Local fiddler stays busy at Boxcar Pinion Memorial Bluegrass Festival

Flatpicking guitar and folk music legend Norman Blake will be appearing at the Boxcar Pinion Memorial Bluegrass Festival, a three-day event beginning today, May 5, at Raccoon Mountain.

If local champion fiddler John Boulware has a spare set of fingers stashed away somewhere, he might want to dig them out. He's bound to wear out his current set playing with three groups during this weekend's Boxcar Pinion Memorial Bluegrass Festival.

By the time the festival winds down its third and final night at Raccoon Mountain Campground, Boulware will have shared the stage with local groups Slim Pickins and the Hamilton County Ramblers as well as Alabama-based Bent Creek.

Of course, that's in addition to any practices he might need to squeeze in as a member of local swing group the 9th Street Stompers or lessons he has scheduled at the Folk School of Chattanooga.

"I think if any one of those things got much busier than it is right now, it might be an issue, but right now, it stays pretty balanced," the 29-year-old says.

Boulware first began playing music at age 11 after seeing a guitarist play "Smoke on the Water" during a Boy Scout event. Soon thereafter, he received his own six-string and began taking lessons from a local instructor, Cody Kilby, a world-renowned flatpicker. Boulware later added the fiddle - on which he's won several state championships - and that "brought on mandolin, bass and everything else."

For seven years, Boulware has been a leading figure in the progressive/traditional bluegrass ensemble Slim Pickins. About a year and a half ago, he co-founded the Hamilton County Ramblers, a five-piece combining a trio of young guns - Boulware, mandolinist/vocalist James Kee and bassist Josh Hixson - with veteran players Roy Curry, a championship flatpicking guitarist in his own right, and Jim Pankey, who boasts three decades of experience as a bluegrass and old-time banjo player.

Despite the age difference within the lineup, Boulware says the band members are all in sync, both musically and mentally. And although they share a love of a traditional bluegrass sound, they each bring enough quirky nuances to the table that the music stands out from the crowd, Boulware says.

"Jim and I both have a strong history in old-time music, so we both know a lot of old-time fiddle tunes as well as the bluegrass stuff," he says. "Josh and James grew up listening to all kinds of country music, [and] Roy played with the Forester Sisters for years and (Confederate Railroad's) Danny Shirley.

"It all comes back to normal, traditional, straight-ahead bluegrass music with outside influences that make each person's contributions a little more unique."

Tonight, May 5, the Ramblers will warm up the stage for the festival's first headliner, North Georgia folk legend Norman Blake. Sideline and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out will headline Friday and Saturday, May 6-7, respectively.

This year is the Ramblers' second to play Boxcar Pinion, and Boulware says that no matter how overworked he might end up being by its end, he's looking forward to the increasingly rare opportunity to play at a public event that's also local.

"I play out of town a lot, and the in-town gigs I play are often private," he says. "This is a local thing that all of my friends and family who I don't get to see as much get to come and see me play with various bands. It's a good chance to have a bit of a reunion."

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.