Col. Jim and Ailene Peva at Uncle Pen Days 2007 - photo by Rickey Lamb

Col. Jim Peva considers The Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park and Campground in Bean Blossom, Ind., to be hallowed ground in the great realm of bluegrass music.

And he wants it to remain that way.

Peva, considered one of the great historians of the tiny spot on the Indiana road map, has issued a plea to “save Bean Blossom for bluegrass.”

Dwight Dillman, a former Bluegrass Boy with Bill Monroe, purchased the park in 1998 from James Monroe, son of the father of bluegrass music. Having made vast improvements to the park and campground, Dillman now has the park and campgrounds for sale.

Like Peva, Dillman said he has every desire for the next owner to maintain the campgrounds for its current usage.

Not only is the annual Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival staged on the grounds every June, but Dillman also promotes several other festivals at the park each year, including Uncle Pen Days in September, when the Hall of Fame museum on the grounds inducts a new member. This year’s inductee was the original Carter Family.

Peva has watched with great enthusiasm as new park improvements were made and more festivals added under Dillman’s ownership. But he was an avid and astute Bean Blossom watcher long before that.

Peva, a retired Indiana State Police officer and teacher, first heard Bill Monroe perform at the Brown County Jamboree (site of the current festival grounds) in 1961. He hasn’t missed a June festival at Bean Blossom since Monroe started having them in 1967. He came to be one of Monroe’s closest friends in the hilly, southern Indiana region around Bean Blossom.

He’s the author of a book, “Bean Blossom: Its People and Its Music,” which is described as “a photographic history of the Bean Blossom area with an emphasis on bluegrass music and friendship of Bill Monroe and the author’s family.”

“Bluegrass fans have a greater rapport with their musical idols than in any other form of music,” Peva once said.

Now, he’s counting on those loyal fans to join his appeal to save Bean Blossom as the genre’s premiere music park.

Here’s a letter Peva is circulating in the bluegrass media:

“Save Bean Blossom for Bluegrass”

In 1951 Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass Music, purchased the Brown County Jamboree in the hill country of south central Indiana, a site where musical performances had taken place since 1940. In June of 1967 he started a bluegrass festival there which has continued uninterrupted since that time and which is now the oldest continuous bluegrass festival in the world. Many stars of the Grand Ole Opry who were contemporaries of Bill Monroe and just about all of the greats of bluegrass music have performed on the Bean Blossom stage. The place is rich in musical tradition and history. Many major bluegrass stars of today cut their teeth as youngsters on the jams sessions at Bean Blossom and performed there early in their careers. Some may in fact owe their careers to the influence of this place.

In 1998, after the death of Bill Monroe, former Blue Grass Boy Dwight Dillman purchased the festival grounds and museum from James Monroe. Dillman stated his purpose was to bring the festival back to the national prominence it enjoyed under Monroe, and to do it as a memorial to his former boss. He set about immediately to improve the festival grounds while at the same time preserving the natural beauty of the hilly and wooded property. Shortly after Bill Monroe’s death, State highway 135 which runs through Bean Blossom was designated the “Bill Monroe Memorial Highway” by the Indiana General Assembly, and the annual June festival was designated a Local Legacy by the Library of Congress.

Now, having accomplished his purpose, Dwight Dillman has put the Bean Blossom festival grounds and museum up for sale, with the understanding that he wants the bluegrass music and tradition to continue there.

This is a call for friends and fans of Bill Monroe and his music to unite in the cause to save Bean Blossom for bluegrass. It is important that the Bean Blossom festival grounds and museum remain in the hands of people who have part of their souls in bluegrass music. Get the word out. Duplicate this page. Send it to your bluegrass friends. Post it on bluegrass web sites. It may help to generate ideas and action that will preserve the place called the Mecca of bluegrass music. For now unless otherwise stated, you may send any ideas, thoughts, suggestions and contacts to me and I will make sure that the appropriate people receive them.

