Clifftop, part 1

I had a wonderful weekend in Clifftop, West Virginia at the Appalachian String Band Festival. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive west and into the mountains. We had the only sunny day of the whole week's festival, before the rain returned early Sunday morning. A bit of mud didn't get in the way of a great time! The music and dancing were amazing. This stage held the band and flatfoot competitions.



John Cohen, of the New Lost City Ramblers, played with a Brooklyn band called the Dustbusters (I learned about the tradition of silly names in old time music)! I had seen John Cohen perform in Boston as part of an exhibit of his photos documenting rural Appalachia and mountain communities in South America. The blond young man in this band sang like the ghost of an old mountain man!