Fiddler’s Grove Old Time Music and Fiddle Festival
Driving may be my least favorite part of RVing. Sitting in a seat for hours on end, constantly scanning your surroundings, navigating a large vehicle through unfamiliar territory – all the necessary aspects of taking your home on the road are certainly not the most enjoyable. That’s the main reason we try to limit the length of our travel days, with a four-hour drive as our general upper limit for a day on the road (and even that would be considered a long drive for us). We will, however, break this rule on rare occasions when self-imposed time schedules require us to do so. And so it was that we set out on a seven-hour trek as we left Florida with our overnight destination awaiting just outside of Columbia, South Carolina thereby placing us within easy striking distance of Union Grove, North Carolina and our first fiddler’s convention on the following day.
We blew the proverbial dust off of our Harvest Hosts membership and chose a participating winery tucked out of the way and (more importantly) open on the day we wished to arrive. We called a couple of days prior to request advance permission to park overnight (the Harvest Hosts program recommends calling 24 hours in advance of your arrival) so we knew the owner would be expecting us. Despite the arduous journey up the interstate, we arrived in plenty of time to enjoy a tasting, tour the property, and start building a tiny stockpile of locally-produced wines as we once again traverse the eastern side of the country. We will not, however, be planning another seven-hour driving day anytime soon.
The Winery at Mercer House is owned and operated by a single person who assumes the responsibilities of tending the vineyards, entertaining customers, producing the wines, bottling the finished product, and tackling every other task required to run a business. He somehow managed to find the time to chat with us as he poured samples of every wine he had available – from traditional muscadine (although much less sweet than typically found in the south, thankfully) to more adventurous varieties like roasted strawberry, apple pie (made with real apple pies), and even a Bloody Mary-inspired offering. The conversation rolled smoothly as he entertained us with stories of the local area and his life before the winery (turns out he plays jazz and classical guitar – although he says “used to”). Corky, the friendly vineyard dog, wandered around the farmstead and met us as we exited the tasting room with a few bottles filled and corked on demand from large serving pouches (similar to what you’d find in a boxed wine but bigger).
The late afternoon sky was overcast and threatening rain so we took the immediate opportunity to wander the mile-long trail wrapping around the property which winds through the vineyard, along a treeline, and past the winery buildings. You pass a couple of small ponds filled with croaking frogs and birds flying through the treetops, providing excellent areas to simply enjoy your surroundings along with a glass of Mercer House wine. When the rain shower started, we passed the rest of the evening in the RV happy to once again be on the road, despite the necessary task of actually having to drive.
We’ve mentioned this many times before, but if you’re an RVer looking for unique places to stay in your travels and are equipped for dry camping (without using hookups), we highly recommend the Harvest Hosts program. It’s an inexpensive annual membership with the option to upgrade and include golf courses if you enjoy golfing, and it gives you the ability to discover and visit places you may not have found otherwise. Your Harvest Hosts membership likely won’t save you money on camping since the premise of the program is that you’ll support the businesses while you’re parked there – the Hosts don’t receive any money from the Harvest Hosts organization. But it creates the opportunity to travel with more interesting overnight options and opens new doors to interacting with the people you meet along the way. If you’re interested in joining, you can save 15% off a new membership by using our referral link and following the instructions: http://harvesthosts.refr.cc/nathanashleyh
Poor Cecil was still covered in dead lovebugs the next morning, which was a condition we needed to remedy before parking in the blazing sun of an open field for the next few days. We found a Blue Beacon truck wash outside of Columbia as we left the next morning and pulled in behind the few tractor trailers waiting in line. I would not recommend taking a Class C RV to this kind of auto wash on a regular basis, but we were desperate and this was exactly what we needed. The team at the car wash wielded pressurized water guns which made short work of the dried, sticky lovebug carcasses. We also discovered the outdoor LED strip under the awning wasn’t properly attached as it was quickly blown off by a quick pass with one of the hoses. Awesome. When the crew finished, we tucked the strip into the entry door (it was still wired in through the wall) and pulled out into the parking lot to reattach the strip. I climbed on the roof and Ashley fed the strip up to me while I tucked it back into the track and jammed the rubber ends into place. The temporary fix held until we could do something more permanent, a job that would wait until we reached a state park after the fiddler’s convention.
We arrived in Union Grove around noon on a Thursday and pulled into Fiddler’s Grove a day before the actual festival was slated to begin. Ed and Theresa – the couple we met in Savannah, Georgia way back in 2017 – had also just arrived and Theresa guided us to their parking area in the open field. Fiddler’s Grove has limited hookup spaces which really only include a 15-amp electrical outlet, so we chose to dry camp for the weekend. Each day was sunny, so we got good use out of our solar panels – but the temperatures also reached the high 80s. The main appeal of an electric hookup would have been to run the AC, but that requires a 30-amp outlet. So we just sucked it up and spent a few sweaty nights lying in bed until it cooled off enough to fall asleep. Generator use is only allowed in the field area directly beside the entrance, and this is where the vendors and performing bands usually park (not that we’d use our generator just for AC anyway, but that’s how we choose to RV). Fiddler’s Grove has plenty of space to camp under the cover of trees, but the ground isn’t very level and more suited to tent camping. Something to keep in mind for the future.
