MerleFest

MerleFest is an annual "traditional plus" music festival held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina on the campus of Wilkes Community College. The festival, which is held the last weekend in April, was hosted by Grammy Award winner Doc Watson prior to his death and is named in memory and honor of his son, Eddy Merle Watson, who died in a farm tractor accident in 1985.

History

The festival, founded in 1988, is the primary fundraising event for Wilkes Community College and attracts crowds exceeding 79,000 in number, making it one of the largest music festivals in the United States as well as the 3rd largest tourist attraction in the state of North Carolina. The music is spread across 14 different stages and four days, which promises non-stop excitement for festival goers. Its annual economic impact on northwestern North Carolina exceeds $10 million and the festival has contributed nearly $9,000,000 to Wilkes Community College.

MerleFest offers a mix of traditional and contemporary roots music, a music blend that Doc himself named "traditional plus." It brings together Bluegrass, contemporary acoustic, blues, folk, old-time music, Cajun, jazz, country, Celtic, Americana, rock and singer-songwriter music. Artists can often be enjoyed in on-stage jam sessions featuring unusual combinations of musicians, such as Bob Weir, formerly of the Grateful Dead singing with Sam Bush and Gillian Welch with the Waybacks.

Sam Bush

Charles Samuel "Sam" Bush (born April 13, 1952) is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.

History

Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Bush was exposed to country and bluegrass music at an early age through his father Charlie's record collection, and later by the Flatt & Scruggs television show. Buying his first mandolin at the age of 11, his musical interest was further piqued when he attended the inaugural Roanoke, VA Bluegrass Festival in 1965. As a teen Bush took first place three times in the junior division of the National Oldtime Fiddler's Contest in Weiser, ID. He joined guitarist Wayne Stewart, his mentor and music teacher during Sam's teen years, and banjoist Alan Munde (later of Country Gazette) and the three recorded an instrumental album, Poor Richard's Almanac, in 1969. In the spring of 1970, Bush attended the Fiddlers Convention at Union Grove, NC, and was inspired by the rock-flavored progressive bluegrass of the New Deal String Band. Later that year, he moved to Louisville and joined the Bluegrass Alliance. In the fall of 1971, the band dissolved and reformed as the New Grass Revival.

Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961 in Seattle, Washington) is an American classical , bluegrass, jazz and country violinist, fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging and critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition. As a teenager he won national string instrument championships for his virtuoso playing of the guitar and mandolin as well as the fiddle. His mentors include Texas fiddler Benny Thomasson who taught O'Connor to fiddle as a teenager, French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli with whom O'Connor toured as a teenager, and guitarist Chet Atkins.

O'Connor currently resides in New York City.

Early life

Mark O'Connor was a child prodigy who won national titles on the fiddle, guitar and mandolin as a teenager. In 1975 at age thirteen, O'Connor won the WSM (AM), Tennessee, and Grand Ole Opry sponsored Grand Masters Fiddle Championships in Nashville against amateur and professional competitors of all ages. That same year he won another national championship, this time on acoustic guitar, at the National Flat Pick Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas. At age 19, O'Connor won the Buck White International Mandolin Championship in Kerrville, Texas. He is a four-time grand champion (1979, 1980, 1981 and 1984) at the National Oldtime Fiddler's Contest in Weiser, Idaho.

Tony Rice

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Tony Rice (born David Anthony Rice, June 8, 1951, Danville, Virginia, United States) is an American guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

Rice's music spans the range of acoustic from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New Acoustic music to songwriter-oriented folk. Over the course of his career, he has played alongside J. D. Crowe and the New South, David Grisman (during the formation of "Dawg Music") and Jerry Garcia, led his own Tony Rice Unit, collaborated with Norman Blake, recorded with his brothers Wyatt, Ron, and Larry, and co-founded the Bluegrass Album Band. He has recorded with drums, piano, soprano sax, as well as with traditional bluegrass instrumentation.

Early years

Rice was born in Danville, Virginia but grew up in Los Angeles, California, where his father, Herb Rice, introduced him to bluegrass. Tony and his brothers learned the fundamentals of bluegrass and country music from L.A. musicians like the Kentucky Colonels, led by Roland and Clarence White. Clarence White in particular became a huge influence on Rice. Crossing paths with fellow enthusiasts like Ry Cooder, Herb Pedersen and Chris Hillman reinforced the strength of the music he had learned from his father.

Chris Thile

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Christopher Scott "Chris" Thile (/ˈθiːliː/ THEE-lee; born February 20, 1981) is an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, best known for his work in the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the acoustic folk/progressive bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow. Beginning in 2016, he will become the host of A Prairie Home Companion.

Biography

The three members of Nickel Creek met in 1989 at Carlsbad, California's That Pizza Place, listening to weekly bluegrass shows with their parents. Soon they were taking lessons and then playing festivals and recording albums. Their first, Little Cowpoke, was released in 1994. Later albums included Nickel Creek and This Side, which went platinum and won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. In 2005, Nickel Creek released Why Should the Fire Die?, which received massive critical acclaim and sold 250,000 units.

In 2003, Thile married fashion designer Jesse Meighan. The couple divorced in 2004, after 18 months of marriage.