Ep. 467 - Appalachian String Band Music Festival (Clifftop) 2023

A five-day mountaintop gathering of musicians and friends with contests, concerts, workshops, square dances, camping and vendors. Old time Appalachian music is presented to an audience of more than 3000 musicians and string band music lovers of all ages.  The festival attracts visitors and participants from all around the world including all 50 states and more than 20 foreign countries.  

Join Rob as he talks about Clifftop, the mecca of old-time music that is the Appalachian String Band Festival.  He talks about how music has been a part of his life, and how attendance at this festival ties into the balanced life that he seeks.  

Social goals are part of a balanced life.  

• How do YOU engage in a social life and set goals to do so?

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#oldtime #clifftop #fiddle #banjo #folk #music #old #folkmusic #appalachainstringbandmusicfestival #clifftop  #westvirginia #oldtimemusic #oldtimes #guitar #history #mandolin #travel #love #memories #music #livemusic #musician #fiddler #bass #cajunfiddle #americana #camping #festival

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Cover photo: https://fiddlefreak.com/2009/03/22/clifftop/
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Discussion Links:
 
Clifftop - the Appalachian String Band Music Festival - PBS

Clifftop: a Beginner's Guide - Oldtime Central

Appalachian String Band Music Festival - WV Culture

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

If we stand together, we'll never fall. We can make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hi there. Welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. Today is Thursday, November 17th, 2022. And this is episode number 467 of a show where you join me with my family on our small farm and homestead, where we talk about the five W's and how as we grow all around here on the homestead at York Meadow Farm. I had to think about that for a minute as far as what day today was. It's been a busy week, but nevertheless, it is indeed Thursday. The topic of today's show is the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, otherwise known as Cliff Top. And why is that the topic of today's show? Well, old time music, for those of you who don't know, is a big part of my life. It has been for about 20 years now at this point. Uh, I was very, very into it, into the old time community 20 years ago, and it has come and gone, uh, I guess in waves and cycles in and out of my life, and it is very much a part of my life again. And uh, we are going to do a deep dive into what Cliff Top is all about and what the Appalachian String Band Music Festival actually is. But before we do that, let's take a moment to mention our show sponsors, and one of which is York Meadow Farm, who produces handcrafted batches of probiotic rich fermented foods and natural bath and body products scented with pure essential oils, no fragrance oils, just pure essential oils, clean natural products for you and your family. The new online store allows you to order both Market Fresh Lacto fermented foods and these all natural bath and potty products from the convenience of your own home. There is also a new merchandise page which is having products added or will be having products added soon. And if you are listening to the show, you can get 25% off all orders by using the discount code AllAroundGrowth at checkout. So for things that you're already using at home, like Bath and Body Products, consider checking out YorkMetal Farm.com for you know, first of all, free shipping on orders over 45 bucks and an additional 25% off with the code All Around Growth. I'd also like to give Food Forest Farms a big just a bit a big shout out and a big thank you for the continued support of the show and helping bring the the show, helping grow the show and bring it to new new people on new platforms, you know, with the ability to record and stream through StreamYard, we can now uh stream live to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Float, Telegram. I'm I'm I'm experimenting a little bit with the latter two and trying to figure it out, but nevertheless, I wouldn't be doing any of this if it wasn't for Food Forest Farms. So, you know, check them out and everything that's going on at foodforestfarms.com. And one specific thing that you should check out is the upcoming event in June of 2023, which is Squatch Fest, right? Which is a summer solstice celebration of music, art, and light. And you definitely want to learn more about that. I just shared something about that on the Facebook page so that you can learn more about that as well. So check out foodforestfarms.com, the squat slash the squatchfest, and you can learn everything about that upcoming festival in June there.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

And you know, the talk of a festival is a wonderful segue into the topic of today's show, which is its formal name is the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, but most people simply call it Clifftop. In the world of old-time music, Clifftop is considered a required destination.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

