Gary Ferguson

Hooked on Bluegrass

Gary Ferguson

In 1977 I attended my first Bluegrass Festival- actually it was a competition festival- Union Grove Fiddler's Convention in North Carolina. It was a bit crazy with 50,000 in attendance- but I just loved the whole atmosphere of folks gathering together from all over the country to play acoustic music. After the festival, I went home- sold my electric guitar and amp and bought a 1957 J-45 Gibson and started listening to Bluegrass recordings and going to more festivals.

I soon discovered that you 'had' to have a D-28 Martin if you were gonna play Bluegrass (actually that's not true at all) so I got one and started jamming in the parking lot at festivals at people's houses at field parties etc. til I got good enough to get in a band. I played in several Bluegrass bands til I formed my own in 1989 ... and the rest as they say ... is history. I'm hooked on Bluegrass!

(posted 2/3/2008)