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Blue Ridge Bluegrass

The town of Floyd, Virginia draws jam-ready musicians and some toe-tapping fans

  • By Kenneth R. Fletcher
  • Smithsonian.com, July 28, 2008

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    Fridays in Floyd

    Fridays in Floyd

    Every week, the Floyd Country Store draws musicians and their fans from across southwest Virginia

    If you drive through Floyd on a Friday evening, you'll have slow down when you pass the country store of this tiny town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Crowds of people mill about the street, many carrying mandolins, banjos, basses and other instruments. In alleys and parking lots they form impromptu groups playing bluegrass and traditional country music. The jam sessions are fluid; a young guitarist backs up a group of old timers and then joins a fiddle player from the Midwest. Inside the spacious Floyd Country Store, bands from across the region play on a small stage and dancers fill the floor. Their tapping feet provide percussion to the music.

    "The country store has a unique energy," says Fred First, a writer and part-time physical therapist who moved to Floyd a decade ago. "It's maintained its authenticity." In recent years Floyd, a town of just a few hundred people, has formalized spontaneous musical gatherings into a weekly event that brings new interest to the local culture. The town is now a major stop on Virginia's 250-mile Crooked Road, which winds through places where traditional music flourishes. The route is a recent effort by the Appalachian Regional Commission, USDA and local communities to spur tourism and economic development in an often forgotten part of southwest Virginia.

    I drive the 280 miles from Washington, D.C. to Floyd on a sunny Friday afternoon. When I enter the country store, locals greet me with a smile and hello. I meet First at a bright booth near the window and he introduces me to Doug Thompson, a Floyd native who left in 1965 and spent years as a D.C.-based photojournalist before returning recently. They lead me to a scenic overlook with an expansive view of gentle green mountains stretching into North Carolina. Since the 1970s, my hosts explain, artists have been drawn to Floyd's beautiful countryside and cheap land. A diverse mixture of residents contributes to Floyd's riving arts community.

    I head back down to the Floyd Country Store in time to catch the 6:30 start of its Friday night jamboree. Every week the store books three bands onstage and charges $3 admission. The first band always sings gospel numbers, and listeners sit reverently in the folding chairs set out near the stage. At 7:30, bluegrass and old-time bands arrive and fill the dance floor with flat-foot dancers. The fancy footwork, like the music, is descended from traditions brought centuries ago by immigrants from the British Isles.

    While the organized bands play inside the store, musicians of all stripes gather outside to learn from each other, jam and show off a little. The scene echoes musical gatherings that have been going on in the southern Appalachians for centuries. The sessions in Floyd started informally decades ago around the store's potbelly stove. In the 1980s, it evolved into regular Friday night gatherings. The store itself has seen big changes since Woody and Jackie Crenshaw bought it in 2005. They've restored and enlarged the building, upgraded the stage and dance floor and expanded the store's offerings and operating hours. Open Tuesday through Sunday, it sells everything from ice cream and barbecue sandwiches to overalls and CDs. Outside, new streetlights, sidewalks and benches create inviting nooks for musicians to play.

    "Our goal really was to keep something alive in Floyd," Crenshaw tells me. "This music that's been played here for a couple of hundred years is something that we didn't want to see die." The store sets aside space and time for music teachers who offer classes for toddlers on up. Crenshaw has a vision for the development of Floyd into a "pedestrian village." Thompson, the photographer, says the town has made big improvements since he moved back four years ago. "The town never had a park before," he says. "Never had a public gathering place, the sidewalks and alcoves where musicians can play and people can listen."

    Scott Perry, a music store owner who moved to Floyd from South Carolina in 1999, isn't completely satisfied with the changes. "One of the great things about the country store is it provides a venue for hobbyists and amateurs to get together and learn how to play," he says. "Now well-intentioned groups are trying to come together and manage what I thought was a fairly naturally-occurring, magical thing."

    But almost everyone I meet is pleased with the improvements and influx of visitors. As the bands wind down inside, I head outside to meet J.C. Poff. The amiable gray-haired guitarist has deep roots in Floyd; his grandfather played fiddle there in the 1920s and his grandmother was a music teacher in one-room schools along the Crooked Road. Poff says the new development makes Floyd welcoming for visitors who arrive from near and far to listen to the eclectic mix of musicians. "You'll hear guitar pickers play the weirdest stuff you've ever heard," he says. "Then you'll hear old time people who stay right in the old-time tradition." I ask him to play a song he wrote, and Poff picks a slow country tune about the Blue Ridge. When I ask him why music is ubiquitous in Floyd, his answer is simple; "It's a product of the mountains," he says.

