CMT Blog: Archive

Merlefest is probably the world’s largest Americana and roots music festival. I was at the very first Merle Watson Memorial Festival (as it was called in those days) 21 years ago. The first concert featured jams with Chet Atkins, Doc, Earl Scruggs, Mac Wiseman, Jim Shumate, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Grandpa Jones, Marty Stuart, Newgrass Revival, John Hartford, Mark O’Connor and others inside the Walker Center and outside on a flatbed truck stage. I remember sitting on hay bales outside watching the whole thing go down. A few years later, I was playing Merlefest as a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station. One particular year was memorable because the mainstage show consisted of us and Ronnie Milsap, who just murdered the crowd with a solo guitar version of “Knoxville Girl.”

Blue Highway has played this festival four times over the years, including the last two in a row, and it’s always one of our favorites. The Walker Center shows are always a highlight for us, and the sound is amazing. Now there are 14 stages and it’s almost impossible to see everything you want — especially us artists, who are always running here and there. Merlefest specializes in unusual groupings of artists, and this year was no different, when patrons saw Bruce Hornsby and Sam Bush jamming with Levon Helm, Tim O’Brien playing with the Infamous Stringdusters, as well as Tony Rice and John Cowan sitting down in a new configuration. I did a guitar workshop with Andy Falco of the Stringdusters and Cheick Hamala Diabate from Ghana. We had never played together before, but he was an amazing player and we were able to back him up on a couple of West African tunes in unusual meter to our Western ears. What a blast! - Tim Stafford