RenoFest returns to Hartsville for weekend of Bluegrass

Guatemalan mahoghany, Indian Roosewood, Brazillan Purple Heart, Maple, Sitka Bear Claw Spruce, Abalone — they’re all sounds to Hartsville luthier Boot Arreola, and he is considering them very closely as he designs and builds a specialized guitar in honor of this year’s RenoFest on March 27-29 in Hartsville.

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“There’s a different sound depending upon the type of wood you use,” he said. “You get a warm sound from mahoghany. I like the sound of mahoghany.”

Although it’s all different woods and tones, it’s one sound, he noted, when it comes from the guitar.

Many fragments to create one sound, noted RenoFest co-organizer Marty Driggers, has been the idea behind the festival for a while.

The legend of Don Reno

This will be the 12th year for the annual Hartsville bluegrass festival, one that has evolved from a one-day bluegrass event to a three-day phenomenon that attracts attendees and musicians from all over the country.

“We have Russell Moore; his band (IIIrd Tyme Out) is probably the most decorated,” said Driggers. “They’ve won every award you can imagine. Russell Moore himself has got a great tenor voice. As a novelty, they do a song by The Platters to show their wonderful harmonies.”

The festival also will feature a performance by Claire Lynch, who recently toured with Chris Thile of Nickel Creek.

“We always have Ronnie Reno, son of Don Reno” Driggers said.

Although the festival is named after Don Reno, Driggers said, “A lot of people don’t know who Don Reno is, but he was quite a guy.”

It’s true. Reno’s biography reads a bit like a musical myth, a Southern tall tale. At age 5 in Spartanburg, he picked up a banjo and picked out an old folk song, “May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?” He listened to the radio in between working on his family’s farm in Haywood, N.C. Later, he would pioneer a three-finger style of banjo picking that has since become standard.

For many people, Reno might be a shadow, but his work, most notably “Dueling Banjos,” is a symbol of the rapid yet jocular style of bluegrass music.
RenoFest, Driggers said, is all about honoring the continuing tradition of bluegrass much adored by Don Reno.

Alaskan bluegrass and other oddities

This is symbolized no better than by the large canvas from which the festival is drawing.

Driggers said bands are coming from all over the nation.

“One is from Ohio, one is from Alaska, one is from Pennsylvania. The rest are from North and South Carolina,” he said.

The festival features a band competition as well as a banjo and a guitar competition.

“There are 10 guitar and banjo players, some really national banjo and guitar players,” Driggers said. “The winners get a very exclusive prize.”

The prize for the guitar competition is a six-stringer designed and built by Wayne Henderson.

“There’s a six-year wait if you want one,” he said.

The banjo competition winner will receive a Deering “Terry Baucum” model banjo, designed by Deering Banjo Company for banjo picker Terry Baucum.

Pickers from around the region will be competing in both competitions for the honored prices, which collectively, are in the price range of the upper thousands.

Family Tradition

Picker Bob Facer will be entering the guitar competition for the first time. The guitar Boot Arreola is designing for RenoFest is modeled after the guitar owned by Facer’s stepfather Phil Parnell.

Facer lived in Connecticut until two years when he moved down to South Carolina.

“I’ve been playing instruments since I was about 5,” he said. “I was playing in my stepfather’s bluegrass band (Timberlyn) at the age of 13. Being a musical family, I can’t go nowhere without music.”

The bluegrass atmosphere in South Carolina, he noted, is just as strong as the one in Connecticut.

Although, he said, since moving to the Pee Dee, he certainly has kept himself busy with bluegrass. “I did more fishing up there in Connecticut than I did here. Pretty much every weekend we’re playing somewhere.”

He went to RenoFest last year and said, “I find it to be a very well put-together festival being in the small town of Hartsville.”

This year, he will be performing an original piece at the RenoFest guitar competition entitled “Mischief.”

“It’s a tune me and my stepfather wrote together,” he said. As for the name, “That I can’t really tell you. Just a name we came up with.”

A Matter of Comfort

Arreola said he hopes his guitar will be played by Facer during a jam session, so other pickers will be able to see what he is doing.

Facer said he might play the guitar for a jam session, but for the guitar competition, he’ll prefer to use his own guitar.

It’s not anything personal, Arrerola said, but it’s a matter of comfort.

“It was my first guitar I ever bought myself,” said Facer, referring to the guitar he’ll be using for the competition. “I’ve been using it for a very long time. It’s extremely mine. It works for me.”

Arreola said he has been thinking about designing and building a guitar for a while, and he experimented with a mandolin several months back, but he said the aura of bluegrass music in the Pee Dee area is growing, and it’s encouraging.

“I see (RenoFest) getting big. The other day someone was saying, ‘Maybe it’ll be the biggest thing since MerleFest,’ and I was thinking, ‘Yes.’”

That comment about MerleFest, noted Driggers, might not be as whimsical as it sounds.

He said he remembers a couple speaking to him at a past RenoFest, who said, “We like your festival better than MerleFest (a large bluegrass festival in Wilkesboro, N.C. dedicated to Doc and Merle Watson).”

That, Driggers said, is music to his ears.

Schedule of Events
March 27
Bluegrass Band Competition from 1 to 5 p.m. at Center Theatre
Downtown Hoe-Down and BBQ featuring Slope Valley Bluegrass Band and The Young Fiddlers from 6 to 9 p.m. in Cargill Way in Downtown Hartsville (Please bring your own stool or lawnchair for the Hoe-Down)
Honky Tonk Hartsville from 9 p.m. until late at several venues throughout Downtown Hartsville

March 28
(All events at Center Theatre)
Banjo and Guitar Competitions from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Anderson & Strickland from 12:35 to 1:15 p.m.
Banjo and Guitar Finals from 1:20 to 2:25 p.m.
Claire Lynch from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m.
Ronnie Reno & The Reno Tradition from 3:20 to 4:05 p.m.
Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out from 4:20 to 5:15 p.m.
Church Street Blues from 6:30 to 7:10 p.m.
Claire Lynch from 7:15 to 8:05 p.m.
Ronnie Reno & The Reno Tradition from 8:10 to 8:55 p.m.
Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out from 9 to 9:50 p.m.

March 29
Sunday Morning Gospel Sing with Church Street Blues at 10:30 a.m. at Wesley United Methodist Church in Downtown Hartsville

Details
WHAT: RenoFest
WHEN: March 27-29
WHERE: Hartsville
ADMISSION: Event prices vary.
INFO: www.renofest.com or (843) 332-1600 or (843) 332-5151