By LARRY HYPES
Get your dancing shoes on because the third annual Pocahontas Bluegrass Festival is set for this coming Friday, June 26 at the old Pocahontas High School building and that will be followed by Russell Synan’s annual get-together up on Peel Chestnut Mountain on the following Friday, July 3, with the Town of Pocahontas’ July 4 celebration the very next day featuring a street dance before the fireworks show.
Mr. Synan treats the community every year to a wonderful outdoor celebration, all kinds of music, food and a big fireworks display on his impressive mountain farm. It is a midsummer prelude to the famed Pumpkin Festival held up there every October.
Mr. Synan, his friends and family, and folks from the community all work together. Their goal is simply to provide a good time for the area and everyone (including you!) is always welcome for the fine family fun in a picturesque outdoor setting. These people show us all what the true meaning of “neighbor” really is.
Greg Jones, town treasurer, along with Mayor Adam Cannoy and the Poca town council, have the plans for the Saturday, July 4 Pocahontas town festival all ready with the notice that a parade featuring the theme of “The Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave” will begin at 7 p.m.
All types of entrants are encouraged including cars, floats, four-wheels, carriages, etc. The music will begin with Tom and Cindy Woods of Starlight Karaoke and then a contest will be held there at Laurel Meadows Park. Food and refreshments will be available then the fireworks start at dusk. Both events will have outstanding fireworks shows that will amaze with the spectacular sights and sounds so mark your calendar for those dates.
This Bluegrass Festival is the biggest and best yet with what music director Duke White calls “a $50 ticket for just $10” and it is all about two things: helping the Lions Club with the Sight Conservation and Community Assistance Programs, and bringing some of the best musicians in this part of the country to our own back yard. And, in case you might need it, there is an excellent chance to win $500 cash.
From Tazewell and Mercer Counties, both Bent Hickory and Black Diamond are coming. Just about everybody says Jerry Shinault of Bent Hickory should be on the Grand Old Opry and you won’t find two better instrumentalists than brothers Eddie and Donald Marrs of the very popular Black Diamond group.
Duke is very particular about his music, believe me, and he insisted that every group be above average. That is certainly true of Country Pride from Princeton, featuring Jim and Patsy Croy and a great band. Picking and vocals are both top notch for one of Mercer County’s own great attractions.
Ali Shumate returns home from Florida with a terrific band as the headliner for the second session. She is very anxious to bring her stage show back to Pocahontas.
I can’t wait to see Wayne Henderson come back for the first time since he played in Bluefield about a decade ago when Tim and Jean Jarrett had his show in the old Bluefield, Va., Municipal Auditorium. Wayne is a National Heritage Award winner, has played all over the world, owns more guitar competition honors than anyone I know, and is renowned everywhere as a great luthier (instrument maker). He will have Helen White and Herb Key on stage, veteran, talented singers and instrumentalists as many of you know. To see Wayne Henderson is to see the best at what he does.
The doors will open for that at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 6:30 p.m. so come early and look around the old coalfield capital where Four Seasons Country got its start when the first car of coal was shipped in 1883 just across the hill from the equally famed town of Bramwell, home of the Millionaires and many of the most splendid homes in America.
For the next couple of weekends you can get some history, absolutely the finest music, good food, and meet lots of friends in the Poca area. Despite the economic woes of late, organizations like the town officials, the Tazewell County Industrial Development Authority, the Board of Supervisors, etc., are working to build back life into the community and bring it forward into the future with new ideas.
It will be a chance to not only have some fun but to be a part of helping to jump start a very historic area that has been a backbone of this area for more than a century.
We have here yet another opportunity, as we have seen so many times in this part of the area, for the past to be a springboard that will help us build a solid future that hopefully will attract and keep some of our valuable young boys and girls right here at home.
Remember, come hungry and plan to stay late!
Larry Hypes is a teacher at Tazewell High School and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.
