Early Days at Bill Grant's Salt Creek Park Festival

Early Days at Bill Grant's Salt Creek Park Festival

At the request of Boyd Hudgens, I will describe some of the early days at the Hugo, Oklahoma Bluegrass festival that was held at Bill Grant's Salt Creek Park the first week of August each year. The official festival dates were from the first Wednesday of August to the following Sunday. I believe the festival ran each year from about 1969 until 2004.

My brother, Wayne, had been going to the festival for several years with a friend of ours, Hal Parker. Hal loved the music and is really responsible for getting us both to go. I was in graduate school (1971-73) when he first urged me to take off and go to Hugo, but I resisted. I attended for the first time in 1974 after I had been working at East Texas State University in Commerce for a year. Wayne and I drove up on Saturday morning and sat in the rain all day and listened to every band. There was mud everywhere and, in spite of the rain, an enthusiastic crowd. We drove back to my apartment in Commerce late Saturday night. I was already hooked and we drove back to the festival on Sunday.

I had just gotten an Alvarez banjo the Christmas before and was really working hard to learn to play it. I remember listening intently to the banjo players at the festival. Of all the banjo players we heard that weekend, I remember thinking that Alan Munde, Little Roy Lewis, and Sonny Osborne were the best. After all these years, my opinion has not changed.

I became aware of the "parking lot pickin'" when we left the festival on Saturday night. There was a small group of pickers under a covered place near where we had parked our car. I was astonished at how well they played and how much fun they were having. I learned everything I could during the next year so I could participate at the 1975 festival.

At the 1975 festival, I took a tent with me and went alone to the park to camp. I don't recall which day I went, but I'm sure it was before the festival officially started. I found a place to camp at the bottom of the hill and put up my tent. The first person I met was a picker named Ivan Burton. We didn't introduce ourselves, but he gave me a card that had his name on it. Underneath he had written "5-String," indicating what he played. I immediately began calling
him 5-String and still do. He was a friendly, interesting and helpful person and we became good friends.

The atmosphere of the festival was strong enough to immediately put you in another world. I have been to many festivals over the years and have never encountered one that was so exciting and joyful. Perhaps 5-String and others around our camp helped a lot. But I think there were just many ingredients that were magically combined at that time. People were still influenced by the hootenannies of the 1960's, the sixties themselves, and the Bonnie and Clyde (Foggy Mountain Breakdown) and Deliverance (Dueling Banjos) movies. There were many young people so eager to learn to play. They didn't mind traveling long distances, living in a tent for a week, and getting to know complete strangers to swap licks.

We played and laughed and watched contests and bands all week. I'm sure we didn't eat well or sleep well, and we probably didn't smell too well either. But we were so happy. We made friends with the Kriehn family from Bryan, Texas. I remember Doyle Marshall from Arkansas being there also. On Sunday morning 5-String prepared to leave. He and I talked about how we would meet in the same spot for the next festival.

At the 1976 festival, I am sure I arrived on the Sunday or Monday before it started. The Kriehns, 5-String and several of the others who had camped nearby were in the same places. A community had started to grow that would continue for quite a few more years. I moved to Norman, Oklahoma in 1977 to attend the University of Oklahoma. While in the area I met Steve Annis, a fine mandolin and guitar player. He joined our Hugo camping group in 1978 or 1979.

I had met Boyd Hudgens and Gary Moreland at a fiddle contest in Jefferson, Texas at some point. I'm sure I was encouraging him to come to the Hugo festival. We had started playing at his house in Honey Grove about once per week. Since I always learned how to play a little better by watching him, I knew I wanted him around. I also thought that no one should miss the enjoyment that was so plentiful at Hugo.

I don't recall the first year that Boyd came to our camp site. But through him, I met Kelly and Janice Connell, Joe Smith, and probably lots of other fine pickers. I must have also met Boyd's wife, Debbie, there but I can't recall doing so. Much later, I met James and Anna Martin, Danny Martin, James and Linda Roberts, and the members of Simply Gospel.

The Hugo Festival was most influential in my life. This is partly true because of the people I met there and how much I learned from and enjoyed them. The festival was also a powerful motivator because I wanted to be able to play well and to have a large body of songs that I could play. All year long I would anticipate and prepare for that week. Of course I had to (and did) maintain other parts of my life, but the first week of August was always close to my attention. I would study and practice to be able to enjoy that week to the fullest. There is a lesson of life in all this. In most things a person does, the harder you work, the more fun you have.

Even though the Salt Creek Park festival is no more, the connections formed there continue to shape a significant part of my life. I am lucky enough to get to play with Boyd (and Debbie), James and Anna, Sam and Reva Bolton in the Hard2Git Bluegrass Band. We have such good fun. I likely wouldn't know these people if I had not sat through that rainy 1974 festival.

Stuart Anderson

Mountain View Arkansas - Memorial Day Weekend, 2009

The Hard 2 Git Bluegrass Band departed for Mountain View Arkansas on Friday morning of the Memorial Day Weekend and all arrived just in time to meet our friends and head for Bar None Bar-B-Q. There was twenty-some-odd in our group that included friends from Memphis Tennessee, Sulpur Springs Texas, Fordyce Arkansas, Jackson Tennessee, Grapeland Texas, Commerce Texas and Paris Texas. After eating the wonderful ribs that are worth driving there for, we proceeded to our cabin where we played music half the night. From there we enjoyed three days of jam sessions where H2G was joined by The Nichols family, Comer "Moon" Mullins, Dave Staples, Jennifer Eggers, Tammy Huff, Tiffany Turner, Kevin Wright, Chief Starr, Glenda Starr, Jim and Sandy Lassiter, Kay and Ronald Hays, Abby Hays, Brittany Birch, and many other friends and family. It was a weekend that will be remembered by all and was very special for all the members of the Hard 2 Git Band. We have posted some of the 93+ pictures taken by Boyd's wife, Debbie, on the photo page and will post more in the future.

Chrystal Opry and FBC Paris Birthday Banquet - April 24-25, 2009

Since we posted after the Pickton show, things have been busy for the Hard 2 Git Bluegrass Band. We did the last performance of a two day Gospel Show that included six bands at the Chrystal Opry House in Tom Bean Texas on a Friday night. They had a good crowd at Tom Bean and it is always a good place to play or hear good music. The next night we played for the birthday banquet at the First Baptist Church in Paris. The family life center was absolutely full of people, food and good music. We really had a good time that evening.

Pickton Bluegrass Show - April 18, 2009

We are moving some of the old “news” from our website to our blog page for archival purposes.  Here is the oldest of those articles…

The Hard 2 Git Bluegrass Band had a very successful show at Pickton Texas in that we had a large crowd of bluegrass music lovers and fun was had by all. Our good friends Hwy 19 did a great job in their set and everyone liked them. The Herzog Family started the show off with hard driving bluegrass and Gospel music. They were great and we enjoyed meeting them for the first time. J D and Diane Sively, our photographer Orville ( Deep Woods ) Todd, June Brewer and an old friend Chief Star were all there. The Pickton Bluegrass Show is put on by Floyd and Carol Favors. They are such good people and do a fine job with that show. The sound was provided by Studio 222 from Sulphur Springs Texas. They had a Lady doing the sound and she did a wonderful job. It was a real treat to perform on such a professional system. We want to thank the Favors for having us and we hope to be invited back some day. Thanks to all who were there and were so nice to us. -Hard 2 Git