Contact Jim Peva

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Larry Stephenson

New faces will join the lineup of staples at the 42nd annual Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival to be held in Bean Blossom, Ind., in June 2008, according to a tentative lineup that’s already being advertised. Among the notable new acts will be The Dailey Vincent Band, featuring Jamie Dailey, a veteran of Doyle Lawson’s Quicksilver, and Darrin Vincent, a longtime member of Ricky Skagg’s Kentucky Thunder.

The 2008 festival will run from June 14 to June 21.

Grand Ole Opry star Gene Watson will also appear at next year’s event. Also featured will be a reunion of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys with Wayne Lewis and Kenny Baker, and regular events and activities, including the Bill Monroe Sunset Jam, Bluegrass Now Youth Activity Tent, workshops, the Youth Bluegrass Boot Camp (additional charge required) and free admission to the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Country Star Museum, which is on the festival grounds, 5 miles north of Nashville, Ind.

The lineup advertised via a flyer during the Uncle Pen Day’s Festival in September includes Dr. Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, The Grascals, Cherryholmes, Gene Watson, Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press, J.D. Crowe & the New South, Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, Marty Raybon & Full Circle, IIIrd Tyme Out, The Lewis Family, Alecia Nugent, Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain, James Monroe & the Midnight Ramblers, Eddie & Martha Adcock, the James King Band, Paul Williams & the Victory Trio, Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen, Kenny & Amanda Smith, Ralph Stanley II, Special Consensus, The Sullivan Family, Larry Stephenson Band, David Parmley & Continental Divide, David Davis & the Warrior River Boys, Karl Shiflett &the Big Country Show, Dan Paisley & Southern Grass and Tommy Brown & County Line Grass.

Other acts are expected to be added to the lineup after the first of the year.

Advance tickets and camping reservations are also being accepted at www.beanblossom.com. The concert tickets are currently being sold at a substantial discount.

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By Rickey Lamb

A commentary

Some of my greatest memories as a young man growing up in southern Indiana were of my Dad and me, traveling the hills of Brown County in an old one-ton International truck. It would be loaded with watermelons, cantaloupes and sweet corn from the family farm. Our destination would be Short’s market in Bean Blossom, Indiana.

Dad and Short would trade jokes and wild stories, Dad would flirt with Short’s daughter and I would happily take it all in.

For a few brief hours, I’d have my Dad all to myself. We’d travel up and down those wonderful hills, listen to old country songs on the radio and stop and eat some huge tenderloin at a truck stop on the way back home.

Mom’s side of the family, the Hattons, would trade off the location of the family reunions every summer. One year it would be at a park in Vincennes and the next year it would be at Brown County State Park, just down the road from Bean Blossom. The Hattons originated from this area.

As I grew into adulthood, I would take a pretty gal I was courting to this region to impress her with its outstanding beauty. In the early Eighties, my family and I traveled to Nashville, Ind., and rented a cabin. This afforded me the opportunity to go to my first Bean Blossom bluegrass festival, back when Bill Monroe was still alive and kicking.

I could continue on about the fantastic memories I have about Bean Blossom, Brown County, Bill Monroe and his festival. For me, there is a life full of memories about this area, which I’m not alone in telling.

Dr. Tom Adler at Uncle Pen Days Festival, Bean Blossom, IN (2007) photo by Rickey lamb

This leads me to Dr. Tom Adler.

Last summer I sat in on a presentation that Dr. Adler gave, up on Hippie Hill in the Bean Blossom music park. He showed intriguing news clips, photographs and stories about music that occurred long before Bill Monroe owned the site of the festival. I was totally captivated!

I had long loved the festival and the goings on, but I had no idea there was music being created years before on these very grounds, or at least just a few feet away — pretty much on the very spot where Dad and I would unload that truck full of melons at Short’s market.

