Just played a bluegrass gig last night at Feed and Seed in Fletcher. I was expecting it to be some kind of old timey tourist-type mercantile store like the Hampton Country Store up in Linville as I play there too sometimes. Nope, this place is a total unicorn.
Turns out the building is an old mercantile store, but now it serves as a church on Sundays and they do bluegrass shows on Friday and Saturday. Not being so much a, uh, churchy kinda guy I was a little apprehensive when I started setting up, but there was no proselytizing or anything other than one of the best, most sober and attentive audiences I've ever witnessed. A mostly older and more outwardly conservative crowd than anything we get in Asheville, but 100% more attention span. Show started at 7:30pm. The seats (pews) were mostly filled by 6pm... They were almost silent while we set up and soundchecked. I didn't see anyone on their smart phone the entire night.
Here's how our two sets went: we'd start a song and nearly everyone in the front couple rows would get out in couples on the (fairly modest) dance floor and swing heartily, then they'd immediately sit back down at the end of each song. It was so easy to tell what people enjoyed by how many folks got up to dance. You could hear a pin drop after the applause. There's an explicit rule that the band needs to inform the audience before playing a gospel song, so that everyone can stand, take off hats, and nobody dances for gospel.
Our performance was admittedly pretty poor, it's common around here for a particular "group" to have different members from show to show, such that the "band name" really just refers to the leader and whoever they happen to bring that night, and sometimes it works out well. Last night, eh not so much. Mandolin and guitar were battling for tempo, made my job a little tough, fiddle player isn't used to playing sober
, and guitar player/singer got nerves and didn't play as well as usual. I felt pretty good about my part though, and Phil Jones cab 27 was perfect for the environment. I sang a few numbers and found it almost effortless, to me it's so palpably easier to sing to an attentive room, a welcome juxtaposition to the myriad breweries.
The audience seemed to dig it even in its imperfection, were enthusiastic and complimentary. If you're in the Western NC area and you're looking for traditional bluegrass, check this place out. It really feels like going back in time. I'd love to play there again with an act that has it together. Not the place for Dawg type jams or getting loose, but they've got something cool going on.
Turns out the building is an old mercantile store, but now it serves as a church on Sundays and they do bluegrass shows on Friday and Saturday. Not being so much a, uh, churchy kinda guy I was a little apprehensive when I started setting up, but there was no proselytizing or anything other than one of the best, most sober and attentive audiences I've ever witnessed. A mostly older and more outwardly conservative crowd than anything we get in Asheville, but 100% more attention span. Show started at 7:30pm. The seats (pews) were mostly filled by 6pm... They were almost silent while we set up and soundchecked. I didn't see anyone on their smart phone the entire night.
Here's how our two sets went: we'd start a song and nearly everyone in the front couple rows would get out in couples on the (fairly modest) dance floor and swing heartily, then they'd immediately sit back down at the end of each song. It was so easy to tell what people enjoyed by how many folks got up to dance. You could hear a pin drop after the applause. There's an explicit rule that the band needs to inform the audience before playing a gospel song, so that everyone can stand, take off hats, and nobody dances for gospel.
Our performance was admittedly pretty poor, it's common around here for a particular "group" to have different members from show to show, such that the "band name" really just refers to the leader and whoever they happen to bring that night, and sometimes it works out well. Last night, eh not so much. Mandolin and guitar were battling for tempo, made my job a little tough, fiddle player isn't used to playing sober
, and guitar player/singer got nerves and didn't play as well as usual. I felt pretty good about my part though, and Phil Jones cab 27 was perfect for the environment. I sang a few numbers and found it almost effortless, to me it's so palpably easier to sing to an attentive room, a welcome juxtaposition to the myriad breweries.The audience seemed to dig it even in its imperfection, were enthusiastic and complimentary. If you're in the Western NC area and you're looking for traditional bluegrass, check this place out. It really feels like going back in time. I'd love to play there again with an act that has it together. Not the place for Dawg type jams or getting loose, but they've got something cool going on.
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