Festival draws bands from near and far
By CHRISTIAN LEHMAN

The recent Butternut Creek Festival that took place July 21 and 22 was much more than a homespun arts and crafts festival; there was also live entertainment over the whole weekend. Two of the six musical acts that graced the stage over the weekend were the Blacktop Ramblers and Buck and Nelson. Both acts brought their wide repertoires to the gazebo at Meeks Park for some good oldfashioned musical fun.

On a warm Saturday afternoon, Blairsville's own Buck and Nelson took to the stage not once, but twice, bringing their mix of down home acoustic music. The duo made up of David Buchanan and Nelson Thomas started playing together when they were kids over thirty years ago. Since then they have perfected their sound that some would call "roots music," that is music with a variety of influences from bluegrass to folk to rock to blues and gospel. Some also term this genre of music as "Americana," whatever you chose to call their music you are assured of a good time. Buck and Nelson play a steady stream of classic songs including Bob Dylan's Knocking on Heavens Door as well a dose of originals that are very well written.

In addition to their fingerpicking and flatpicking on their acoustic guitars, Buck and Nelson have been

known to spice up their music with other instruments including banjo, mandolin, fiddle, harmonica and the always-impressive washboard. Buck and Nelson play a lot of shows over the summer and try to tailor make their shows to the audience they are playing for. They will be playing this Friday August 4, at Unicoi State Park in Helen.

The Blacktop Ramblers are made up of a hodgepodge of five musicians from the Atlanta area. This years Butternut Creek Festival was their second appearance at the mid-summer Blairsville event. Consisting of Alan Bozeman on banjo; Walter Dean on dobro; John Hammack on mandolin; Charles Moody on guitar and Dan Patterson

on bass, these guys know how to have fun on stage. They play a happy blend of old bluegrass, newgrass and gospel music with plenty of stories and the occasional bad joke mixed in. The banter among the band kept the crowd laughing and into the music, which also included a few original tunes. Unfortunately, this show was to be their last for the foreseeable future, owning to the relocation of Hammack to the northeast. But they plan to somehow fill his shoes and get back on the road again.

Once again Mike Smith and his dedicated crew pulled off another spectacular festival that was a joy for the public as well as the participants.