    If you drive through Floyd on a Friday evening, you'll have slow down when you pass the country store of this tiny town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Crowds of people mill about the street, many carrying mandolins, banjos, basses and other instruments. In alleys and parking lots they form impromptu groups playing bluegrass and traditional country music. The jam sessions are fluid; a young guitarist backs up a group of old timers and then joins a fiddle player from the Midwest. Inside the spacious Floyd Country Store, bands from across the region play on a small stage and dancers fill the floor. Their tapping feet provide percussion to the music.

    "The country store has a unique energy," says Fred First, a writer and part-time physical therapist who moved to Floyd a decade ago. "It's maintained its authenticity." In recent years Floyd, a town of just a few hundred people, has formalized spontaneous musical gatherings into a weekly event that brings new interest to the local culture. The town is now a major stop on Virginia's 250-mile Crooked Road, which winds through places where traditional music flourishes. The route is a recent effort by the Appalachian Regional Commission, USDA and local communities to spur tourism and economic development in an often forgotten part of southwest Virginia.

    I drive the 280 miles from Washington, D.C. to Floyd on a sunny Friday afternoon. When I enter the country store, locals greet me with a smile and hello. I meet First at a bright booth near the window and he introduces me to Doug Thompson, a Floyd native who left in 1965 and spent years as a D.C.-based photojournalist before returning recently. They lead me to a scenic overlook with an expansive view of gentle green mountains stretching into North Carolina. Since the 1970s, my hosts explain, artists have been drawn to Floyd's beautiful countryside and cheap land. A diverse mixture of residents contributes to Floyd's riving arts community.

    I head back down to the Floyd Country Store in time to catch the 6:30 start of its Friday night jamboree. Every week the store books three bands onstage and charges $3 admission. The first band always sings gospel numbers, and listeners sit reverently in the folding chairs set out near the stage. At 7:30, bluegrass and old-time bands arrive and fill the dance floor with flat-foot dancers. The fancy footwork, like the music, is descended from traditions brought centuries ago by immigrants from the British Isles.

    While the organized bands play inside the store, musicians of all stripes gather outside to learn from each other, jam and show off a little. The scene echoes musical gatherings that have been going on in the southern Appalachians for centuries. The sessions in Floyd started informally decades ago around the store's potbelly stove. In the 1980s, it evolved into regular Friday night gatherings. The store itself has seen big changes since Woody and Jackie Crenshaw bought it in 2005. They've restored and enlarged the building, upgraded the stage and dance floor and expanded the store's offerings and operating hours. Open Tuesday through Sunday, it sells everything from ice cream and barbecue sandwiches to overalls and CDs. Outside, new streetlights, sidewalks and benches create inviting nooks for musicians to play.

    "Our goal really was to keep something alive in Floyd," Crenshaw tells me. "This music that's been played here for a couple of hundred years is something that we didn't want to see die." The store sets aside space and time for music teachers who offer classes for toddlers on up. Crenshaw has a vision for the development of Floyd into a "pedestrian village." Thompson, the photographer, says the town has made big improvements since he moved back four years ago. "The town never had a park before," he says. "Never had a public gathering place, the sidewalks and alcoves where musicians can play and people can listen."

    Scott Perry, a music store owner who moved to Floyd from South Carolina in 1999, isn't completely satisfied with the changes. "One of the great things about the country store is it provides a venue for hobbyists and amateurs to get together and learn how to play," he says. "Now well-intentioned groups are trying to come together and manage what I thought was a fairly naturally-occurring, magical thing."

    But almost everyone I meet is pleased with the improvements and influx of visitors. As the bands wind down inside, I head outside to meet J.C. Poff. The amiable gray-haired guitarist has deep roots in Floyd; his grandfather played fiddle there in the 1920s and his grandmother was a music teacher in one-room schools along the Crooked Road. Poff says the new development makes Floyd welcoming for visitors who arrive from near and far to listen to the eclectic mix of musicians. "You'll hear guitar pickers play the weirdest stuff you've ever heard," he says. "Then you'll hear old time people who stay right in the old-time tradition." I ask him to play a song he wrote, and Poff picks a slow country tune about the Blue Ridge. When I ask him why music is ubiquitous in Floyd, his answer is simple; "It's a product of the mountains," he says.


     
    Comments

    This article exactly fulfills my unstructured desire to take a trip with my husband through Appalachia looking for bluegrass and Appalachian historic music, finding what we could when we could. We now have a destination and a loop, and I am very excited about doing this trip. Thank you!

    Posted by anne pounds on July 29,2008 | 09:35AM

    My wife and I visit Floyd County each summer and slways attend the Friday night mountain music sessions at least once. A unique experience was seeing a man carry a 3' bt 3' square of plywood underarm until he found a street band he liked. Then he would put the plywood on the ground and perform on his own private dance floor.

    Posted by Emory Lane (Orlando, Fl) on August 3,2008 | 07:40PM

    I fell in love with Floyd, Va roughly 7 yrs ago. There is no place like it in America (that I know of) The best! I love to visit as much as possible. Friday Night Jamboree! YEE ha!!

    Posted by Joanna Davis on August 6,2008 | 05:56PM

    I live very close to Floyd. For anyone who is interested, FloydFest is held every summer with several days of music. Google it!

    Posted by Marty Martin on August 7,2008 | 11:59AM

    This is a nice profile of the Floyd Country Store. I've posted a link to it on The Roanoke Times' New River Notebook blog (http://blogs.roanoke.com/newrivernotebook/2008/08/smithsonianmagcom_profiles_flo.html) Tonia Moxley

    Posted by Tonia Moxley on August 8,2008 | 11:01AM

    Thanks for the trip back home; I LOVE Floyd County; been there years ago to marry off one of the best friends I've ever had, W. Conner, to my best girlfriend. He's gone now but the happy memories will always stay with me; I was born in Bristol and raised just across the border in Tennessee. I've not been home in twenty years; so thanks for taking the edge off my homesickness here in the panhandle of Texas. Heartwarming to know there's people that still care about our musical heritage and continue it! Uncle Pen popped into my head immediately as I read this article! :) THANK YOU!

    Posted by Rebecca King Hartman on August 8,2008 | 10:12PM

    Floyd is now on my "bucket list" and hope you get a chance to visit little Walland, TN on a Friday night at the community center for a similar experience. It is right outside of Maryville, TN just around the corner.

    Posted by mj king on August 9,2008 | 11:49AM

    My husband and I discovered Floyd as a result of "Wine Down the Music Trail", a festival held 4th of July week-end, featuring VA wines (outstanding), great food, and of course bluegrass music. We drive from Ohio to attend, and it's well worth the time to get there. If you go, make sure to dine at Oddfella's Cantina, but make reservations.

    Posted by Patricia Wiley on August 11,2008 | 08:54PM

    I have good memories of wiping out a stressful work week Friday nights at the Jamborree when I lived in Blacksburg. The melting pot of college students, international students, farmers, cloggers, and Floydians was dynamic. It is a treasure in this century and an experience worth the reminiscing.

    Posted by Kirsten on August 12,2008 | 08:28AM

    Great Article about Gospel and Bluegrass music at the Floyd Store. For the author (and those located around the DC area) a similar experience may be had at the Round Hill Arts Center in Round Hill, VA on the last Friday of each month - except there is no admission. Round Hill (in Loudoun County) is about 8 miles west of Leesburg on Route 7. See: http://www.roundhillartscenter.org/index.html Enjoy, Mark Byrum

    Posted by Mark Byrum on August 20,2008 | 09:21AM

    For anyone interested in some more music along the "Crooked Road", Billy's Flea Market on Hwy 57 just west of Bassett, Virginia (not too far from FLoyd) has oldtime, mountain and bluegrass music every Sunday afternoon, as well as a dance floor with plenty of "flatfootin" (whenever I tried it they called it "faltfootin" :-). The scene is very much like what happens in Floyd -- small main stage plus informal groups of musicians milling around and playing outside, etc. I haven't been there in years because I live in Chicago now, but remember it very well. I just called Billy's on the phone, and found they're still playing music every Sunday. Go on by, you'll enjoy it. has an article on them as well as lots of other intersting info. There's plenty of music along the "road"! I always said if you rub any four people from that area together, you've got a music group. What a great part of our American history and tradition, hope it never dies out!