Ever since meeting Ed and Theresa in Savannah, I’ve wanted to visit these Old Time and bluegrass festivals scattered through the Appalachians, especially since playing the mandolin much more over the past winter in the Keys. Ashley has also been interested to some degree, so the festivals became our main focus when deciding what kind of traveling we wanted to do this year. Neither of us have ever attended a festival like this, nor have we grown up with this type of music as a part of our daily lives (like so many people through rural Appalachia have). Theresa was kind enough to share some information with us in advance about the various festivals, so we at least had some idea of what to expect. We were also grateful to see two familiar faces when we arrived, both willing to give us the lay of the land and ease us into the festival experience.
At this point I should probably point out that these festivals aren’t like the huge festivals (Bonnaroo, Firefly, Lollapalooza, CMA Fest, etc.) that you might recognize. These experiences are more accurately described as conventions – maybe even reunions – where the focus is on playing music with the other attendees and maybe entering into the individual competitions, rather than wading into a gigantic mob while trying to catch a glimpse of Dave Matthews or Childish Gambino on a stage a hundred yards away. Plenty of bands play on stage, for sure, but the viewing experience is much more relaxed – more like listening to the music at a small neighborhood picnic where everyone brings lawn chairs and sits under the trees in front of the small bandstand. And you can still find hopping party areas under a canopy or maybe around a campfire after the sun goes down if that’s what you’re after.
Old-time music is early North American folk music that reflects the cultures of the non-native settlers with roots reaching to the British Isles, Europe, and Africa. The music originally developed in conjunction with folk dancing (square dancing, clogging, etc.) and provided the live musical soundtrack for hours of entertainment before the invention of the radio, television, or even electricity for that matter. While traditional Celtic or British folk tunes may have been the basis for early Old-time, new songs were created throughout Appalachia and have been passed along by ear over the decades. If you’ve heard the tunes “Old Joe Clark” or “Arkansas Traveler” (which you might recognize the melody that was used in the children’s song about bringing home a baby bumblebee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me), then you’ve heard Old-time songs. Here are a few links for more examples – Valley Forge, Soldier’s Joy, Real (or Rare) Old Mountain Dew.
Fiddle and banjo are the most traditional instruments played in Old-time, which is why many of these conventions are referred to as “fiddle festivals”. Mandolin, guitar, and bass now frequently appear in Old-time bands, as well as the occasional non-traditional percussion instrument like spoons or washboard. Old-time musicians typically play the same melody (with maybe guitar or mandolin providing percussive accompaniment) all at the same time. This was originally to be heard above the din of dancers in a barn or outdoors since a lone instrument was simply too quiet to ring out above the crowd.
Bluegrass sprang from Old-time with the invention of amplification. Performers could now be heard individually within the group, stepping forward to take improvised solos rather than playing variations on the same theme to keep the dancers stepping as in Old-time. This is a distinct marker between musical styles for some people, but bluegrass music is filled with Old-time tunes and the styles sound similar to an unfamiliar listener. But Fiddler’s Grove is more about traditional Old-time, so I’ll save further stylistic discussion for a future article.
Fiddler’s Grove features band performances for entertainment as well as competition, along with individual instrument competitions throughout the weekend. This is a small festival and the competitors were fairly young (even in the “Adult” category) with the exception of the fiddle competition, which had the largest age range. I’m still a firm beginner on the mandolin, especially after seeing multiple teenagers play it as well as any professional. After the bands finished, people gathered on Friday and Saturday nights for a traditional dance led by two different dance groups. Each group performed then invited the audience on stage and guided the assembled crowd through a few dances while a band played Old-time music from the side of the stage.
Multiple workshops were scheduled throughout the day Saturday and I attended the mandolin session in the morning. Jon Boerger hosted the mandolin workshop, and he’s not only an incredible musician, but also very friendly and willing to help players of all levels. I also attended the afternoon songwriting workshop hosted by Jim Avett (yes, the father of The Avett Brothers) which was both informative and entertaining. These two workshops were worth the entire visit to the festival to me.
In between bands, competitions, workshops, and a little practice, I joined Ed and Theresa to play through some Irish and Old-time tunes (now that I’m slightly better than I was when we first met) along with a steady stream of their friends they’ve met over the years. The best way to learn Old-time tunes is to find people playing them and listen – so that’s what I did while playing the chord changes in the background. They were kind enough to host a potluck dinner one evening, which we were happy to join. I’m far from having the skills to enter a competition any time soon, but this first festival was a perfect introduction to the world of Old-time. We stayed through Sunday night after nearly everyone else had packed up and departed. The Grove was almost silent that night, with the sounds of chirping crickets and croaking frogs that echoed through the trees from the pond below replacing the raucous fiddle and banjo melodies from the night before. Just like that our first fiddle festival drew to a close, getting our ears and expectations attuned for the future stops along our route.
SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OLD-TIME MUSIC: