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On March 29, 2001, I was notified by Dan Hays, Executive Director of IBMA, that on behalf of the IBMA Showcase Talent Committee we had been invited to the 2001 World of Bluegrass Trade Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Naturally, we were all overjoyed to be chosen to partake in such an event as this is often a launching pad for bluegrass entertainers and groups for bigger and better things. Out of the almost one hundred bands that formally applied for this showcase, we felt truly honored to be one of the acts chosen and immediately went to work on every conceivable aspect of what we wanted to do with it. The showcase set was to be twenty five minutes long, and was sponsored by Stelling Banjo Works. (Hey, nice banjo!)
Upon our arrival in Louisville, about the first thing we wanted to do was to go and see our friends Bertie, Grace, the whole gang from Mississippi, and our good buddy Sterling Keller from New Jersey. We played a few songs for them, when Bertie asked us if we had thought about playing a patriotic song during our showcase. We really hadn't, and were a little afraid of what the next comment was going be after telling her we only "sorta" knew one. A couple weeks before, I sat down and learned "America The Beautiful" on the banjo the night before a show in Baldwinsville. Even though we would not have a lot time to rehearse the song, I wanted to play it in memory of all those lost in the World Trade Center attack. We played it for Bertie, and, even though there were a few mistakes, she thought it would be just wonderful if we did that one during our showcase. (!!) So back to the woodshed we went and rehearsed the song until it was smooth enough to play (in less than 24 hours). Since we were, in Bertie's words, "the band from New York," we thought it would be nice for Ray to read sort of a narrative we came up with. The banjo would start the song; then the fiddle would start the melody of the second verse. When Joe started his break on the fiddle, this is what Ray read to the audience:
At that point, the banjo and fiddle came back into the refrain of the chorus twice through, and, thanks to Patti Crooker, a large American flag came up from behind the stage and was positioned behind us!! Needless to say it was all quite moving to everyone who was in attendance, and we were honored to have been able to make such a tribute to our country and the people we lost that day.
On Thursday we went to Rosine again, this time to visit the newly restored boyhood home of Bill Monroe,"back in the hills of old Kentucky ..." (Click here for a separate page dedicated to that event.) Finally having the chance to see something you could have only dreamed about before was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!
On Friday morning, we went on a riverboat cruise in memory of John Hartford aboard the "Belle of Louisville." None of us had ever been aboard a riverboat before. I had never seen one! It was a wonderful three hour trip up the Ohio River and back. The boat docks right next to the Galt House Hotel where IBMA is. There were stage shows by Laurie Lewis, the Dry Branch Fire Squad, Leroy Troy, and others. We all had a great time there. Click here to see the photos from that.
~Scott Corbett, October 2001
Scott's
IBMA Photo Album
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