There you and Clifftop is where I will be heading next year. You see, social goals the the I I mentioned old time and being a you know setting goals earlier and and old time music being a part of my life, and I didn't realize that that I it wasn't until recently that when I began working through goals in the structure that I have been that I realized that this is most likely why old-time music has ebbed and flowed in my life, along with many other things like spirituality, like I talked about yesterday, the ebb and flow there, uh, the patterns with my career, you know, the cycles of great growth and development and climbing the corporate ladder only to burn out. You know, my inability to find balance in life is something that you know I've continually struggled with, but I find I have an easier grasp on and managing when I set goals in the process lined out in the goal setting workbook, which I'll link to in the show notes. So when it comes to social goals, one of the goals that I had, well, it you know, up for this past year from when I went through this process last year was to play more old-time music, period. And specifically, I was going to try to play six hours a week. Uh did I get did I reach that goal every week? No. But I'll tell you what, I played a lot more than I have uh in past years for sure. And you know, the the increased playing resulted in you know further development and cultivation of relationships with uh my friend Guy and his wife, who I spoke about yesterday, and not to mention his sister, or I mean uh guy's sister, uh Linny, who actually lives, you know, not too far from me, uh in Lichfield, where we used to live prior to moving out here, and she plays old time too, and she plays banjo primarily and can play a little violin. She's a classically trained violin player, so she knows music and she's learning to play old time. So um, you know, I was playing earlier in the year with her regularly, but once I left my job and things changed up in life, I stopped doing that as consistently, but nevertheless continued to play. So over the past few months, the three of us have gotten together a couple of times to play, and it's been absolutely wonderful. And the two of them apparently decided that they were going to go to Cliff Top in 2023, and we discussed this at a birthday party for Linny's daughter's husband, who turned 40. Shout out to Chris out there if you are listening. Uh happy belated birthday, but we certainly celebrated in full uh that day. Um and we initially talked about it there. You know, making a commitment to attend something like Cliff Top is it's a it's a big deal. So you know why is it a big deal? Well, before I tell you, you know, why I hesitated, let's let's learn a little bit more about what what Clifftop is. Now, the little clip that I played you is actually part of and really close to the introduction of a documentary on PBS titled Cliff Top, the Appalachian String Band Music Festival. It is actually something I've not watched myself, but I ironically, um, you know, I give it, I give it a thumbs up because the intro, I I actually know the guitar player there and um used to play with her when I lived in Asheville, and um she used to date a friend of mine. So there you you know, this this old-time community is far reaching, but it's also very tight-knit. So this reads a uh the the the the documentary here on PBS, which I'll link to in the show notes, is a documentary look at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, aka Cliff Top. A unique festival in that a very large percentage of the participants are musicians. Each night, at any given moment, there are literally a hundred jam sessions going on. The documentary also explores the evolving concepts behind old time. Also featured are interviews and performances of legendary fiddler Les McCumbers. I don't know who Les McCumbers is, but like I said, uh I know who some of the musicians are in this video after only seeing 30 seconds of the introduction. So I would recommend checking it out. But to get a better understanding of the festival itself, you know, I will also link to the official website, which is on West Virginiaculture.org, and it has all the information about the Appalachian String Band Music Festival Festival, easy for me to say, which is officially called a five-day mountaintop gathering of musicians and friends with contests, concerts, workshops, square dances, camping, and vendors. Old-time Appalachian music is presented to an audience of more than 3,000 musicians and string band music lovers of all ages. The festival attracts visitors and participants from all around the world, including all 50 states and more than 20 foreign countries. The festival dates are in early August, uh, at least they were in 2022. I'm not entirely sure of the dates in 2023. I'm thinking late July. But basically, the way that the festival is broken down is there's pre-camping and then there's the five-day festival. And on the website, you can see the prices, the schedule of events, the contests, the prizes, all of the things that go along with this. But one of the things that I read the other day that I wanted to share with you is an article titled Cliff Top A Beginner's Guide. And this is from oldtimescentral.com, and I'll link to this again in the show notes. And this is uh an article by a woman named Hilary Burns, and she is a pretty excellent uh banjo player. Um almost everybody who begins to learn banjo ends up stumbling across some kind of content from Hillary because she's she's a very prolific player and she's very good. And in this article, there are a bunch of photos by Sandra Parks. So I'll go ahead and read some of this article to you, and then I'll just kind of riff on it when it's really not worth reading. So let's go ahead and get into this. Like I said, I'll link to this in the show notes so that you can read it as well. But for those of you listening, this will simply be a simple breakdown of it. And I think what I'm going to try to do is let those of you out there in the audience see what I am seeing as well. Okay, so Clifftop, a beginner's guide. Three to four thousand old-time musicians, all in one place. If you're one of the few who regard the scenario as heaven rather than hell, you owe it to yourself to go to that mecca of old-time music that is the Appalachian String Band Festival, generally called Clifftop. Chances are that what if you go once, you'll be hooked. I'm often asked about the festival by friends who are considering going. So in this article, I'll try to answer some of the questions a first-time attendee might have. And that, my friends, is me. Please keep in mind that as you read this, I'm not officially representing the Appalachian String Band Festival. I am an experienced Clifftop attendee, though I'm someone who truly loves the festival. The Appalachian String Band Festival, the brainchild of Will Carter, and first held in 1990, was a project of the West Virginia Department of Culture and History. It's still held in the original location near an unincorporated community called Clifftop in Fayette County, West Virginia at Camp Washington Carver. Named for both George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington, the camp served from 1942 to 1957 as a 4-H camp for West Virginia West Virginia children of color and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Great Chestnut Lodge at Camp WC is the largest log structure of its kind in the world, and the camp is adjacent to Babcock State Park. Now it's important to understand that Clifftop is essentially split into two parts: pre-camping and the festival. The official festival runs for five days from the Wednesday before the first full weekend in August until the following Sunday. These days include all the competitions. The vendors are there in full force and lots of people who are just there to listen and watch. And then there's the pre-camping, the date for which seems to get earlier every year. Pre-camping is when old-time musicians show up just to jam camp and hang out. Okay, so then there's some detail that Hillary writes about getting there. And I'm not going to go into all of the details about that, but basically, this unincorporated community in West Virginia is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. The closest international airports are well over 200 miles away, being in Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Charlotte. The nearest domestic airports are quite small. And the closest one is in Beckley, West Virginia, at 30 miles away, and then another one in Lewisburg, which, you know, if you're flying in there, I don't know. But there are options, and you know, the best way to get there is try to connect with some people and ride with them. And that's what I'm doing. As far as the weather is concerned, the weather in West Virginia in late July, early August can change dramatically, considering the elevation is um about 2,500 feet above sea level. So it's kind of in the hills, and oftentimes it rains. Um, and the nights are quite cool at that time of year with an average temperature in the high 50s, and the days are warm in the 80s. So, you know, it's it's gonna be a camping experience that could potentially get muddy, and I think it's just gonna be a nice way to relax and decompress and get away from things for a while. Um, this is something that I really hesitated on on doing, but you know, the reality is um I you know I was encouraged to to do this. Um like I said, this has been a big part of my life, old-time music that is, for 20 years. Um and it's been years since I actually, you know, took a vacation uh of any kind. I've been I've been really, really grinding it out. And this this isn't this isn't gonna be a really expensive endeavor, but at the same time, um it might be for me because everything is relative right now, due to the fact that you know I'm I'm I'm self-employed right now, and every time I I I have to leave the the farm for an extended period of time uh and miss a market, that's that that that that's that's very challenging. So um, you know, I'm this is this particular event is going to be purely social. I'm hopeful that other events that I end up attending down the road are going to be something I can dovetail with the business and perhaps attend either as a speaker or as a vendor or um, you know, have an opportunity to you know compound that with the business. But for now, you know, this event, uh, you know, guy really wanted me to go. They came over for my everyone came over for my parents' 70th birthday. Um, you know, we were playing on the front porch. Uh some people thought it was a recording, you know, we we were getting to the point where we're where we're becoming better and and having a lot of fun playing together. And when I talked about this with my parents, they they encouraged they encouraged me to check it out. So, you know, for those of you who are watching, um, I made sure to play a little bit of this documentary in the background so you can kind of see a little bit of the experience that I'm about to get into. And you know, as far as I can tell, this is just this is just like a big any other kind of big camping music festival, uh state fair-esque type event, except it's all old-time musicians, and it's all it's it's all old-time musicians, all old time all the time. Um, now as far as you know, sleeping is concerned, a lot of it's tent camping. There are some places for RVs and such, I I presume, but there's showers, which is nice, and you know, basically, just like everything else, the earlier you get there, the the the best campsites you can secure. Um, people set up there are in various neighborhoods, you know. And um, as I was talking with, you know, there's a little section in this article titled Retail at Camp. But I'm not like I said, I'm not gonna go ahead and get into all of this. But this leads me to believe maybe I should take down a couple cases of sauerkraut and see what I can huck there. And if I can end up selling some, then all of a sudden this maybe becomes a business trip. But as I was talking with Guy about just the whole scene, there are a lot of guys and a lot of people just posted up, giving lessons for free, inviting people in, trying to teach them stuff. And that's part of what the old-time community is all about. And the article goes on to talk a little bit about the contests and concerts that go on. And Hillary writes, Well, Cliff Top is mostly about jamming with friends old and new, there are also organized contests and a few concerts during the Wednesday through Saturday festival days. These take place on the stage but are moved into the Great Chestnut Lodge in the event of rain. So what's cool is you know you also