Bill Monroe’s first festival didn’t occur until 1967. The first jamboree occurred in September of 1941, years before any appearance by the Father of Bluegrass or my Dad and me hawking produce. The Brown County Jamboree began as a free show along state highway 135 in Bean Blossom. This event was used by local merchants to promote their businesses and wares.

Radio broadcasts originated from this jamboree and performers also traveled to other Indiana locations to do their shows.

The interior of the Brown County Jamboree barn during a performance (1977) - Thought to be Elvin Rook from Columbus, IN. on stage. photo by Tom Adler

A phenomenal amount and magnitude of stars appeared at the jamboree. Stars like Uncle Dave Macon, Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff, Pee Wee King, Rex Allen, Little Jimmie Dickens and many others performed on this site.

Due to the incredible success of the jamboree, the Rund family that owned the site, in 1942 began to erect a huge barn with a radio room to house and broadcast the jamboree.

All of this took place many years prior to the first Bean Blossom festival under Bill Monroe’s ownership.

The park was sold in 1998 to Dwight Dillman, a former Monroe Bluegrass Boy, who currently owns the park.

I was privileged during Uncle Pen Days in September to talk to Dr. Adler about the history of the park and his upcoming book. The working title of the book is “Bean Blossom: The Brown County Jamboree and Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Festivals.” The manuscript is under its final revisions and will be out in the next year or two.

“This is hallowed ground for great music and the musicians who have played (on) it”, Alder reminisced. “It would be a shame if there were ever a time when music isn’t being played on this site”, he continued to speak almost reverentially.

Tom Adler (banjo) and Howard Marshall pickin’ behind the Brown County Jamboree Barn (1973). Photo by Elizabeth M. Adler

One of the problems Dr. Adler has had is that he does not know what to include and omit from his book. He has assimilated such a vast amount of substance about this jamboree and the festivals that followed that he could publish several volumes of material.

There is such a rich history of incredible musicians and stars that have played on this site it’s hard to know what to include and what not to include.

This leads to why the story of this site is so compelling and begs to be told. If Dr. Adler does not tell it now, it may never get told. He has done such an outstanding job of research; he is the logical one to tell the story of the rich musical heritage of this place.

Not only can Adler tell it from an analytical standpoint but also his heart and soul have personally been involved. At many of the past festivals he was not only a writer, but observer, musician and participant.

I want to personally thank Dr. Adler for his research concerning Bean Blossom and its musical history. This man has done an incredible amount of investigative work to insure many will know there has been a rich musical past in Bean Blossom for close to a century now.

The chronicle must be told not only for those who attend those festivals presently, but for some kid in Indiana presently hawking produce, totally unaware of the magic that surrounds him.

Editor’s Note - Many thanks to Dr. Tom Adler for providing and allowing us to use the black and white images that accompanied this story.

If any reader can positively identify the group on stage in the photo above please contact us so that we may pass that information on to Dr. Adler.

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A veritable flotilla of golf carts hugs the shade during an afternoon concert in mid-September at the Uncle Pen Days festival in Bean Blossom, Ind. The campground at the Bill Monroe Memorial Bluegrass Park was nearly filled to capacity during the four-day festival, which was blessed with rain-less, ideal but warm weather. photo by Dan Tackett

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Steve Dilling and Russell Moore of IIIrd Tyme Out photo by Rickey Lamb

Attending a festival at Bean Blossom, Indiana, hallowed ground to Bill Monroe disciples, is almost like living a bluegrass classic. It has the hills and hollers where fiddle and banjo music rings, either from the amplified stage system or from the many late night/early morning jam sessions. It has many wisps of smoke rising from campers’ fires — makes no difference if it’s 90 in the shade or a crisp fall evening. (After all, even the most novice camper would ask, what’s camping without a camp fire?)

More importantly, like any good bluegrass tune, Bean Blossom’s bluegrass campground spills over with good, salt-of-the-earth types.

