Bluegrass folks return to Armuchee
The Armuchee Labor Day Bluegrass Festival heads into its 46th year this weekend.
For Chuck Langley and his late wife Kricket, there were always two groups of people in their lives: “Our mission people and our bluegrass people.”
But his work for one group recently led to recognition by the other, as Langley was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award by the Atlanta Society of Entertainers at its 44th annual awards celebration Aug. 19. The award honored Langley, who co-founded the Armuchee Bluegrass Festival with his wife in 1972, for his decades-long mission work in Central and South America as well as Africa.
The first mission trip Langley, a member of the North Rome Church of God, took with the Men of Action group was in 1985, traveling to Haiti. By the time of his wife’s passing in 2012, they had gone on more than 100 mission trips together.
His latest award is framed and ready to adorn a wall alongside his others - such as those for best venue and lifetime achievement - in the clubhouse at the Armuchee Music Park, which is filling up by the day as the 46th annual Armuchee Labor Day Bluegrass Festival approaches this week.
“This shows you God loves bluegrass and bluegrass people,” Langley said of never having a festival rained out in more than four decades.
Some familiar faces in the “bluegrass circle of friends” have already set up their campers at 899 Turkey Mountain Road, as final preparations are being made before the Thursday night festival opening, a jam-a-long and cookout, at 6 p.m. Langley, as is the case every year, fires up the grill to cook his famous, well at least amongst bluegrass folks, chicken legs, while the hundreds of visitors bring a covered dish.
After the meal, jam sessions take up around campfires outside RVs and campers. And even throughout the two days of performances on Friday and Saturday, there are people playing bluegrass tunes beyond the stage, no matter the time.
Gary Kaste, a Minnesota native now living in
Murphy, North Carolina, said bluegrass and jazz are the only types of music where a group of strangers can sit down and start playing together without a hiccup. Then they can part ways without ever knowing each other’s names, said the rhythm guitar player who hits the road playing music about 20 days each month.
“Bluegrass is the little cement that keeps them together,” said Jerry Burke, of the Hickory Wind Bluegrass Band, an inductee to the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame.
Around a table in the clubhouse late last week, Langley joined Jerry Burke and his wife Helen in chatting about the bluegrass tradition and recalling the names of players of old, while also reminiscing about the days when country was actually country music.
“Country’s not country anymore,” said Helen Burke, a sentiment supported by Langley and her husband. “We don’t want bluegrass to go the way country did.”
“Country music has forgotten its roots,” Langley chimed in, “it has become more about money than music and less about the songs than what sells.”
The Burkes makes these observations after a lifetime of playing music. The music is rooted in their childhoods, when Helen used a broom handle as a microphone and fell asleep to the greats of the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, and Jerry would walk up the road to a neighbor’s home in rural Chatham County, North Carolina, on Saturday nights to take up playing the fiddle at 14.
“It’s been there forever,” said Jerry Burke of bluegrass music, ever since a country boy took to picking in his spare time.
Jerry Burke likes to tell the story of growing up with country legend Charlie Daniels. When he was a senior in high school and Daniels was a freshman, the two would go down by the Deep River and play. During one of these backcountry sessions, Burke struck up a tune he had been messing around with, he said, humming the fiddle opening to “The South’s Gonna Do It Again,” a Daniels’ classic.
“I went into the Navy and he went on to the big time,” he laughed.
Recently, Jerry and his wife went to see Daniels and his band play. When they went backstage to see him, Jerry recalled Daniels loudly welcoming him without pause, like the time between their youth and old age did not exist.
“He hasn’t forgot,” he said, adding Daniels signed his fiddle and gave him a gold fiddle brooch. “That’s music for ya.”
Bands hit the stage Friday starting at 4:45 p.m. and play into the night. Then on Saturday morning, the music picks back up again at 10:45 a.m. A three-day pass is $21, while admission costs $10 on Friday and $12 on Saturday. The festival comes to a close Sunday with a 9:30 a.m. worship service.
For those wishing to stay out at music park for the weekend, electric and water hookups for campers are $20 per night, while tent camping is $5 per night. To find out more about camping call 706-766-6352 or visit the festival’s Facebook page.