Coincidence?

I followed three "bluegrass" bands when I first got to Charlottesville, Virginia in the Summer of 1999 (pretty much on a lark).

On the cutting edge, what I then called "exploratory bluegrass", was "Walker's Run" out of Lexington, Virginia.  Traditional bluegrass was held down by "Nothin' Fancy", also out of Lexington.  More old-timey were the "Hackensaw Boys" who hailed some from Harrisonburg, Virginia, some from elsewhere.  I'd catch these bands in Charlottesville, in Lexington, and some times someplace in between.

I'd just come from Washington, D.C., so I was trying to help the band leader of "Walker's Run" get gigs up this-a-way (as if I really could), with an emphasis on the Birchmere.  That would have been a pretty big deal for a new band made up of college students.  Everybody who's anybody plays there, especially nowadays.

Fast-forward to May 20, 2005.  It's "Nothin' Fancy" that will be playing the Birchmere for the very first time, and quite excited about it, thank you very much. The band the "Walker's Run" guy is now hooked up with, "Sugar Grove", will be playing Old Town Theater in a show originally meant to be one last "Walker's Run" show before he leaves the country again. It may not be the Birchmere, but it's very close by and in the same city of Alexandria, Virginia.  "Hackensaw", meanwhile, will be appearing down at the Haymaker Music Festival outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia.  The festival starts the same day.

For the symmetry of this story I leave out "Old Crow Medicine Show", whom I also "followed", just not as closely.  They weren't really "local", despite their Harrisonburg, Virginia roots, they spent a lot of time travelling.  So I only caught them when they cross-pollinated with "Hackensaw" from time-to-time.

But they were recently given "the Nashville Scene Music Award for best Bluegrass/Old-Timey band" so I can still brag about my ear.