Buzzard Mountain Blog

Sorry it's been awhile since I have posted an update, but it's been a pretty busy summer here at Buzzard Mountain HQ. Upon the advice of Chris Via I ventured to West Virginia a few weeks ago to the Appalachian String Band Festival, affectionately known as Clifftop. Despite the fact that it rained nearly everyday I was there I had a great time! I got to hangout with some old friends and meet a few new ones too. I would recommend to anyone interested in Old Time music to make the pilgrimage next year.

Here are few videos from Clifftop:
Chris Via and Friends Jam (including yours truly)


James Reed and The Giles Mountain String Band playing at our canopy.


Lester McCombers on Fiddle and Kim Johnson on Banjo. I got to spend some time with these two and get to know them a little bit, both wonderful people and Old Time players. Kim has a new CD out of here banjo playing, it is highly recommended. You can reach her at banjowv@gmail.com to request a copy.


Jeremy Stevens and Kilby Spencer showed up at or canopy to play a few.


Here is Jeremy and Kilby during the competition playing Sail Away Ladies.


Here is Kilby and Jeremy during the fiddle competition playing Sally Goodin.


It was a great weekend!

I'm still working on getting all of the videos uploaded from the Henry Reed Memorial Fiddlers Convention, but here are a few more.

Well I've been back from the Henry Reed Memorial Fiddlers Convention now for a few days and have had some time to recover. It was great time in a beautiful setting, tucked into the heart of Appalachia at Glen Lyn, VA and I couldn't think of a better venue for a fiddlers convention. I heard some great music and met some wonderful people. I had a chance to record some video that I will be posting to my youtube account in the next couple of days. The first one is of Jimmy Costa and Mark C. Campbell playing some Uncle Dave Macon tunes in our campsite on Friday evening.



Jimmy Costa is a wonderful musician and historian, he is full of stories from old Appalachian culture. Here is a link to an article about him: http://www.wvculture.org/goldenseal/costa.html and here is another Youtube video of him playing at West Virginia State Theater. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVpzNg3qss

Mark Campbell has a great site www.markccampbelloldtimefiddle.com with some wonderful fiddle lessons. Here is an excerpt about Mark from his site:

"In 2008 Mark was named the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities' Master fiddler. He was also the 2001 Champion Fiddler at the Appalachian String Band Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia, has twice won the State Fair of Virginia fiddle contest, and has won the West Virginia State Folkfestival banjo and fiddle competitions. Mark travels throughout the region, performs concerts/lectures, teaches classes, plays for dances and produces solo and band recordings."

Both Jimmy and Mark are great guys and I appreciate them sharing some of their music and stories with us this year.

I can't wait until next year!