Today, the campground is quiet with Uncle Pen Days 2007 wrapping up Saturday. Only the last ghostly musical notes of jammers and performers can be heard, bouncing down the hollers and up into the hills. Of course, those notes are all figments of memories. And Uncle Pen Days produced a ton of them — notes and memories, that is.

Several folks camping in my neck of the Bean Blossom woods believed Uncle Pen Days’ opening night yielded what they felt was the best single package they had seen at this festival. Indeed, it was a powerful and eclectic night of music. Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen provided most of the eclectic part of the menu with an 80-minute set that took the listener to Hillman’s days as a member of the Byrds to the Hillman-Pedersen collaboration in the Desert Rose Band to just some darn good songs, performed as tributes to some of their favorite influences.

Randy Waller photo by Rickey Lamb

Others on this stellar opening night playbill were Ronnie Reno & Reno Tradition, Randy Waller & Country Gentlemen, Grasstowne, Steep Canyon Rangers, Eddie & Martha Adcock, the Anita Fisher Band and closing act IIIrd Tyme Out. Most were repeat performances on the 2007 Bean Blossom calendar, having performed during the gigantic Bill Monroe tribute festival in June.

Besides the hour and 20 minute show by Hillman and Pedersen, Eddie and Martha Adcock also performed an extended set, due mainly to health problems Eddie Adcock is currently weathering. Adcock’s maladies aside, the husband-wife duo, as usual, had the crowd in their hands, performing many request numbers.

Two bands — Steep Canyon Rangers and Grasstowne — performed exceptionally strong evening sets. Grasstowne vocalist Steve Gulley, surrounded by stellar musicians and lifelong friends, put the crowd in a frenzy with his dynamic, soulful vocals. And Steep Canyon Rangers proved to be a tough act to follow, even for the tough act that did follow them, IIIrd Tyme Out. The Rangers do a lot of original material in their sets, but it sounds so doggone traditional — with one strong kick.

And IIIrd Tyme Out closed the show in their usual fashion, leaving fans on their feet wanting more — even though more (or is it Moore, as in lead vocalist Russell Moore?) is never enough. This marked the group’s first Bean Blossom performance since the departure of bass player and band co-founder Rockin’ Ray Deaton. Edgar Loudermilk, a longtime picker with Marty Raybon’s Full Circle band, is filling Deaton’s shoes and, in doing so, is giving this strong vocal band an even stronger vocal presence. Deaton sang the band’s basement-deep bass parts, but Loudermilk is a high tenor who offers a different blend with Moore’s unique and dynamic voice. So, what’s a band like this to do without their bass singer? IIIrd Tyme Out’s answer is to use their bus driver, who like Deaton before him, is able to rattle the woofers like an old pro.

Myron Dillman, Paul Williams and Danny Tackett in an impromptu campground jam. photo by Rickey Lamb

Whew! That’s a lot of music packed into one night, but as many said, it was perhaps the best single night of music they had seen on the Bean Blossom stage.

The four-day festival produced other memorable performances by a lineup of heavyweights in the industry. James King and his band were particularly strong with in-your-face harmonies by Kevin Prater and Adam Poindexter and some crowd-pleasing choreography as they worked the mics.

Bobby Osborne was … well, what can you say? He was Bobby Osborne. And J.D. Crowe and his merry band of pickers were the same as Osborne. Always, at their finest. And Bobby Osborne, perhaps feeling a little nostalgic, offering up several Osborne Brothers classics during his two shows.

Cherryholmes? They, too, were simply Cherryholmes, or as one emcee refers to the family band as bluegrass on steroids. What incredible energy.

Other powerful performances during the festival came from the Lonesome River Band, the Isaacs, and Kenny and Amanda Smith.

As has become tradition at Bean Blossom, Ralph Stanley appeared on Saturday, the event’s closing night. Also part of the festivities was the induction of a new Bean Blossom Hall of Fame member. This year’s selection was the original Carter Family.

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