Tee Time at MerleFest

You can express your feelings with a Hallmark greeting card or say it with flowers. Some motorists let the world know what they are thinking through bumper stickers and personalized license plates.

The truly determined among us share their stylistic point of view through their permanent body art, i.e. tattoos. When you see that guy or gal with unicorns, wizards and faeries tattooed across their entire upper back and shoulders, you have to admire their commitment, even if you don’t share their love for unicorns, wizards and faeries…

Kim Shumate of Seattle, Washington, watches the Ditty Bops in the MerleFest Dance Tent sporting her ever-fashionable Magnum P.I.-era Tom Selleck tee-shirt. Shumate was raised in Wilkesboro and returns home each year for the four-day festival. Photo by Jeff Eason

Last weekend at MerleFest I joined the tens of thousands of other festival-goers who choose to say it with a short-sleeve cotton tee-shirt. When you spend a good fraction of your day walking in the sunshine, you need apparel that breathes. Fortunately, Fruit of the Loom and Haynes know that nothing breathes like a lightweight cotton tee. Once those shirts leave the factory, however, they can be magically transformed through the use of printing devices into a personalized billboard telling the world what you think, where you’ve been, and what bands you love.

For Friday at MerleFest, I decided to wear my maroon and blue McCabe’s Guitar Shop tee-shirt. McCabe’s is located in Santa Monica, California and is one of the best sources of acoustic instruments west of Nashville. When I traveled to Santa Monica last October for my wedding, I slipped away from my lovely bride Leslie for a few hours and visited McCabe’s. There I test-drove exotic Middle Eastern stringed instruments, mandocellos, and classic old acoustic guitars.

Upstairs at McCabe’s is where the guitar and songwriting workshops are taught by musicians such as Vanguard recording artist Peter Case. It’s also where they display classic old black and white photographs of musicians who have performed concerts at McCabe’s. The first photo I saw upstairs at McCabe’s was a shot from the early 80s of Doc and Merle Watson playing for a small yet happy Santa Monica crowd. Seeing those two Watauga County musicians on the wall at McCabe’s was one of those synchronicity moments when all roads lead back to where I am (cue the psychedelic mystical sitar music)!

I didn’t buy any of the fantastic stringed instruments at McCabe’s but I made sure that I picked up a T-shirt to let the world know that I had been there.

I told Leslie that at least one west coast person at MerleFest would comment on my McCabe’s T. Sure enough, two guys riding the shuttle bus with us on Friday were from California and knew McCabe’s and its treasure trove of guitars.

This year at MerleFest a new tee-shirt trend has emerged. Parents are decking out their kids in T-shirts with classic rock heroes on them. There is something not quite right but definitely amusing about seeing a three year old wearing a Ramones T-shirt. I saw other youngsters wearing Ts supporting Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. And, of course, there were legions of kids donning Grateful Dead paraphernalia, most of them born after Jerry Garcia died.

MerleFest is also the place where you’ll see veteran festival travelers who brag about their exploits through their T-shirts. If you’re lucky enough to have been to the Bonnaroo Music Festival and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, you’re darned sure going to tell the folks at MerleFest about it. If you saw Phish on one of the band’s notorious New Year’s Eve shows, it is time to let the world know you were there.

Other T-shirt folks aim for the humorous or unique at MerleFest. I saw one quite large fellow wearing a P.E.T.A. shirt. Under the initials it said in smaller letters, “People for the Eating of Tasty Animals.” Another guy wore a shirt that said, “I got this shirt for my 40th birthday…I hate this shirt.”

Some folks even find room on their tees to mix music with politics as with the multiple sightings of Kinky Friedman for Governor of Texas in 2006 shirts.

You might think that wearing one’s politics on one’s chest is a sure way of getting into an argument at MerleFest. Instead, it seems like these T-shirts, like the funny ones and the music-related ones, are useful conversation starters. T-shirts, and their messages, give us a tool to approach complete strangers and introduce ourselves without the fear of them freaking out and pulling pepper spray out of their backpack. In that regard, T-shirts are making the world a better place by turning strangers into acquaintances.