When I first started playing banjo in…1970…I think, the only thing I knew about bluegrass music was what I had heard on 33 RPM records, 8-track, and cassette tapes. I don’t think there was very much bluegrass on the radio then. Oh, you might hear Foggy Mountain Breakdown or Dueling Banjos (1972) on the Ft. Worth station, WBAP. I’ll bet there was some bluegrass played on local radio stations in Paris and Bonham, but I don’t remember listening to that much radio in my high school days.
My first exposure to real, live bluegrass music probably came somewhere around 1975. I had previously bounced around north Texas with J.T. Bryan, Joe Julian and Ross Whit, attending Texas Fiddle contests in different cities. I enrolled at Paris Junior College after I graduated from high school in 1975. There, I met Bennie Tschoerner, who taught several of my electronics classes. I think Bennie was the one who first took me to Salt Creek Park in Hugo Oklahoma. Bennie had heard “Little” Jimmy Hendley play banjo at Bill Grant’s festival in Hugo and thought, “If that little kid can play banjo, surely I can too.” So, Bennie bought an Alvarez banjo…that eventually became mine…after Bennie gave up on banjo pickin’!
The Hugo Bluegrass Festival at Salt Creek Park, as I always heard, was “the biggest festival west of the Mississippi”. I have never attended any other festival in the states surrounding Texas that was as big as Bill Grant’s. Bill’s festival always started on the first Wednesday in August and went through Sunday. Many attendees would set up camp in Salt Creek Park as much as a week before the festival officially started. And Bill had some of the biggest bluegrass bands in the country. I seem to remember the likes of Lester Flat, Bill Monroe, Rick Skaggs, Mac Wiseman and many more being there over the years.
Bennie and I usually hung out at a camp not too far from the “foot of the hill”, that was set up every year by the same group of guys. I’m not sure I can remember everyone’s name that was usually there. I know that Stuart Anderson and Steve Annis was there…a fellow they called “Five String”, and some others. We mostly sat around the camp jamming and sharing new licks we had learned, but we would often go walking through the woods, stopping to jam with other groups of musicians. Of course, we kept a close eye on the official schedule and would go back up the hill to see our favorite performers.
I remember spending a lot of time visiting the vendors that were always there. It was better than any music stores in Fannin and Lamar counties. You could find all kinds of bluegrass instruments, records and tapes. There was also plenty of places to buy food and drink.
I always looked forward to going to this festival each year, but it was awful hot in August. I remember strapping my banjo to the sissy bar on my 1979 Yamaha 750 motorcycle and driving from Greenville to Hugo in the later years. When the festival was over and I returned home, I could still hear music ringing in my ears for at least a day or two…literally!!! I don’t remember the last year I attended the festival before it shut down. Debbie and I married in 1984 and we both attended at least one or two festivals after that. I was pretty much wrapped up in the Country Music scene during the 80’s and didn’t go to Salt Creek anymore.
Steve Annis has been converting some old photos to digital format recently. Here is one he sent yesterday. See more of the pictures on my website, http://www.banjoboyd.com . Maybe some of my fellow Hard 2 Git band members will blog more about the great times at Salt Creek Park. Ah, the memories!
