Gardner Winter Music Festival

The Gardner Winter Music Festival was this weekend. Traditional music festivals are mostly a summer activity. Back in 1979, Worley Gardner wanted an opportunity to get together with other musicians during the winter as a break from cabin fever. Here's a page that tells about the origins of this festival. Follow this link for a story I wrote for Goldenseal Magazine about Worley. Butch and Margo Neil have been involved with the festival almost from the first and have kept it alive through through a lot of transitions.

As I remember it, the only rules Worley had were that all the musicians were equals (no one got paid) and "no electric instruments". This freehand approach has led to a lot of variety over the years.

The pictures here show fiddler Chance McCoy jamming with friends Saturday night. I met the guitar player (who also plays clawhammer banjo), but I don't have his name. Hopefully someone will let me know so that I can add it. Scott Phillips is off to the left playing banjo, and Bill Kimmons is playing bass.

A whole slew of young musicians with an old time approach have been showing up the past two years. With fiddlers such as Chance, Jesse Milnes, and Doug Van Gundy (and many more) on hand, jams at Winter Music Fest are taking a new/old twist. Let's hope it continues.