University of Virginia Library

Shouts Of 'Rocky Top!' And A Dancing Drunk

By BILL BARDENWERPER

LOVINGSTON VA. –
Rocky Top! Rocky Top!
shouted the energetic gathering
of farmers, farmhands,
townspeople, youngsters and
just plain rednecks until
George Moore and The
Roanoke Valley Boys finally
admitted that they simply did
not know how to play Rocky
Top.

The Sprouse Brothers who
kept apologizing that they had
colds eventually consented to a
sloppy rendition which really
didn't sound that sloppy
at all to the occasional
enthusiast like myself but
which to the surprise of both
The Sprouse Brothers and
myself was met by fervent
cheers from the crowd. After
all, these people weren't
experts either but merely
wholesome folk who simply
enjoy Blue Grass whether it is
good, bad or mediocre.

After listening to Bunny
Sprouse's "swingin fiddle,"
some wild pickin' an' a grinnin'
and The Sprouse Brothers'
mildly lethargic three-part
harmony, I began to
understand why these people
were so enthusiastic. In fact,
the enthusiasm went both
ways. The groups just could
not wait to get their
opportunity to play. Every
time one group finished a tune
we could hear the next group
already playing off-stage.

It wasn't the quality of the
music which kept this crowd o
ardently attentive, rather it was
the quantity of the music; as
George Moore said: "We're
willin' to stay as long as we
have a few people staying to
hear us."

Added Attraction

And that's just what they
did. None of the groups
seemed to pay any attention to
the fact that the audience had
finally dwindled from about
200 persons (who may very
well have ngered all night had
it not been that they had
chores the next morning) to
about 17 of us and one dancing
drunk. As an added attraction
he provided some real
entertainment and probably
kept The Roanoke Valley Boys
and the rest of us around for as
long as we actually did stay. I
doubt if he ever did figure into
a share of the night's receipts,
though.

When George Moore finally
packed up his guitar to drive
his group back to Roanoke,
they (like us) were only taking
a break, We were all
determined to return in two
weeks with our ticket stubs for
more Blue Grass and a faint
hope of winning the $70
recliner which Evelyn the
emcee continually reminded us

of throughout the evening. In
fact, she opened the show the
same way she closed it, talking
about that chair.

When we arrived Friday
evening at the Nelson Theatre
in Lovingston, Evelyn, whose
knee-high white boots drooped
to her ankles and whose
physique resembled a stuffed
cigar box, and Hardin, a lanky
mandolin player with slicked
back hair and a sparkling black
vest were almost finished
performing.

Evelyn did much better as
emcee soliciting dirty jokes
from the audience than
warbling gospel-songs. And
Hardin seemed far more
natural as a back-up mandolin
with Bonnie Beverly and the
Hill City Cut-ups than he did as
the better half of the first
attraction, Evelyn and Hardin.

But if they didn't arouse
our artistic sensitivities, they
did at least arouse our senses of
humor.

While the organizers (or
maybe just local politicians)
kept parading behind the stage
in hopes that by the evening's
end we would remember their
faces, the combinations of
performers kept changing –
each time they performed
giving themselves another
name.

The high point of the
evening was without a doubt,
Little George the one-hand
bass player whose enthusiasm
brought not only a lot of
applause but also a couple of
false starts as he discovered
only too late that the rest of
his group was still tuning up. I
thought he was a little old man
until he let his near-soprano
voice go.

Although by the end of the
evening the performers were all
gathered next to the popcorn
machine in the front lobby
waiting for their meager cuts of
the night's receipts, none
seemed in any hurry to collect.
After all, if money was the
overriding concern the tiny
Nelson Theatre in Lovingston,
Virginia was not the place
where 15 performers were all
going to prosper.

Applause

These people thrive on
applause, and both the
audience's spontaneous
outbursts and Evelyn's
prompting kept the show
going.

All in all Friday night's
concert did feature some good
Blue Grass and was a lot of
fun. It was also the best two
bucks I ever spent.

(The next show is Sunday,
Feb. 31, from 2-7 p.m.
Lovingston is 30 miles south of
Charlottesville on Route
29–Ed.)