Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival

Our Local Legacy

Most of the year Bean Blossom is a nice, quiet spot in Southern Indiana, not much more than a place where highways 45 and 135 cross each other. On a few weekends each summer, however, it is transformed into the "Mecca of Bluegrass Music".

Each year thousands of folks from all over the country and even overseas make their plans to be right here for one or all of the bluegrass festivals at the park. For some it is their very first time, for many it is a regular part of their summer plans as they return to see and hear their favorite bluegrass bands and to visit and play music with old and new friends.

What is it that makes these folks use their vacation time and cash in their summer savings to come to this Indiana crossroads? Why, it's magic, of course.

It's the magic of the power of music. Bluegrass music speaks clearly to all who listen. It speaks of things that we all feel most every day; sadness, disappointment and heartbreak, joy and victory and love. Men and women singing from their hearts of little parts of life we all share together. Simple yet beautiful melodies carry on memories and lessons that touch some part of each of us.

Time and technology have brought unimagined change to our lives—some of it is good and some isn't so easy to figure out, and a lot of it is mighty complicated.

But bluegrass has stayed relatively constant through the years. When Bill Monroe started this music it was him and his boys playing mandolin, guitar, banjo, bass and fiddle and singing into one microphone. And here today, close to 70 years later it's still largely the same. Machines and demand have changed how we go about our personal and professional days, but not too much how we feel about our lives. When today's musicians step up to the microphone they still sing from the heart and those wonderful melodies.

Time, however, has brought changes to the Bean Blossom Festival grounds. The old barn where the Brown County Jamboree was held each weekend for years is gone, as are the rows of wooden bleachers where so many people sat and enjoyed the shows. Time has brought change to the festival grounds, but it has also brought a sense of history and tradition you can feel when you're there. This year is the 34th consecutive year for this, the longest running bluegrass festival in the world, and all that music has left it's mark on those hills.

Like the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee where the Grand Old Opry was held for so very many years, when you go to Bean Blossom you get an almost reverent feeling from all that has happened there. The musicians who pioneered and shaped a whole new form of music have all performed there. Bill Monroe and his brothers Birch and Charlie, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Ralph and Carter Stanley, Don Reno and Red Smiley, Jimmy Martin and his Sunny Mountain Boys. All the great musicians and bands have come there through the years and played and sung their music to crowds of people just like us—people who love music and come back each year.

This year the festival promises to continue the excitement and offers you the chance to join in this tradition. From Tuesday June 13th through Sunday the 17th you can hear almost 30 bands representing the breadth of today's field of bluegrass bands. First generation bands celebrating their 50th year and contemporary bands alike will be there. One intriguing band is Karl Shifflet And Big Country Show, a relatively new band that plays and performs in the old style, using one microphone and holding to the traditions of the early days of bluegrass. Karl and his boys play a song given to him by Bill Monroe at Bean Blossom in 1995, The One I Love Is Gone, which Bill never recorded.

Dwight Dillman has brought many wonderful changes to the park since buying it in 1998, considerably upgrading the grounds and facilities themselves and also adding several different weekends of music to the summer schedule. In addition to June's Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Festival is the 3rd Annual Jam Fest in July, offering a more contemporary line-up of bluegrass music. The second annual Gospel Jubilee weekend is in August. September offers the Country Music Classic Festival and also the 26th Annual Bill Monroe Hall of Fame and Uncle Pen Festival, closing the summer with another great line-up of bluegrass bands. For more information on any of these festivals call the Bean Blossom office at (812) 988-6422 or 1-800-414-4677.

We are fortunate to have such a wonderful musical tradition right here in Brown County. The State of Indiana has proclaimed Highway 135 from Morgantown to Nashville as the Bill Monroe Memorial Highway, and our nation's Library of Congress has recognized this festival in their Local Legacy Program. There's a reason for all of this.

Jimmy Martin summed it all up very well when he said of Bill Monroe's music, "The thing about this music, is that it's perfect!" And Bill himself once said that he always plays his music right from his heart, and right into yours. That's the magic part. I'll see you there.

Craig Kinney is the voice of community radio's Rural Routes heard every Saturday from Noon to 2 p.m. on WFHB 91.3 FM. You can e-mail him at craig@bloomington.in.us