1/20/07 — VERNON TOWNSHIP — Wearing a Boston Red Sox ball cap, blue jeans and green long-sleeved shirt, and carrying a guitar case, Matt French entered the lobby of Days Inn on Friday night.
Setting the case down near an armchair, French took a seat on a nearby sofa in front of a fireplace. As the fire crackled, he took a piece of paper from his pocket and began writing — using a coffee table as his desk.
French, one of the entertainers at the 21st annual Winter Blues Bluegrass Festival, was writing the names of songs in the order the band would play them.
He and his group, Well Strung, traveled from Slippery Rock to join the festivities, which continue through Sunday.
French has played guitar for about 15 years and also plays mandolin. Asked how he got interested in bluegrass music, he grinned, “My dad forced me. It was that (play bluegrass) or be grounded.”
He found he loved it. “I’ve always played music,” he said, noting he used to play in coffee shops. “This was new and different. It’s fun.”
“Bluegrass is a party style of music,” he explained. “A lot of types of music have a singer and four backup members. With bluegrass, everybody in the band makes a contribution.”
His dad has played it for 40 years. While Matt is part of the second generation of pickers, he always played rock and still incorporates some of that music into the program. “We have a Beatles tune in our set,” he said. A music player by night, his day job is that of a design engineer.
In a hotel room down the hall, four other musicians began to warm up for their turn on the stage, among the 150 or so musicians who have joined the 2007 version of the bluegrass festival.
Standing around two beds, with a television tuned to the Weather Channel in the background, members of Francine’s Mountain Top Band of Tarentum were tuning up.
Francine Michaels, the last of 12 children, said she has been playing bluegrass music since she was 2 years old. Each musician in the four-member band joined harmony as they sang and played.
While Francine plays the music, she also is involved in promoting it. She operates her own bluegrass festival for four days on a mountaintop outside her hometown. When’s she not playing music, coordinating the festival or cooking, she operates a campground.
Some of her favorite entertainers growing up reads like a list of “Who’s Who” in bluegrass music: Bill Monroe, Flatts and Scruggs, Wilma Lee Cooper, Molly O’Day, Ken Baker and the list goes on, she grinned.
For Sandy Mahoney, one of the original organizers of the Winter Blues Bluegrass Festival, hearing the music in the rooms is even better than in the make-shift auditorium of the inn’s dining rooms. “It’s more pure without the microphones,” she explained.
However, none of the hundreds of audience members were complaining. Despite the slippery road conditions, cold temperatures and snowy weather, many braved the winter elements to attend.
One was Kent State University freshman Everett Hunt of Jefferson, Ohio. Sitting in a room, gently strumming his guitar, he had traveled to Meadville with the hope he could “join a jam,” referring to the term used by musicians who just join up to play together.
He planned to go back to Jefferson on Friday night to attend a college orientation session this morning. He then will come back to Meadville to re-join the festivities, which continue today and Sunday morning.
As the sounds of the first band, Grass Fire, filled the air, toes were tapping as people kept time to the music, feeling the event’s special warmth despite the cold outside.
For many, nothing is better for those who like good music than to be able to sit and listen. An extra benefit is the festival is open to the public — free of charge, but with donations greatly encouraged to benefit Hospice of Crawford County. In addition, various raffles are held, with the proceeds to go to Hospice.
Times for the Winter Blues Bluegrass Festival at Meadville’s Days Inn:
Today: 1 p.m. to midnight
Sunday: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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