Green Acres Music Hall, Revisited

Back in 2018, we dove into the history of a beloved venue that was its own cultural phenomenon over a span of nearly four decades. It was a sprawling, quirky, at times surprising and almost always joyful tale; those first three episodes of our Green Acres series totaled almost three hours (they started with fifteen separate interviews totaling over five hours), and included 19 songs or portions of songs played live at the venue.  

Acoustic Syndicate performs live on WNCW in the mid 1990s as Steve Metcalf (r) looks on. Steve Metcalf, Acoustic Syndicate and Darin Aldridge, who was a member at the time of this photo, are featured in this episode.

Those episodes detailed the history of the Acres, from its inception as a spot for dancing and country music to its embrace of Bluegrass and progressive acoustic bands, to the addition of an outdoor stage and larger and larger crowds in later years. In those first three episodes you can hear about how owner Nile Cuthbertson started Green Acres, how Steve Metcalf became its front man, while the episodes include a lot of context on external forces at play in the music scene locally and nationally in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. 

Steve Metcalf (l) and Phil Johnson (r) outside the WNCW control room in the 1990s.

People are just as ready to talk about Green Acres today as they were when we made those first episodes. Additionally, many artists who played there are set to perform at the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival on Labor Day weekend in 2022, and that got me thinking about revisiting the Acres by reworking all those hours of interviews and including many portions of our conversations that were left out the first time. Now, we put forward Green Acres alumni Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Darin Aldridge, and Acoustic Syndicate in this new context, as well as the person who made an indelible impact on the whole shebang, Steve Metcalf.

We are glad you stopped by, and hope you will follow Southern Songs on your podcast platform of choice. Once you’re there, could you take a moment and give us a top rating and, if possible, a review? Giving us a top rating is super easy, and ratings and reviews go a long way towards bumping us up in the rankings, which puts this series and the artists we profile in front of more music fans like you! Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series heard on public radio WNCW, and to our former intern Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it.   - Joe Kendrick

They've Got It Covered: The Bluegrass of Darin and Brooke Aldridge

No survey of current bluegrass is accurate without mention of Darin and Brooke Aldridge. The husband and wife duo, whose first album came in 2008, are now at the center of what contemporary bluegrass does best. And they have the hardware and chart hits to attest to that — for starters, Brooke is the 4-time, reigning IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, and their 2019 album Inner Journey rose to the top of the charts, surprising no one on both counts.

That they are among the best at what they do is a given, but their proximity to and influence at the core of the bluegrass community is perhaps less obvious. As flag bearers, they are helping lead the overall sound in new directions that some may not have foreseen. Taking in outside influences comes naturally to bluegrass as a rule, but taking on material outside of the canon of American authorship can be crazy or genius, depending on who does it. Darin and Brooke Aldridge play songs written by themselves, as well as songs by colleagues and collaborators like John Cowan and Vince Gill, but their song IQ seems highest when it comes to drawing chestnuts like “Tennessee Flat Top Box” or “Tear-Stained Letter” into sharp focus. By sticking the landing every time, they elevate and give new context, both to bluegrass and those originals.

cover art for Darin and Brooke’s seventh studio album, Inner Journey

I spoke with Darin and Brooke over a video call (linked here), where we talked about their knack for making great covers, what projects they have going on now, their work life outside of music, how they would pitch bluegrass music to someone who had not yet heard it, and a whole lot more. They also have a new song for Christmas called “Light Of the Stable”, which is part of music featured on this episode.

Thanks for visiting Southern Songs and Stories, and I hope you might tell someone you know about the series. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and all other major platforms. And once you subscribe, it really helps when you give it a good rating and a review. Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks also to WNCW audio engineer Sean Rubin for his work on the interview audio. - Joe Kendrick

Songs heard in this episode:

“Foggy Mountain Rock” by Darin & Brooke Aldridge from Live at Red, White and Bluegrass!, excerpt

“Emmylou” by Darin and Brooke Aldridge from Inner Journey, excerpt

“Light Of the Stable” by Darin & Brooke Aldridge

“Someone’s Everything” by Darin and Brooke Aldridge from Inner Journey

Green Acres Music Hall, Part Two

Do you remember the 1980s? The Cold War, Reagan, big hair, synthesizers, yuppies, AIDS, MTV? It can be easy to point and laugh at times, maybe easier than it is to remember the good things about the era. It did not make national headlines, but one of those good things was Green Acres Music Hall, which came of age in that decade. 

In our first episode, we touched on some of the history of the music scene in the region and how rough things could get in the 70s, with biker gangs taking over outdoor festivals and rock clubs, and in this episode we get to some more of the history of the live music business in the 80s and early 90s. You know, the days when you didn’t buy tickets online, but at a window after you waited in line. When being social was always in person rather than often on a network. This was the heyday of Green Acres Music Hall.

Victor Wooten, Steve Metcalf, Roy "Futureman" Wooten, Vicki Dameron and Bela Fleck in the early 1990s

This episode features conversations with artists like Bela Fleck, John Cowan, Darin Aldridge, the band Acoustic Syndicate, Sandy Carlton, Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment, Green Acres regular and frequent emcee Vicki Dameron, Carol Rifkin, former club owner Phil Dennis and Mettie, the “Little King”, Steve Metcalf. We’ll also feature more live music recorded at the Acres, as we have been able to dive into more tapes from Steve Metcalf’s collection, and live shows from archive.org.

Plus, we travel to a place in neighboring Cleveland County called Brackett Cedar Park, which also brought in artists that were fusing bluegrass and country with rock elements, and is still going.

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Thanks to our supporters, and to Osiris Podcasts and Bluegrass Planet Radio for carrying our series, and to Dynamite Roasting for sharing their coffee with our listeners.