Roanoke/Fincastle 1965
Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe - Sept. 3
Red Smiley, Clyde Moody, Stanley Brothers - Sept. 3 afternoon
Stanley Brothers - Sept. 4
Story of Bluegrass (excerpt) - Sept. 5
Stanley Brothers, Don Reno, Clyde Moody - Sept. 5 night
BG Stars' promos at Fincastle 1965 for Tom King Show WBLU
More via Ferrum College's Digital Library of Appalachia
6/23/2014 - Tom explains to me
I was in college in 1965 and working part-time as a DJ at WBLU AM in
Salem, VA., when one day Carlton Haney came up to the station and gave
us some material and tickets to a bluegrass festival he was going to
stage in nearby Fincastle, VA., over Labor Day.
I borrowed the station's big AMPEX reel-to-reel tape recorder and a
large mike and went to the festival. I took along a box of my own
six inch tapes and recorded most of the festival (except on the last
day I ran out of tape).
The late Ralph Rinzler was there from the Smithsonian
and he taped the whole thing (he had the same
equipment as I did, but unlimited tapes). There
were several mikes on stage a various time along with
our two, but I do not know to whom they belonged.
I dragged the tapes along with me for 25 years in an
old box, until 1990 when a fellow I knew in Salem
mentioned that Ferrum College might be interested
in them.
By that time I had recognized that they might have
some historical importance, so I gave everything I
had to Roddy Moore, the director of the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum at
Ferrum College in Rocky Mount, VA - tapes, tickets, programs, pictures, flyers, etc.
Before I gave the tapes to Ferrum, I transferred some of the material to
cassettes (some but not all) which I kept for my personal use.
In 2009 CDs had come along and this is when I mailed the cassettes I had
to you and you kindly put them on CDs. [and now here on the web]
At the same time I contacted the Smithsonian to see if I could get them
to release the tapes by way of a record to the public for the 45th anniversary
of the First Bluegrass Festival - no luck - too many consent problems.
As of now, as far as I know, Ferrum has not put all of my material on
line. The Smithsonian has put some single songs out from the Rinzler
tapes, but not all.
I did not make the 1966 Festival. I enlisted in the US Army in
October 1965 for a three year tour during the Viet Nam Era.
Notes: Although the Osborne Brothers are listed on the poster,
Sonny told me they couldn't make the festival,
and their first festival was the next Fincastle (1966).
Tom King says: Howdy Forrester did not come to the festival.
Instead, Benny Martin came and played the fiddle, including
doing the "Orange Blossom Special" number.
- Fred
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