I like to try new things. Living far away from a large city means that I need to try new things on a regular basis to keep from getting bored. When I moved here from New York, I read a lot about SW Virginia to get an idea about what made this region special. I thought, "I'll figure out what this area has that NY doesn't and I'll give it a try!" People wrote a lot about all the great hiking and kayaking and river-y things to do which made me nervous. I knew I was not going to become some hiker because I'm too wimpy for that. Plus, I don't swim. So, now what?
One of the natural resources that Southwest Virginia has in abundance is good bluegrass music, apparently. 'The Crooked Road' is an area in SW VA that people call our state's "heritage music trail". Basically, it's the part of the state where you focus your attention if you want to hear good, live bluegrass. There's even a PBS series that's filmed in SW VA that showcases professional bluegrass musicians so you can get a concert on your couch. I saw some episodes and I thought I'd like to give a live music experience a try!
I've read about The Crooked Trail in various magazines and newspaper articles, especially in the last few years. Hipsters love rediscovering old timey pursuits like farming and beekeeping (Did you read about the guy in Queens who had 30+ beehives housing millions of bees and it was shut down? Thanks to his real estate agent who knew she couldn't sell his house with swarms of bees. Crazyyyyy) and playing banjos and things like that. I think that's why there is a resurgence in interest in bluegrass by young people. Most of these young people are hipsters. This is just a theory but I think it's true. In case you are wondering, I'm not a hipster. "Not that there's anything wrong with that".
Anyway, two weekends ago my boyfriend took me to see a bluegrass jam at the Salem Farmer's Market on a Friday night. There were three pods of people in different corners of the quiet farmer's market next to Roanoke College. Most of the musicians were AARP members and they obviously don't have arthritis issues because they were able to strum their guitars and banjos FAST FAST FAST. I saw a bass, a harmonica or two, and some other instruments that I didn't know exactly what they were. In any case, the music was good! We didn't stay long - maybe 15 minutes total before we went on to our next adventure.
So, last weekend we went to see the Roanoke Fiddle & Banjo Club do their thing at a local high school. They were pretty good. It was hard to get a full appreciation of the music because someone's little girl ~ about 8 years old ~ was an attention whore and was doing interpretive dance a la Twyla Tharp on the side of the stage for no good reason. WTF?! There were a lot of off-key leg lifts, hops, and convulsive actions going on. I wanted to smack that kid off the stage and tell her to find her rhythm. It was obviously missing.
What made the whole scene more annoying was that you could tell the kid was loving it. Not the dancing part, the fact that people's eyes kept drifting towards her. She couldn't see the horror in their eyes, I don't think. Maybe she is jealous of Honey Boo Boo Kitty Child and wants to be her. Ugh.
One of the natural resources that Southwest Virginia has in abundance is good bluegrass music, apparently. 'The Crooked Road' is an area in SW VA that people call our state's "heritage music trail". Basically, it's the part of the state where you focus your attention if you want to hear good, live bluegrass. There's even a PBS series that's filmed in SW VA that showcases professional bluegrass musicians so you can get a concert on your couch. I saw some episodes and I thought I'd like to give a live music experience a try!
I've read about The Crooked Trail in various magazines and newspaper articles, especially in the last few years. Hipsters love rediscovering old timey pursuits like farming and beekeeping (Did you read about the guy in Queens who had 30+ beehives housing millions of bees and it was shut down? Thanks to his real estate agent who knew she couldn't sell his house with swarms of bees. Crazyyyyy) and playing banjos and things like that. I think that's why there is a resurgence in interest in bluegrass by young people. Most of these young people are hipsters. This is just a theory but I think it's true. In case you are wondering, I'm not a hipster. "Not that there's anything wrong with that".
Anyway, two weekends ago my boyfriend took me to see a bluegrass jam at the Salem Farmer's Market on a Friday night. There were three pods of people in different corners of the quiet farmer's market next to Roanoke College. Most of the musicians were AARP members and they obviously don't have arthritis issues because they were able to strum their guitars and banjos FAST FAST FAST. I saw a bass, a harmonica or two, and some other instruments that I didn't know exactly what they were. In any case, the music was good! We didn't stay long - maybe 15 minutes total before we went on to our next adventure.
So, last weekend we went to see the Roanoke Fiddle & Banjo Club do their thing at a local high school. They were pretty good. It was hard to get a full appreciation of the music because someone's little girl ~ about 8 years old ~ was an attention whore and was doing interpretive dance a la Twyla Tharp on the side of the stage for no good reason. WTF?! There were a lot of off-key leg lifts, hops, and convulsive actions going on. I wanted to smack that kid off the stage and tell her to find her rhythm. It was obviously missing.
What made the whole scene more annoying was that you could tell the kid was loving it. Not the dancing part, the fact that people's eyes kept drifting towards her. She couldn't see the horror in their eyes, I don't think. Maybe she is jealous of Honey Boo Boo Kitty Child and wants to be her. Ugh.
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