Posted by Lionel Dempsey on March 25, 103 at 03:58:21:
I first had the pleasure of seeing John at Aunt Minnie's Farm in Stumptown, West Virginia. Must have been in '77 or '78. Aunt Minnie's was the site of the most Kick Ass festivals I ever attended. This particular show was a week long festival and it rained like hell most of the first five days. By the weekend the croud had dwindled down to only a couple of hundred dedicated mountain music lovers and hard core partiers. The ones that held out and were theated to one of the finest shows ever seen & heard. The whole week led up to Bill Monroe then John Hartford just amazed everyone. And then the Dillards just wore it out. When John came back out and joined the Dillards, the crowd just absoutly went wild and were treated to the finest picken we had ever heard.
But the fondest memory of John was at the Fidddlers Convention in Union Grove,NC the following spring. John came strolling across a hay field with banjo, fiddle and his stomping board. He setup in the middle of the field and did his one man show for hours and hours. A day this ole hillbilly will never forget. There was several hundred thousand at Union Grove that spring('79 I think??) and all who saw John's performance that day will also never forget.
You live on John. In our hearts and in our souls.