The long awaited road trip to The Southern Ohio Indoor Music Festival got under way in mid-afternoon on Thursday, November 10th, and we were revved up and giddy as a bunch kids in a toy store. Well, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration, but I have to say we were excited about our first "Official" trade show outing since the inception of our company on April 15, 2004. What made it even more exciting was that we were going to do a number of interviews (for Bluegrass Talk Radio) with some of the industry's leading bluegrass musicians, and that we did for sure.

We finally arrived in Xenia, Ohio around 7:00 PM and checked into our rooms at the Knight's Inn. We opted for the $45.00 per night Motel as opposed to the $150.00 per nighter because it seemed so much saner to spend $180.00 on rooms rather than $600.00. All we needed was a place to crash anyway. Interestingly, we found out later that this motel had been robbed a couple of days before we got there, go figure.

Well, by 7:30 PM we decided to grab a bite to eat, and since there was nothing that interested us in Xenia, we decided to head for Dayton to see what we could scrape up. Well, things got even more interesting once we got hog tied on I-35. We finally got up to where all the commotion was, and what we first thought was a spilled load of produce (someone in the car said it looked like a load of onions on the road) turned out to be about a six hundred yard long trail of animal entrails. OH, my heavens it stunk! Apparently, a truck from a slaughter house had tipped over, and lost its load of pig entrails on the road. I guess we were hog tied, literally. We finally got to a Texas Roadhouse off I-75, but all we could think about was that truckload of entrails stinking up the highway. Somehow the salad bar looked good that night.

Did I say the fun was over that night? Well forgive me if I did because it was only beginning. We got back to our rooms around 11:00 or 11:30 PM (I don't remember exactly) and decided to do some picking, and singing. Buffy and Sherri came over to our room (I was bunking with Dale Keane, our advertising guy), and I gave Sherri my banjo to pick while Dale played the guitar. We were playing and singing some old standards when we heard a loud knock on the door. We thought it was an angry neighbor or the Motel management, but we slowly opened the door to find a guy standing there saying, "I heard some bluegrass, and I love bluegrass music!" Dale said to him, "Well come on in!" Well, in walked a guy that look like Larry the Cable guy, but he was stone drunk and could hardly stand up. His name was John Adams, by the way, and by the smell on his person and breath, we could tell he had spent some time with his brother, Sam Adams.

He asked Sherri to play Foggy Mt. Breakdown, and when she did, he proceeded to dance all over the motel room. She finished playing and he said to her, "Hey, can you play Foggy Mt. Breakdown?" Iâm not certain he knew what planet he was on, but he did continually tell us, "I love you guys, I love you guys." We finally finished up and got John Adams on his way, but we were happy if we happened to make this guy's day.

We got up early the next day and drove to the Roberts Convention Center in Wilmington so we could check in and get our table set up for the show. I have to say that Joe Mullins knows how to put on a first rate show with as much professionalism as you could hope for. The number of vendors was less than we expected, but the line up of talent was second to none. We were treated to some mighty music by Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, the Cherryholmes Family, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, The Grascals, Wildwood Valley Boys, Mountain Heart, Blue Moon Rising, Paul Evans and Paradise, and the VW Boys.

Additionally we had the chance to interview the following people for Bluegrass Talk Radio. Rhonda Vincent, Kenny Ingram, Josh Williams, Mickey Harris, Paul Williams, David Talbot, The VW Boys, Sandy Cherryholmes, Joe Mullins, and bluegrass radio show host, Carey Fields. These are some of the nicest, finer people you'll ever hope to meet. These folks are down to earth and more than willing to talk. What a great opportunity and time we had to share with them.

We gave out over eight hundred Tri-State Bluegrass Journals, and took in nearly seventy new subscriptions for the same. We also had the opportunity to introduce our new Bluegrass Talk Radio/ Bluegrass Journal T-shirts. Bluegrass music is alive and well, and this should give us all a great deal about which to be enthusiastic and excited for the future. From all we can see, it appears as though more and more people are falling in love with this music, and that is great news!

The auditorium was packed out both days with standing room only. I don't know the exact count, but I would estimate it to be around two thousand total in attendance. Around 8:00 PM on Saturday (November 12th) we packed up and headed for home, but we left with newly established friendships, eleven great interviews for Bluegrass Talk Radio, eight hundred less Tri-State Bluegrass Journals, twenty-five less T-Shirts, and seventy new subscription to the newspaper (and a whole lot more room in the car for the trip home).

Make sure to check out Joe Mullin's web site at www.somusicfest.com. If you can fit it into your calendar for March 24 - 25, 2006, make sure to attend Joe Mullin's spring festival. His line up includes:

JD Crowe & the New South (Sat. 3:15 p.m.),
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver (Sat. 7:15 p.m.),
Larry Sparks (Fri. 4:15 p.m./9:00 p.m.),
Bobby Osborne (Sat. 4:30 p.m./8:30 p.m),
Mike Snider (Fri. 7:45 p.m.),
New Found Road (Fri. 2:00 p.m./7:00 p.m.),
Ryan Holladay (Fri. 2:45 p.m./6:00 p.m.),
Larry Stephenson (Fri. 3:30 p.m./10:00 p.m.),
Paul Williams & Victory Trio (Sat. 2:00 p.m.),
Hart Brothers (Sat. 1:30 p.m./6:30 p.m.),
Big Red & the Wagoneers (Sat. 1:00 p.m.).