Friday Night Jamboree

by Nina Cohen

Most days, the Floyd Country Store is a quiet place, selling crafts and bluegrass CDs. When Friday rolls around, though, the store dusts itself off and throws its doors open to some of the finest old-time and bluegrass music southern Appalachia has to offer. For 20 years, musicians and dancers from across western Virginia have flocked year-round to Floyd’s Friday Night Jamboree.

On a cool spring evening, instrument cases line the sidewalk in front of the white clapboard store in Floyd, Va. (pop. 432). Tunes drift through the air as players clump together and start warming up. Lots of them stay outside all evening, swapping tunes with anyone who’ll play along.

Inside, the show gets underway with the 6:30 p.m. bluegrass gospel hour. Listeners, who pay $3 to get in, fill the rows of folding chairs in front of the stage. Hubert Roberson works the sound system. A Floyd native and accomplished musician for most of his 76 years, he was part of the group that started the Friday night tradition back in 1983.

“I was in a band called the Bluegrass Travelers,” he says. “We’d come in here Friday nights to practice. At first, the door was locked and people would stand outside to listen at us. Finally we let them in. Then, we moved stuff out of the way so they could see us, and the first thing you knew, it just got bigger and bigger.”

Meanwhile, the “sidewalk grass”—those groups jamming outside—is in full swing, with crowds of onlookers gathered around. Just outside the door, 13-year-old Jarred Nutter of Meadow Bridge, W.Va., plays old-time tunes on the fiddle while his teacher, Jim Costa, accompanies him on guitar. A young guy in a camouflage cap backs them up on the banjo and a woman with an upright bass plucks out the beat.

Nutter has only been playing for a year, but he sounds confident as they go through such tunes as Whiskey Before Breakfast and Little Billy Wilson. The banjo player calls out the chords of an unfamiliar song for the bassist, and they all break into laughter as Costa forgets the words.

People with taps on their shoes clatter by on their way in. The gospel band is done, and now the dancing can begin. Ralph Hayden and the Barbershop Grass get a lively crowd flatfooting across the wooden floor. Little kids, old folks, and everyone in between shuffles along to the irresistible rhythm.

After a few numbers, the floor clears for the Old Dominion Cloggers. Dressed in black pants and twirly skirts, their synchronized taps ring out as they demonstrate fancy square dance moves to loud claps and cheers.

By 8:30 p.m., a new band comes on and the store is packed with people. A younger crowd has started to file in. Hiking boots, sandals, and fashionable haircuts mix with the feed store caps and pressed blue jeans. The music continues until around 11:30 p.m.

Alzora Wood works the refreshment counter, scooping ice cream and pouring Cokes. “People hear about us through the Internet, and lots of students come here from Virginia Tech,” she says. “We don’t allow drinking or smoking, so they come for good, clean entertainment and to learn about the music.”

Mike Brough, co-owner of the store, says he and his partner William Morgan haven’t planned any major changes since they bought the place in 1999.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he says. “We’re continually amazed at how popular and widely known the place is. At least a third of the hands go up whenever I ask who is there for the first time.

“But what’s unique is that the flavor of it hasn’t changed,” Brough adds. “We’re real pleased at how many excellent musicians come and play here. I tell you, it’s hard to keep your feet still when that music is going. If your feet are still, you better check your pulse!”

Nina Cohen is a writer and resident of Floyd, Va.

first appeared: 7/6/2003