Inside the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival

AAA South Jersey is a proud sponsor of the 54^th Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, which takes place on Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4-6) at the Salem County Fairgrounds in Woodstown, New Jersey. This event is known to draw attendees from across the country—furthering the reach of the bluegrass genre in a celebration that is for experienced and new fans alike.

Presented by the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music, the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival is the pinnacle of the nonprofit’s year-round efforts to preserve and to promote traditional American folk music. Board Chairman of Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music, Brian M. Duffy, has attended 53 of the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festivals since the beginning—and he also performs there with his band, The Tuesday Mountain Boys.

In the following interview, Duffy shares his expertise and passion for Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music and the Delaware Bluegrass Festival, emphasizing the mission of bringing people together through music.

Watch the video here!

AAA South Jersey: Could you explain a bit of the history behind bluegrass music?
Brian M. Duffy: Bluegrass music has been developed from a number of other musical genres. A lot of folks think of it as Southern Mountain music, which it certainly is, but it's been influenced by gospel music, jazz music, Black blues musicians, New Orleans jazz, church music with the vocals and so forth. It more or less came together in the late ‘40s from several musical influences put together by a gentleman named Bill Monroe, who had grown up in the mountains of Kentucky, and he had family members who played fiddles and banjos and mountain music. He finally brought in some other musical influences, added more rhythm and beat to it, and a little bit more sophistication with vocal harmonies.

AAA: How did you find out about the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, and why did you decide to get involved?
B.D.: I first heard about it when it started back in 1972. I was in my 20s, and I attended the first Bluegrass Festival the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music presented, and it was down at a place called the KOA Campground in Delaware, up off Route 40. Very shortly after that, at the second or third festival, they moved to a nearby location…which was a private property. There was a lot of real-estate development at the time, so things got shifted around. I was playing music at the time with friends, and a bunch of us went to the festival and had a wonderful time—and that was 54 festivals ago. I know there are some folks that have attended every one. I think I've attended every one, except one, where I was traveling out of the country one year on Labor Day weekend, so I missed it.

AAA: How does the festival further the mission of the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music
B.D.: Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music seek to preserve and present traditional old time and bluegrass music, and other forms of traditional American folk music. The festival has broadened the audience, so that serves our mission because more people come to the festival who may not have been familiar with bluegrass music before. Also, it supports the folks who are out on the road playing this music from day to day.

Some tremendously talented performers are out there that could probably make tons more money if they were playing traditional, mainstream country music or rock and roll. Because they love the more traditional music, they take a little bit of a hit there, but they stay playing the music they love. So, with some exceptions, they're not normally in the big-money game. We have some folks that have moved on, like Del McCoury, in recent years, and Alison Krauss.

In the popular media, bluegrass has been exposed somewhat, and that has helped to enlarge the audience. I know several friends from this area, so culturally not really in the hotbed of bluegrass music—but they may have seen the movie Bonnie and Clyde, and they heard the banjo music that played while they were escaping from their first bank robbery. [“The Story Of Bonnie and Clyde”] was a recording made by Lester Faltt and Earl Scruggs, and people heard that and said, ‘What is that? I want to play that music. I want to hear more of that music.’

Other folks saw the movie Deliverance that had banjo music in it, and something clicked where they heard that and became fans. There was a movie called O Brother, Where Art Thou? that was just filled with bluegrass and traditional music; so that enlarged the audience.

It’s become much more popular. It's not mainstream music; it’s not played on commercial radio stations. People have to kind of seek it out, but it's a wonderful community of people that love the music. They love to be with each other, they develop friendships, they play music with each other. They bring their kids and get them involved—they start to play music. So, with our mission of preserving and promoting this music, those types of things really help us to get there.

AAA: How has the festival evolved throughout the years?
B.D.: It started out as a smaller event. In fact, there weren't too many bluegrass festivals at the time anywhere, especially in the Northeast. The ones that existed were mostly in the Southern states. There were two legends of bluegrass music: Bill Monroe, who was the founder of bluegrass music and is known as the father of bluegrass music, and Ralph Stanley, who was from the Stanley brothers. [They] approached some musicians in the Wilmington, Delaware area who were interested in preserving old time and bluegrass music and came up with the idea of having a bluegrass festival somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic states.

So, the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music, a nonprofit volunteer organization, was formed, and they held the first festival in 1972. Since then, it has grown to be one of the major bluegrass festivals in the world. In fact, it was the event of the year a few years ago by the International Bluegrass Music Association and received an award. It's grown in size and reputation, and it moved over to New Jersey [a few] years ago when the venue in Delaware was no longer available.

AAA: How are performers selected?
B.D.: We do have a board of directors where everyone is a volunteer, and everyone participates and assumes an area of responsibility. We select our performers more or less by acclamation from what our audience wants, and also the experience and tastes of our board of directors. We try to keep a wide variety of music: from old-time, more traditional old-time, and primitive music to more modern bluegrass and traditional bluegrass in between. We try to enlarge our audience by giving a variety of music and not having too narrow a scope. We also bring in bluegrass-adjacent music in order to introduce our festival and bluegrass music to new audiences. We bring in some performers from other types of music to bring in new people, so they can say, ‘Wow, bluegrass, that's pretty neat! I think I'll come back.’

