Cattle in the Cane

"Cattle in the Cane" was only one of the many tunes I heard played at the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention. The campus at Athens State University hosts the festival each year, and it is always a joy to attend.
Bluegrass music is a cherished Southern tradition, and there's always plenty of it at Fiddlers. Small groups sit all around the grounds and jam as the people stop to listen to their music. The competitions take place on the front porch at Founders Hall, with its four massive ionic columns flanking the performers. That porch has heard a lot of music in its 163 years. Hoopskirts have swished over it with genteel rustlings, military boots have tramped across it, sabres rattled in front of it, and now, Nikes and Reeboks trot across it, as their owners seek their college degrees. It's a beautiful old structure, crammed with history and tradition, and I love it dearly. In quieter days, I've sat in the rockers on that porch, the autumn sun streaming across the drive, studying, passing the time of day, or just enjoying the view.
Fiddlers is a magic time on campus. All activity stops on Wednesday, so the place can ready itself for Friday and Saturday. The RVs start showing up, and the arts and crafts vendors begin setting up their booths. The visitors begin streaming in on Friday night and don't stop until the end of the fiddle-off Saturday night, when the "Fiddle King" is crowned. The event is clearly family-oriented as well, and there is a feeling of utter security that one rarely finds anywhere else.
With the smell of funnel cakes, steak sandwiches and popcorn in the air, the visitor is hard-pressed to pick just a couple of vendors. The temptation to pig out is a strong one. Fiddlers is the big fundraiser for most of the campus clubs,and they go all out for the event.
But it's the music that keeps people coming back every year. Musicians from several states come to play that unique variety of Americana known as bluegrass. The vendors of musical instruments know this and they show up with their wares, as well. A visitor can see fiddles, guitars and banjos for sale, of course, but can also get a gander at more unusual instruments such as resonator guitars, dobros and hammered dulcimers.
The music can be heard a block away from campus, and it draws people in like the calliope at a circus. It is as rewarding to sit and listen to the small groups play as it is to hear the competitions.
If there is a better way to spend a fall day than to have wonderful music rain down on me and lighten my heart, I don't know about it.