    Posted by Ken Blood on August 24,2008 | 11:30AM

    My son and I, after hiking a stretch of the Applalachian Trail, visited the Floyd Country Store for the blue grass jam session in 1989. A scene I remember most vividly was that of a very, very old gentleman dancing to the music. This gentleman was dressed in a vintage Southern white suit, and his shoes were shined beautifully. At the beginning of each song, different young girls would ask the gentleman to dance. He would rise slowly, shuffle a few feet onto the dance floor, and begin to dance. He did the best he could to lift and tap one foot after the other not quite along with the beat. His young partners always projected a smile of encouragement, and you could see an expression of delight on his wrinkled face. After each dance, the gentleman's partner would slowly escort him back to his wooden chair where he would await the next invitation to kick up his heels. John Deus, Pleasanton, CA

    Posted by John Deus on August 28,2008 | 08:21AM

    Thank you for a wonderful article about a beautiful place - you've reminded me that I am homesick. We visited friends and relatives in Roanoke and Floyd County last year, and we learned a little flat-footin' at the Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store. Floyd is a happenin' place! This small town has friendly people and a real sense of community. My father's family - my ancestors - were from Floyd County, Virginia, and we have musicians in the family. I've lived in Virginia, California, Indiana, North Dakota and now Texas, and I miss the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and Floyd County. There is no other place in the world like it.

    Posted by Paula on August 29,2008 | 09:54AM

    I would love to have info. on homes, land available and jobs in the Floyd area. Please have the chamber of commerse contact. Thank you.

    Posted by Patti McCormack on August 31,2008 | 09:25AM

    I "discovered" Floyd while traveling the blue ridge parkway as a leaf peeper. After one visit, I determined to return for a Friday night jamboree and even fanticised about living there at least part time. It appealed to the ole Vermont hippie in me. I see now that it truely does have some special quality that others recognize as well. I think I'll plan a trip back this fall. Thank you for the video. gloria

    Posted by gloria sumner on September 4,2008 | 12:24PM

    This is a lot like what happens on the Courthouse Square in Mountain View, AR every Saturday. Mountain View is also home to the Folk Center which is dedicated to preserving the music and lifestyle of our rural mountain heritage.

    Posted by David Coley on September 26,2008 | 11:51AM

    What a great story. Floyd is such a cool place, my Dad lived there for a while when I was younger and I stayed with him some. I can remember everyone being very interested in music and art even then. I was not to crazy about Floyd as a kid, but I always think of those times as good ones now. This FloydFest that a previous poster mentioned looks like a really great time, it's hard to believe that Floyd has something that big going on! Dad lives in C'burg now and I missed him on my last trip to VA, so I think I will be watching for the 09' Floydfest schedule.

    Posted by Priscilla on October 25,2008 | 01:43PM

    Reaading this great story brought back a flood of memories. I recall Floyd as the best place to find Chocolate Chess Pie, which soon became my favorite. As a NPS Ranger on the Blue Ridge Parkway from 1966-70, while working out of Roanoke, I frequented the nearby towns for lunch with my partner, Jessie Sutphin. As I recall, Floyd was just off the parkway at Adney Gap. I too gained an appreciation for genuine "Blue Grass" as some of our maintenance crew, from in and around Floyd, entertained at social happenings for the park service gang.

    Posted by Gary Kuiper on December 5,2008 | 11:12PM

    There is so much to see and do in these Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Do you love cultural heritage music? Y’all git on out here…

    We are the start of The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail right here in Rocky Mount Virginia. If you have never had biscuits and gravy at Dairy Queen while listening to toe tappin bluegrass - you better get out here to these Blue Ridge Mountains!

    From here head out on the crooked road past Ferrum and on up the famous "Shooting Creek Road" to Floyd.

    Around here you can toss a rock in any direction and hit a musician!

    Stay with us at The Claiborne House Bed and Breakfast.
    www.ClaiborneHouse.net See our website for local jams and events http://claibornehouse.blogspot.com/

    Where the violin sings...but the fiddle dances

    Posted by Shellie Leete - Innkeeper on October 29,2009 | 05:10PM

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