Bob,
the festival was an eye-opener for sure... in a good way. I thought about you the whole time. Wanna move to Winston-Salem and start a bluegrass band?

And I plead guilty to the charge of judging the genre regarding tradition. But in my defense, there are several camps in the bluegrass world, and not all of them are as progressive as the Merlefest crowd. Local fiddler's conventions (like the one in Galax Va.) remain quite resistant to electric instruments. And I've heard from many local musicians that its a waste of time trying to play bluegrass locally unless you walk in with acoustic instruments... right down to the brand name... guitar better be a Martin, Mandolin better be a Gibson F style, banjo better be one of several blessed models... etc

The Merlefest crowd, on the other hand, tends to play a more global circuit... Berkely to Boston to Brussels... to audiences that not only accept, but require new ideas.


At least that's my quick & dirty observation. As always, there's the disclaimer of tunnel vision and biased information from my sources.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0