Darrington Bluegrass Festival about music and family

DARRINGTON — Peggy Cairns took a turn early Monday morning working the entrance to the Bluegrass Festival campgrounds.

While she waited for campers to arrive and check in, Cairns got out her fiddle and played some tunes in the big parking lot that today will fill with vehicles carrying hundreds of bluegrass music fans.

The 39th annual Darrington Bluegrass Festival is July 17 through 19 on Highway 530 just west of town, but a lot of these fans have been in Darrington for the past week, Cairns included.

Every summer for the past eight years the Concrete woman has camped in the majestic wooded grounds, with its delightful view of Whitehorse Mountain and its access to the North Fork Stillaguamish River.

People bring their banjos, guitars, dobros, basses, fiddles, mandolins and even saxophones to join the all-afternoon and all-evening jam sessions that crop up in various corners of the campgrounds.

“It’s like a big family reunion,” said Diana Morgan of Darrington. “People go to bed listening to music and wake up listening to music.”

With its roots in Appalachia among people of Irish, Scottish and British ancestry, bluegrass was often gospel-based and tinged with more than a little country twang. In the past century, as people followed the timber industry out to Washington from the likes of North Carolina, bluegrass became one of the region’s most important musical genres. The “Tarheels” who moved to Darrington during the logging heyday first met for jam sessions in their homes, where they played their favorite old-time tunes and held on to their Appalachian heritage.

The Darrington Bluegrass Festival founded nearly 40 years ago is considered one of the best of its kind on the West Coast.

Though just a few of the festival founders are still alive — most notably Bertha Nations Whiteside and Grover and Ernestine Jones — the legacy remains.

Morgan, widow of the late beloved banjoist Roy Morgan, is a fine fiddle, guitar and mandolin player herself.

Roy moved to Darrington in 1958 at age 19. Diana grew up in north Seattle and was one of the organizers of Western Washington’s first bluegrass festival in 1972 at Gold Creek Park in Woodinville. Along they way, they got to know each other.

On the Darrington Bluegrass and Country Music Makers Association’s festival board since 1993, Diana runs the green room for the musicians about to walk onto the festival stage.

“Sometimes, the bands have to go out for a look at Whitehorse Mountain before they perform,” Morgan said. “Otherwise they might be distracted by the beauty during their set.”

The famous Bill Monroe played the festival one year. One of photos Monroe prized most was of him from the back of the stage looking over the amphitheater audience with Whitehorse in the background, Morgan said.

Terri Jones and her husband Bob, an Everett couple, are not longtime musicians but they love the atmosphere of the festival and have been camping there for the past 15 years. Bob schedules his vacation around the festival.

The Joneses, along with friends and relatives from California, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, form a corral with their trailers, put up a canopy and decorate the space. Last year it was pink flamingos and this year it’s Christmas in July. On Thursdays of camp week they host a “Sing for Your Supper” taco feed for nearly 100 people.

Guitarist Betty Lampinen of Everett organizes the singing part of the supper. Lampinen, who helps run the monthly bluegrass jam in Maltby, enjoys the campground jam sessions, including with her campsite neighbor dobro player Arlene McCown of Port Orchard.

“We go to a lot of festivals around the West,” McCown said. “Darrington’s is so awesome. The pickin’ here is great.”

The headliners for this year’s festival include the Gibson Brothers, the Crowe Brothers and the Gold Heart sisters.

The Gibson Brothers — siblings Eric and Leigh Gibson from upstate New York — are at the top of the bluegrass pile, having arrived on the scene 20 years ago ready to expand on the bluegrass songbook. They are scheduled to perform twice on Saturday and close the festival early on Sunday evening.

On their newest recording “Brotherhood” the Gibsons salute the harmonizing brother acts who inspired them, including the classic bluegrass Stanleys, Monroes and Osbornes, country’s Louvin Brothers and Blue Sky Boys and the rocking Everly Brothers.

“The Gibsons are one of my favorite groups right now,” Lampinen said. “I am excited to see them.”

Another brotherly group, the Crowe Brothers from North Carolina, will bring their bluegrass and traditional country to the stage as well. Josh and Wayne Crowe have a new album titled “I’ve Got The Moon On My Side.”

Not to be outdone by other sibling bands, Gold Heart features sisters Tori, Jocey and Shelby Gold, who have 10 years of experience on the bluegrass scene, hundreds of live performances and now four albums under their belts.

“These young people, such as the Gold sisters, are our future,” Diana Morgan said. “We’ve raised a lot of players, too.”

Bands with younger members to be featured on the festival stage include regional favorite the North Country Bluegrass Band from Snohomish and King counties.

Other bands set to perform includeRural Delivery, Birdsview Bluegrass, Fern Hill, Red Desert Ramblers, Panhandle Polecats and Damascus Road.

And don’t forget Darrington’s hometown band, the Combinations, scheduled to play Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.

“They are our special favorites,” Morgan said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.

If you go

Ticket and camping information for the Darrington Bluegrass Festival is at www.darringtonbluegrass.com. Daily and weekend passes are available.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.