Just What the Doc Ordered

MusicFest ’n Sugar Grove July 10-11

By Frank Ruggiero

The MusicFest ’n Sugar Grove is regularly hailed for its intimate setting.

Set at the historic Old Cove Creek School, the small but stout festival offers audiences the chance to get up close and personal with their favorite musicians.

In fact, some of the musicians insist. Doc Watson is one of them.

Now in its 12th year, the festival – originally founded in Watson’s honor as Doc Watson Appreciation Day – takes place next Friday and Saturday, July 10-11.

“Well, it’s had its bumps and good times down over the years, but I still enjoy coming here,” Watson said of festival. “The audiences are great, and the management is great.”

The lineup follows suit, featuring headliners like Watson with grandson Richard Watson and Charles Welch, the Kruger Bros., the Steep Canyon Rangers and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, among many others.

Though the MusicFest has grown dramatically over the last 12 years, it manages to remain ever so humble, a trait that fits well with Watson’s brand of performance.

“When I started in to music – it was due to the help of the late Ralph Rinzler in the … early ’60s – my goal was to provide for my family,” Watson said. “I never thought of becoming a worldwide entertainer.

“…When I go on stage, I’m just me, addle-headed part of the time, but people seem to love it. And they tell me that’s why they like me, because when I get up there, I’m Doc Watson, not putting on some kind of an act that I rehearse for two days before I went to work.”

His motive for this is simple – a fun story, though serious to Watson at the time. Watson said when he and wife of 66 years Rosa Lee were raising two young children, a certain fellow would always hassle him for not playing straight gospel music.

“One day he came in and said, ‘Brother, I believe you read the same Bible I do,’ and I play on Saturday nights, I don’t get out there and get drunk, play slot machines and gamble it away,” Watson said.

“And one day he came in and said, ‘You know, you should just play gospel music,’ and I said, ‘Look, if I can get out here and make a few dollars and behave myself and play decent music that’s clean, and a good ol’ moving-along gospel song every now and then, and people want to square dance to something, a good ol’ breakdown, as long as I behave myself and bring my money home, I’m not doing anything more wrong than you are at your saw mill selling lumber.

“‘Can you help what they build out of those pretty boards that you sell? No. They might build a beer joint, where all sorts of stuff goes on, or it might be an ordinary house. That’s fine business, I’m not criticizing you. You don’t know what they’re going to do with the lumber when you sell it. I don’t know what they’re going to do with that music, whether they’re going to get drunk and act a fool or not. I’m not responsible for that, they are.’

“And I said, ‘My Bible says he that provideth not for his own house is denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.’ And he hushed – that was the end of that.”

Once in a while, the fellow would visit and request a breakdown tune or two. Watson continues to behave himself, though he has fun while doing so. To the young musicians performing at the MusicFest, he offered some words of wisdom.

“There’s two kinds of advice – practice, but not over-practice,” he said. “And then, when you’re out there, if you get some pay jobs, behave yourselves, be good, watch the vice, the drugs and the whiskey – don’t mess with that. I didn’t, and it paid off.”

The MusicFest pays off for Watson, who said High Country audiences can be as good as audiences get. Last autumn, when he, David Holt, Richard Watson and Riley Baugus performed their Hills of Home show at Farthing Auditorium at Appalachian State University, about 500 people attended, “and that’s as good as you can do with any audience anywhere,” Watson said.

“And the appreciation they showed us when we worked that show was one of the greatest shows I ever helped do,” he said. “If you’re yourself on stage and don’t try to pull off some fancy act or another and just play the very best you can ... a good response from the audience will help you do that. There’s no greater pleasure – even getting paid a lot of money for a show – there’s no greater pleasure than reception from an audience that says, ‘We love you.’ An audience here is as good as you get, if they love you and want to hear you play. I can’t think of any other way to express it.”

Advance tickets to the MusicFest ’n Sugar Grove are on sale now, with two-day reserved seating priced at $45 for Friday and $55 for Saturday. Advance general admission costs $15 for Friday and $20 for Saturday. At the gate, tickets cost $20 for Friday and $25 for Saturday, and special group rates are available.

Advance tickets are available until July 8 at BB&T in Boone, Boone Drug at Deerfield, Community One Bank, Mast General Store locations in Boone and Valle Crucis, Cove Creek Store, Historic Cove Creek High School, Boone Drug at Foscoe, the Ashe Arts Council in West Jefferson and True Value Hardware in Mountain City, Tenn.
For more information, visit www.musicfestnsugargrove.com or call (828) 297-2200.

Performance Schedule
Friday, July 10, Main Stage
3-3:45 – Upright & Breathin’
4-4:45 – Southern Accent
5-5:45 – Andy Owens & 1-800-Bluegrass
6-7:15 – Kruger Brothers
7:30-8:45 – Steep Canyon Rangers
9-10:15 – Carolina Chocolate Drops
10:15-11 – Open Jam

Friday, July 10, Solar Stage
3-3:40 – Woodgrain
3:55-4:35 – Maura Shawn Scanlin
4:50-5:30 – He Said…She Said
5:45-6:25 – Lisa Baldwin & Dave Haney
6:40-7:20 – Dashboard Hula Boys

Saturday, July 11, Main Stage
10-10:45 – Southern Exposure
11-11:45 – Sweet Briar Jam
12-12:45 – Lost Ridge Band
1-1:45 – Amantha Mill
2-2:45 – Cockman Family
3-3:40 – Lisa Baldwin & Dave Haney
3:50-4:35 – ETSU Pride
4:45-5:30 – Surefire
5:40-6:10 – The Snyder Family
6:20-7:35 – Carolina Chocolate Drops
7:45-8:45 – Kruger Brothers
9-10:15 Doc Watson with Richard Watson & Charles Welch
10:15-11 – MusicFest Jam

Saturday, July 11, Solar Stage
11-11:45 – He Said…She Said
12-12:45 – Lisa Baldwin & Dave Haney
1-1:45 - Bob & Ellie with Patty
2-2:45 – Forget-Me-Nots
3-3:45 – Southern Exposure
4-5 – Songwriters’ Showcase
5:15-6 – Root Pile