This year we're having Kathy Mattea, who is not a bluegrass musician, but she's a very well-known country musician and singer, and she plays in the more traditional fashion of country music; so, we bring in some Kathy Mattea fans. They may not have heard bluegrass music before, just a little bit of it. We get them to our festival, and they grow into fans. Also, we're having a band called Tuba Skinny from New Orleans. It's a New Orleans street band of wonderful jazz musicians, and we've had them at the festival previously and they were so popular that we're bringing them back—I think for the third or fourth time. Once again, they bring in a new audience, and we can introduce bluegrass and old-time music.

AAA: Why is the festival a perfect place for visitors of all ages?
B.D.: Well, I'm glad you asked that question because we are a family-friendly festival. Some music festivals get a reputation for being a wild event with lots of trouble, and we've never had anything like that. We love to have families come and bring their children and camp, make new friendships, and rekindle old friendships. People sit around and play music with each other, sometimes all night long. Also, we have some programs for kids: We have a magician, we have a children's stage with musicians, we have a sand pile that we bring in every year so the small toddlers can play in the sand. We also have a musical instrument ‘petting zoo,’ where children who have not played an instrument can walk in, play, and experiment with different instruments and see what kind of sounds they want.

I think the biggest thing is that every year, for the past several years, we've had a Kids’ Academy where we have professional musicians work with children who sign up for this program for three days, practice a couple of different tunes, and they help them on their different instruments. Then, on Sunday, they get up on the stage and they all play, and it's just a wonderful experience. It’s very much in line with our mission, which is to preserve and to promote this music that we all love, and to see these kids get up there and learn to play. Many who attended our Kids’ Academy in years past have turned out to be amazing young musicians, and some of them play professionally now.

AAA: What have been the most recent updates to the festival?
B.D.: Well, certainly our Kids’ Academy has grown in recent years. Where a few years ago there might have just been a handful of children, a year or two ago we had 45 children on stage playing banjos, fiddles, upright basses, guitars, mandolins, and banjos—and those kids come back year after year. Our audience has grown over the years. I think, although we have first-time attendees at our festival, many people have been there almost every year.

People come back to our festival because it's such a wonderful event. In fact, a few years ago we started having folks fill out a questionnaire, if they chose to do so, and asked for their comments about the festival and what artists they would like to see next year. The No. 1 thing that we got back was how friendly the festival was, and we're really proud of that. We try to keep that atmosphere.

People put their differences aside, they come to camp for the weekend, or they may come for the day. They just have a good time with each other, listening to music, playing music, sitting around and talking, watching their kids play, watching their kids learn to play music; it's just a wonderful event. That furthers our mission, and it speaks well for the music that we love so much.

AAA: Do you have any advice for first-time festival attendees?
B.D.: If you're coming to camp, our festival has lots of room for in-the-rough camping, even with tents, or with campers, motorhomes, or trailers. We don't have hookups like a campground does, so if you're going to come and camp, you have to be prepared for that. We do have food on-site with various vendors, but a lot of folks bring their own and cook at their campsites or get together with friends. You know, there are a lot of campsites of groups that come every year and they camp together—maybe four-or-five motor homes or tents full of people that get together and congregate. They kind of have a reunion and they cook meals together, play music together, and I think that gives you an idea.

But also, a lot of folks come for the day, either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. They just want to hear a particular band, so we accommodate those folks as well. If you come to the festival, bring your own lawn chairs because we don't have a lot of seating. There are some bleachers around, but most of the folks bring lawn chairs to sit and watch the concert or to carry around in the campground and sit and listen to different jam sessions.

AAA: How can people get involved with the Delaware Valley Bluegrass festival or with the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music?
B.D.: Our festival provides a lot of opportunities for aspiring musicians from our Kids’ Academy, where young folks come together from different locations and they get to meet each other. Many of them develop friendships that they nurture over the years, meeting each other year after year, or even at other festivals and getting together and playing. It's also an opportunity for folks who play informally to say, ‘Hey, let's get together and go out and play a gig, or go to an open mic and play.’ Many bands have formed that way, and people have gone on to take it as a full-time venue if that's what they choose.

There are opportunities for folks to make friendships, and for me personally, I started playing this music—I hate to say how long ago, but it was in the early '60s. I've been playing this music most of my life, and one of the main benefits is the friendships that I've made—so many friends from around the country, traveling around and playing at different festivals, just informally or playing on stage. You meet folks that are of the same mind that love the same music. Oftentimes, people will just, at the spur of the moment, sit down and start playing music with each other. Which, if you've done it, you understand that it's kind of a conversation, doing other types of things with media that's related to the genre.

There are many opportunities other than just the friendships that develop. There are professional opportunities for folks that are interested in becoming more active. In our organization, the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music, which is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization, we're always looking for people to step up as volunteers, especially folks that have leadership skills or experience in a certain area of business. We're always looking for people that can help us with advertising, promotion, or finances.

Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music has a website, BrandywineFriends.org, also DelawareValleyBluegrass.org, and also Facebook and Instagram. If you go on YouTube, you can type in ‘Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival,’ and you can see wonderful videos from years past. You can see Bill Monroe playing with Doc Watson. You can see Alison Krauss when she was 18 years old, and we were one of the first festivals [she performed at]. Everyone's heard of Alison Krauss these days, but she’s a wonderful bluegrass musician.