re excited to catch?
A: “Peter Rowan. We love Sam Bush. Obviously we’re sad to miss Alison Krauss tomorrow night. Buffalo Traffic Jam, our agents book them too so that will be fun.”
Q: I’m sure for a lot of people in the crowd, this set was their first time hearing of Valley Flower. How do you approach a set like that?
A: “Heaters only, haha. A lot of it depends on things like what keys work for our banjo player, so there’s some structure to it, but we also want to show all sides of what we do. We’re not really just one genre, so to give people the whole Valley Flower experience is to play our heady stuff, to play our very grassy stuff, to play our more folk/country stuff to hit all sides of our sound. And of course end with a banger.”
Q: What’s next for Valley Flower?
A: “We’re about to announce our next tour to support the album in July, and the title track off our next record is coming out at the end of next month.”
MerleFest just seems to get better and better each year, and I can’t wait for the next one. Along with these three bands, I was able to catch a ton of great artists during their sets throughout the day, all of whom I have listed below. If you’re not already familiar with any of these names, I strongly suggest you check them out. All were spectacular, as tends to be the case at MerleFest.
AJ Lee & Blue Summit
Blackberry Smoke
Buffalo Traffic Jam
DownRiver Collective
Jason Scott & the High Heat
Ketch Secor
Maggie Rose
Old Crow Medicine Show
Railroad Earth
Sam Bush Band
The Creekers
The Wilder Blue
Trey Hensley
Valley Flower
