Elliott County Tobacco Heritage Festival 2010

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Tobacco Heritage Festival in Sandy Hook, Kentucky for the first time. I was accompanied by my three year old who seems to love bluegrass music as much as I do myself.

The highlight of the festival on Friday was some live bluegrass music. Scott Tackett and Kentucky Sunrise, David Carroll and New River Line and Ron Rigsby performed for the crowd and did an excellent job of it.

Scott Tackett and Kentucky Sunrise

Scott Tackett and Kentucky Sunrise – Scott Tackett on vocals and guitar, Carl James on mandolin, Jeremy Newman on upright bass, Ray Craft on guitar, and Don Schug on banjo.

David Carroll and New River Line – Dave Carrol vocals and guitar, Chaston Carroll on mandolin, Chad Gilbert on bass, Adam Collinsworth on banjo, guitar and vocals.

David Carroll & New River Line

David Carroll played his Cotten DC-18 Acoustic Guitar, hand made by Gary Cotten. He said it was his second performance with that guitar and at the time it was only nine days old!

This Cotten DC-18 Guitar features a quilted Mahogany back and a 100 Year Old Spruce Top! You can actually see some “Under Construction” pictures at Gary Cotten DC-18 Guitar construction. It’s amazing to see the steps it took for Gary Cotten to create this wonderful guitar!

I have always been partial to the mandolin so I have to mention that both Carl James and Chaston Carroll did a really nice job.

I was very impressed with Chaston, it does my heart good to see the younger generation doing things like that. Only 16 years old and he has an awesome talent. You could tell he was really putting his heart and soul into that little mandolin. I look forward to hearing him again and I know that he is bound for a bright future in bluegrass music. His father, David Carroll, has a voice perfectly suited to bluegrass music. I really enjoyed David Carroll and New River Line and will definitely be seeing them again. Now, it is time to buy some CDs!

Beginning next year the Elliott County Tobacco Heritage Festival will be dropping “Tobacco” from the title to just “Elliott County Heritage Festival”

Tony Pence and the Sneakin Deacons played on Saturday night but I wasn’t able to make it back over for that. I have heard Tony and his band before, definitely some nice classic country!

You can see David Carroll and Tony Pence at the Benefit for LeeAnna Stewart happening on September 24 at the Carter County Fairgrounds.

Visit NewRiverLineBluegrass.com to see about getting yourself some music from David Carroll and to check on tour dates.