200th Post! More Brown's Barn Tales

Unbelievable- this is my 200th post! Wow. Doesn't seem like I've been yakking that long!

Anyway...for two days I've been struggling with uploading a piece of Saturday night. I think I've got it. You know I'm sometimes technologically challenged!

Marti and I were out at Brown's Ole Opry, a bluegrass venue run out of Farmer Brown's old tobacco barn and a well-kept secret to the uninitiated. They don't charge anything, don't sell anything...the Brown brothers started inviting musicians out to their barn to play just because they liked the music. Folks soon began to gather every Friday and Saturday evening, bringing cakes and pies, hot coffee and fresh well water as a donation to the evening's doings.

I first heard about the barn from one of the Lisas at clogging- the farmer Lisa. She said she'd been out at Brown's one late Spring evening. They open up the back of the barn when the weather allows and a fresh breeze blows through the old barn, the frogs and crickets join in with the bluegrass pickers and beyond the gravel drive that runs along back of the barn, the fresh scent of hay wafts in from the seemingly limitless acres of farmland.

"Well, I was just a settin' there when, Plop! Off one of the rafters come these two snakes! Right down on the hay bale beside me!" We all allowed as how we would've run screaming never to return but not Farmer Lisa. She smiled. "Well, it's mating season and they was all twined around each other and too busy to fool with me, so I just got up and moved aways off. I didn't want to disturb nobody."

I don't know as I would've had the presence of mind not to disturb most of mid-North Carolina! However, that's the kind of gritty everyday determination typical of most of the barn folk. They work harder than most of us could ever imagine. It takes a lot to get them worked up, especially when it's only a couple of harmless black snakes doing what comes natural. Most of the people I've met out there are friendly, quiet, easy-going people who welcome me without hesitation and wrap me in the fold of their community without asking my particulars. It is a special gift to be so blessed.

Nobody takes anything or anybody too seriously- which is why, when Deberry, a retired deputy sheriff and right fine banjo picker, decided to sing one of his favorite "She done me wrong and my heart is broke" songs, the guitar player and finally the audience, chimed in with wails and loud sobbing.

Marti and I enjoyed it right much. I wouldn't want you to feel left out- so here's a little taste of barn life and Deberry singing...

P.S It'll take a few minutes to load, but it's worth waiting on, I promise!