Old Roots, New Branches

A long weekend in late April brought Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, Del McCoury, Elvis Costello and over 100 other bands to Wilkesboro this year, where they shared the grounds of a community college with beloved patriarch Doc Watson. For the last 19 years, thousands of fans have gathered at Merlefest, taking in four days of roots music 23 miles down U.S. 421 from Watson’s birthplace of Deep Gap.

Elsewhere, the fall and spring editions of the Shakori Hills festivals—twin mini-Merlefests in Chatham County, if you will—hosted a similar variety of roots-leaning acts. As usual, bluegrass festivals remained widespread in the state, publicity occasionally consisting of a few cardboard signs posted a couple weeks in advance. Somehow, fans of high and lonesome still find them. And in Carrboro, the fourth annual American Roots Series at the ArtsCenter again hit every corner of the sprawling Americana tent, from folk and swing to honky-tonk and sacred steel.