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Wednesday, October 3, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Bluegrass is good, old, down home,
footstompin', guitar strummin', banjo
pickin' music. Some people might call it
hiliburtia music. Some might call it cowboy
Others would just say that it's a heck of a lot, of fun.
Last weekend a crowd of bluegrass lovers, estimated at well over 1,000, gathered in Winfield for the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival and 2nd Annual National Flatpacking Championship in Alabama. The crowd left the United States and from every walk of life.
Businessmen mingled with cowboys,with
long-haired youths and with little old women dressed in Sunday clothes. They all came to listen to the music and to cheer competitors in the fuddling, flatpicking and singing.
They all sat together in the grandstand at the Winfield Fairgrounds. Together they cheered, stomped their feet and applauded performances by bluegrass musicians such as Doc and Merle Watson and the New Grass Revival. They ate together, camped out together and shivered in the rain together.
And together they all had a heck of a lot of fun.
A young bluegrass enthusiast listens intently during the Walnut Valley Festival.
Text and Photos
by
Susan Marie Winslow
Guitarist Doc Watson was in the spotlight during evening performances.
Above: 18-year-old Jeff Pritchard of Valley center won the festival fiddling competition.
Right: A guitarist whistles the tune during an impromptu jam session.
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