you have the experience to meet people, play with people, sit in on jams, listen to people that are absolutely wild musicians that are so good. And you can see the the the competitions, and those are a lot of fun. The only thing that I've ever attended resembling anything like this is uh Mount Airy Fiddler's Convention, which was also held on a similar type of campground with showers and barns and old 4-H type of place, but um that was a lot smaller, and it was also the Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention um was also a bluegrass event. This is all old times. So, you know, there's a there's a cool little map explaining um the different the different areas, uh area called you know geezer hill, an area called the Cajuns, um you know, an area called New England and Texas. And I presume these are all an area called the Swamp, aka the bottoms. Um and I presume that some of these areas are where you know the the different um camps are, like the Cajun fiddlers are maybe hanging out over there, the Texas fiddlers are hanging out over there, and the New England, the New England style fiddlers are hanging. And you see, it's these are all different genres and different types of fiddling. Like it they're they're they're each distinct in their own right, and whereas and and also like Midwest and can like Midwest fiddlers differ in style from like North Carolina cartoons, which is you know initially what I learned down there. So I'm excited to learn more about all different kinds of old time, and I've been exposed to it in the past, but not quite like this. So, you know, I'm I'm excited to see this. I'm excited to see uh, you know, Berhan Bernia, um which is apparently what Hillary's uh camp is titled. Now there's some some etiquette on jamming and things like that, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go ahead and I'm not gonna, you know, share all of that with you. I'm just gonna link to some of these articles in the show notes so that you can, you know, learn a little bit more about it as well. But nevertheless, that is the topic of today's show with regard to social goals. It has been um an interesting ride with old time music in my life over the past two decades. And I I don't I I I don't really have many hobbies, but this this certainly is one of them. And I think hobbies are an important thing to have in life, especially when your hobbies provide you with the opportunity to connect with real people in real life in order to have real human experiences. And that is what this is all about with regard to Cliff Top. That is what this show is all about with regard to much of what we talk about here and growing all around on the homestead, in business, and as other enterprises develop here. You know, real quick side note, the way that the way that uh we talk about the farm here as a family, we talk about the farm as as becoming the hub with all these different spokes forming the wheel. You know, for example, the All-Around Growth Podcast becoming one of those spokes. And as we begin to rebrand the different products lines that we already make, you know, the fermented food product line that will be rebranded will be another spoke. The bath and body product line will be another spoke, operating as almost separate entities. And as as things go on, you know, we we develop that in order to balance our own operation here on the homestead. And the balance is something that we need in life, and we can do that through setting goals and engaging in whatever hobby it is that you have. If your hobby is ham radio, cool. If your hobby is crocheting or knitting, cool. If your hobbies are fitness, cool. Um, no matter what your hobby is, um you know, schedule time for it and make it a part of your life. And depending on how important it is to you, you know, you'll find the balance that you need to find if you want to. A good way that you can go about doing that to provide structure is again with this goal setting workbook that I'm gonna link to in the show notes, but it just helps me look at everything in life and and compartmentalize it to a certain degree so that I can understand, first of all, what I want and what I'm aiming for, and then second of all, set goals in order to achieve that, and third of all, track it and with some sort of metrics so that I can adjust accordingly when life on life's terms happens, and I am encouraged, for lack of a better term, to be um to make some change. So that that's a great framework. And you know, check it out. So it will be linked to in the show notes, along with the documentary that we took a look at on the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, otherwise known as Clift Top. I'll also link to a lot this article that I read quite a bit from from Old Time Central, Clifttop, a beginner's guide. And uh lastly, I will link to the official Appalachian String Band Music Festival website on West VirginiaCulture.org. So, guys, check out the show notes. And as far as uh tomorrow is concerned, it is Thursday, and with tomorrow being Friday, we are going to talk about the show, talk about some statistics, some benchmarks, and we're gonna do that at 10 a.m. It's gonna be a live stream, so be sure to tune in tomorrow if you can on YouTube and chime in with what's been going on in your life over the past few years, or at least what's been going on with your life for the duration that you've listened to the show. And as we uh as I review the statistics and talk about, you know, who's who's downloading what from where, and we just kind of break down what's going on with the show. I'm interested in hearing from you about, you know, where you're at, where you're watching from, where you're listening from, in in the case that um you're just listening via YouTube Live or whatever the case may be. Uh I I'm interested in you chiming in. And for those of you that are in the Telegram group, I'm interested in you know, uh those of you who want to call in and talk. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of this streaming platform um and and really utilize it and build or not build, but but but cultivate this community that's already being built, that's already underway. So I look forward to that tomorrow with you, and I hope that you can make it, and I hope that you have a great day today. Guys, this is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.