The Low-Tech Times

Bluegrass is an old-fashioned, low-tech genre of music played on acoustic instruments. Typically, the sound features bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and harmony vocals.

This weekend, a friend of mine working for the Prince William County, Virginia government is putting on a bluegrass festival to benefit historic preservation efforts at Bristoe Station Battlefield. The lineup for the show includes:

• Skystone — a great traditional band I’ve seen many times at Tiffany Tavern in Old Town Alexandria
• The Blue Ridge Ramblers — a band originating from southwest Virginia. I’ve never heard their music, but I have heard good things about them
• The Page County Ramblers — another band I’ve never heard perform
• Leon Morris — I’ve never heard him perform, but I understand he’s a longtime local performer

Here is additional information on the festival:

Prince William County Bluegrass Festival

Phone: 540-895-0247, Email: mwmdjm@aol.com
PWC Fairgrounds Route 234 , Manassas, Va
Phone: 571-749-7156
Time: 11a-4p Saturday, June 14, 2008

Also, the DC Bluegrass Union calendar is showing that Dr. Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys are playing on Friday, June 13, 2008 at the Strasburg Theater in Strasburg, Va and on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA. Dr. Ralph Stanley is truly a living legend in bluegrass music whose popularity has surged in recent years after the success of the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou movie. I’ve enjoyed seeing their shows on several occasions.

My wife and I went to a show last Thursday at Jammin Java featuring Chatham County Line. Chatham County Line is a young bluegrass band that incorporates some very traditional bluegrass elements, like playing around a single microphone. They are one of my favorite bands these days and I own two of their albums. Both are highly recommended.

Route 23 is an excellent album, featuring several fine songs including Nowhere To Sleep, Engine 709, Make Some Pay, Born to Be With You, and the title track. Route 23, the song, tells a moving story of a gas station along a two-lane road that gets bypassed by a new four-lane highway.

Speed of the Whippoorwill is another fine album featuring some more great tunes, including Company Blues, Rock Pile, and one of my favorites, Lonesome in Caroline.

This was the second time we saw Chatham County Line at Jammin Java after first reading about the band in Bluegrass Unlimited. This time, their set was fairly short but was still enjoyable. They played before a second band, The Waybacks, performed. At the beginning of their set, The Waybacks experienced several minutes of technical sound difficulties with amplification of their plug-in instruments. Perhaps if they opted to play around an old-fashioned single mic, the problem would have been avoided.

Last Saturday, I heard about Earth Hour while watching the news on television. Earth Hour is an annual event that started in Sydney, Australia to demonstrate electricity can be saved by turning off the lights for one hour. This year, the event expanded to several other cities around the world.

While we do not live in one of the major cities participating in the event, my wife and I decided it would be fun to spend an evening without electric lights. We lit some candles, built a fire, poured some Virginia wine, and played fiddle and guitar tunes. After the jam session, we listened to the Grand Ole Opry on my hand crank radio.

Whether or not Earth Hour significantly reduces energy usage, we enjoyed experiencing an evening that was somewhat similar to how people lived in earlier times. In fact, we kept the lights out well beyond the scheduled hour and may choose to spend other evenings with the lights turned out every once in awhile.