DARRINGTON — Bertha Nations Whiteside looked across the amphitheater and down to the stage where she and her longtime band The Combinations will perform this eveningJuly 15 during the 40th annual Darrington Bluegrass Festival.
Arguably the “queen” of the festival, Bertha, 86, a guitarist, has been involved all of those 40 years. She moved with her family from North Carolina to Darrington at age 17. Her Tarheel accent is still evident and her passion for bluegrass music is still strong.
Ernestine Jones pulled a dandelion out by its roots as she walked across the festival grounds.
At 84, Ernestine is protective of the festival’s home. Also native North Carolinians, she and her husband Grover, 87, were instrumental in building the music park, which also hosts the Spur Festival of country music in June, the StrutzFest of classic rock later in July and the eclectic Summer Meltdown musical festival in August.
This weekend, people who attend the bluegrass music festival will hear North Carolina bands Balsam Range, Mountain Faith and Wayne Taylor &Appaloosa, Missouri’s Bull Harmon and Bullseye, Jeff Scroggins &Colorado, the Navy’s Country Current band — all national headliners — along with well-known regional bands The Combinations, North Country, Lonesome Ridge and Top String.
Earlier this week, Ernestine, Grover and Bertha sat down to talk about the festival, which remains one of the best of its kind on the West Coast. In the background, people already camping at the park were engaged in a lengthy jam session.
“I moved to Darrington in 1938 at age 9,” Grover said. “The roads were all gravel, the sidewalks were boards and the entertainment was watching the fights at the taverns.”
The community needed something more, he said. Many of the people who moved to Darrington for the timber industry brought with them their Appalachian music. Some would play together in the evening.
“Our organized bluegrass jam started when Grover wanted to learn to play an instrument,” Ernestine said. “His cousin Earl Jones taught him to play. But Earl got bored and asked his friends Roy Morgan and Bertha and Sam Nations to come over to play, too. And then another came and another came, and one night we had 56 people in my house, people from all over. All playing old time music. Eventually there just wasn’t enough room.”
The gathering moved to a room at the Darrington school, where more than 500 people from all over the state and Canada showed up to enjoy the weekly bluegrass jam. This went on for years until the core group decided the next step had to be an annual bluegrass music festival.
“We had a meeting and three people threw $5 bills into the pot,” Ernestine said. “That’s how it started, and all because Grover wanted to learn to play guitar.”
The first festival in 1977 was held at the Timberbowl Rodeo grounds, next door to the current music park. The stage was big flatbed trailer and an audience of about 1,000 showed up to enjoy the three-day festival.
“We had hippies and bikers and old folks,” Grover said.
Among the first bands to play were The Combinations, the White Horse Mountaineers, Fred McFalls Family, the Willow Creek Ramblers and The Tennesseans, which for a time included a young (now renowned) fiddler named Mark O’Connor from Mountlake Terrace.
The gate that first summer produced enough money to pay the musicians a bit and cover all the expenses, so the festival committee decided to try it again the following year. And it kept going.
“We had a lot of work to do from the start. I remember cleaning those outhouses,” Bertha said. “Oh, my.”
At some point the Joneses learned that the 40-acre property next to the rodeo grounds was available for purchase. Long story short: The festival committee bought the property for $110,000 and began making the improvements that resulted in the music park today.
It was a tremendous amount of work, much of it done during the rainy winters. Grover brought in a backhoe to clear the parking lot and the bowl that would become the amphitheater seating area.
“God made the contour, we just had to clear it,” Ernestine said. “It’s a magical place.”
The first festival in the music park was in 1986.
A few years later, festival organizers brought in the great Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys from Kentucky. A mandolinist, Monroe’s heydays were in the 1940s before country music got big in the 1950s, during the 1960s folk music revival and in the 1980s after he released several albums recorded with famous country, bluegrass and rock musicians.
Monroe, like many of the visiting musicians from the other side of the country, had to pause a minute before playing. The view from the stage is of beautiful Whitehorse Mountain, which was, as the story goes, the inspiration for Monroe’s “Whitehorse Breakdown” tune.
Today, many of the original organizers of the festival, including banjo players Sam Nations and Roy Morgan are gone. Diana Morgan, Roy’s widow, is on the board of the festival.
“Darrington benefits greatly from all of these summer music festivals,” Diana said. “We’re very proud of that.”
Bertha agreed.
“This music park is a wonderful place and wouldn’t be so without all the volunteers,” said Bertha. “During our festival each year, I look forward to seeing my friends and enjoying the music. I started playing guitar when I was 12 and I won’t quit.
“I love bluegrass music, even the fast kind that the young people play. They are our future — the next 40 years.”
If you go
Darrington Bluegrass Festival
July 15-17; Highway 530 west of Darrington; www.darringtonbluegrass.com
Admission: $60 for all three days; $35 for camping
Walk-in gate: $25 for 6 to 11 p.m. Friday; $30 for 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday; $25 for 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday
Children free with an adult.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
