ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

Tennessee: Bluegrass fest celebrates local history

By: Ben Benton
(Contact)

Included in this article

Ruth Fleming
John McWilliams

DUNLAP, Tenn. — Bluegrass music will drift into the air tonight at the Dunlap Coke Ovens.

The Bluegrass in the Sky Festival will raise money to engrave a monument to deceased musicians who helped revive the Coke Ovens site as a piece of local history, organizer John R. McWilliams said.

The monument will be dedicated at 10 a.m. CDT Saturday and music will begin at noon, Mr. McWilliams said. The 14 to 16 bands will include young musicians and well-known local veterans.

It’s important to draw in younger people to learn about bluegrass and its history, said Mr. McWilliams, 79.

“We try to encourage them when they come to the festivals,” he said. “You can just about tell the ones that are going to be interested in it. Most of it comes from family tradition.”

Bledsoe County’s Fleming family is carrying on a tradition that grew out of classical music, said Ruth Fleming, mother of six bluegrass players ages 12 to 23.

Mrs. Fleming, a northern transplant who married a Sequatchie Valley native, said she brought her love of classical music to Tennessee.

Their oldest daughter, Dianna, was a 9-year-old violin player when the Flemings moved here.

“I learned the difference between a violin and a fiddle,” Mrs. Fleming laughed. “A violin has strings, a fiddle has ‘strangs.’”

Mrs. Fleming said local resident Ed Brown taught her daughter violin, then taught all of her children to play bluegrass.

Robert Fleming, 19, started learning banjo 10 years ago and hopes to become part of the bluegrass and mountain music legacy.

“I’ll definitely take up that role,” he said. “I love to talk with men that are my father’s age rather than my own peer group.

“I don’t see as many younger musicians, at least not in the past few years,” he said. “I think it’s something the younger generation would enjoy if they understood it a little more.”

Mr. McWilliams said the Fleming family will play both days of the festival.

“I don’t play myself, but I know good music,” he said. “They’re outstanding.”

.

Comments