Sister Sadie at the 2024 Doc & Rosa Lee Watson MusicFest – photo © David Parrish
July 19th and 20th rang in the 22nd Doc & Rosa Lee Watson MusicFest in Sugar Grove, North Carolina. Sugar Grove originally began as a dual purpose event to honor Doc Watson and raise money to restore the old Cove Creek School, now the Doc and Merle Watson Folk Art Museum. This initial mission was a perfect pairing, honoring a legend of the high country whose heart for the people of his mountains was just as defining a quality of Doc as his masterful guitar picking. Today, the Doc Watson Festival continues to preserve Doc’s legacy, both as a guitar pioneer and as “just one of the people.”
The Surefire Bluegrass Band got the festival started Friday evening with their brand of traditional, North Carolina bluegrass. Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road followed, showcasing a different side of the High Country’s musical spectrum. Liam showcased several cuts from his latest album, Yellow Line, and brought the crowd to life with his alternative take on bluegrass and the music of the mountains. The excitement proceeded full speed ahead with the Kody Norris Show delivering a phenomenal set, jam-packed with energy and true-grass feeling. East Nash Grass took the stage next and wowed the audience with their enthusiastic set featuring their own twist on tradition.
Micheal Cleveland & Flamekeeper was the final band of the night, closing out the festival with their fiery instrumental genius, and some serious fiddle sawing from the band leader himself. However, the night wasn’t quite over yet; in true bluegrass fashion, day one wound out with a jam session featuring members of Flamekeeper and the Lost Ridge Band that would play Saturday morning. Festival MC Cindy Baucom even joined the bands to sing Why You Been Gone So Long.
Saturday was a full day of music with shows beginning at 10:00 a.m. and going strong until 11:00 that night. The morning featured performances from the Asheville Mountain Boys, the Lost Ridge Band, and Loose Roosters. Nick Chandler & Delivered took the stage next, and they certainly delivered a full set of straight-up traditional bluegrass.
David Childers & the Serpents followed; then Rebecca Frazier played and stole the show with her fantastic flat-picking and original songwriting. The next set featured a truly essential facet of the festival: a performance from Charles Welch and Jack Lawrence featuring the songs and stories of Doc Watson. Charles and Jack picked and sang an entire selection of Doc classics, and recounted moments and memories from their time on the road with Doc and Merle. The David Mayfield Parade performed next, hyping the audience up with a set that bubbled over with pure, unbridled energy, and a slight tinge of strange that truly must be experienced first hand.
Blue Highway put on a killer set of music to ring in the evening; Jason Burleson showed the audience exactly why he was selected to fill in for Bauc with the Dukes of Drive after his retirement, and why he was selected to be a judge for this year’s Terry Baucom Banjo Championship with his top of the line picking.
The next artists to take the stage are a key part of Sugar Grove and the mission to remember Doc, as they were good friends and picked with him for many years. The Kruger Brothers had the audience captivated with their unique style and spin on bluegrass and the traditional music of these mountains. Following the Kruger Brothers, Appalachian Roadshow brought the audience the true sounds of Appalachia that are deeply ingrained into these mountains and the people who call them home. As the sun was setting on the festival grounds, Barry Abernathy, Darrel Webb, Jim VanCleve, Zeb Snyder, and Todd Phillips sent the ancient tones of Appalachia resounding through the hollers of the high country. The festival closed out with a powerhouse set from Sister Sadie. Their impeccable harmony and insane instrumental talent held the crowd captive as they spun stories and songs ranging from their own originals to revamped classics.
An event that truly made this year’s MusicFest in Sugar Grove exceptionally special was the first annual Terry Baucom Banjo Championship. “I’m just so honored that the festival is remembering Terry this way,” Cindy Baucom commented. The championship was held Saturday morning in the Cove Creek School, and was judged by three premier banjo pickers, Steven Moore, Jason Burleson, and Jens Kruger; Jens and Jason were both very close friends with Bauc. This year, six competitors entered the competition in hopes of winning the new Terry Baucom Signature Model that Deering had been working on for the past couple years. The first Terry Baucom Signature model that Deering made was built with walnut and featured a tone ring that was six ounces lighter than the standard banjo tone ring, a red maple rim, and nickel hardware. When Deering began the process of collaborating with Bauc on a new signature model, he decided to switch it up and build a mahogany banjo as opposed to his classic walnut banjo; this new model would also feature a new, tarnish free finish on the hardware. This banjo was last played by the Duke of Drive himself.
The first, second, and third place finalists in the competition would all receive banjos, with the first place winner taking home the Terry Baucom Signature banjo; all six contestants would receive prize packages including Paige capos, sets of Terry Baucom signature banjo strings, and signed copies of the last project by Terry Baucom’s Dukes of Drive, Here in the Country. Brian Kreher came in third place winning the Gold Tone Cripple Creek banjo, Gunnar Slayer secured second place and the Gold Tone Mastertone OB banjo, and Anthony Howell placed first and took home the Terry Baucom Signature Model and also played the banjo on stage, showing the audience the vibrant tone and barn-burning potential held inside Bauc’s new signature model. From that sample of the banjo’s tone, listeners could just imagine Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Terry Baucom burning it up with pure drivin’ power on that very banjo.
Sugar Grove has truly mastered bringing every aspect of bluegrass music together into one festival, rooted in the memory of Doc Watson. From the traditional bluegrass sounds of the Kody Norris Show and Nick Chandler & Delivered to the old-time, mountain-grass of the Asheville Mountains Boys paying tribute to the artist who made our music what it is today, to the progressive and innovative styles of groups like East Nash Grass and Lim Purcell & Cane Mill Road, and even branching out to styles of music that are completely their own brand, like that of the David Mayfield Parade, Sugar Grove has captured the magical element of bluegrass, the connection. Like Cindy Baucom put it when she opened the festival, “Music brings us together… We’re here because music has brought us here, and we can leave our differences at the gate and come together as one big happy music family.”
