Bluegrass at the Lucketts Community Center
Fifty Years and Counting
Photos courtesy of Jeff Ludin, Lucketts Community Center
For many bluegrass fans living outside of the Northern Virginia/Metro DC environs, the Lucketts, Virginia, Community Center and its long-running series of bluegrass music concerts is known as the location for the much-heralded farewell concert by the Johnson Mountain Boys. The 1988 event was captured as a double-disc set of hypersonic bluegrass called At the Old Schoolhouse. Locally, regional newspapers have given coverage to the little concert hall and Washington’s public television station WETA even produced a mini-documentary.
But Lucketts, the shorthand name used by longtime fans and bluegrassers in the know, is much more than just the location of a live album or an occasional headline in the style sections of newspapers. It’s a gathering place where folks come together in friendship to enjoy bluegrass music. January 2024 just happened to mark 50 years since it all began.
The history of Lucketts has been covered in three earlier issues of Bluegrass Unlimited. For the benefit of newer subscribers, bluegrass at Lucketts started in January 1974. It was launched as an alternative to the bar scene where a youthful band known as the Spence Family could perform. As word of the venue spread, other performers started asking to play there, too. Over five decades, the roster of performers who have played there has ranged from budding amateurs hoping to gain a foothold in the bluegrass community to time-honored professionals.
The Lucketts experience is somewhat of a triple threat: music, people and venue. Coupled with the venue is a sense of history. A lot of great music by a lot of great bands has echoed within the walls of what is known today as The Old Schoolhouse. It was constructed in 1913 and was, for many years, used as a school. When a newer school was constructed some 50-plus years ago, the building was then (and still is) used as a community center. While the building has undergone several renovations, they were done in a manner that retained its original architectural integrity as well as its warm, inviting feeling. It is, in a word, cozy. The building is registered as an historical landmark.
The people part of the equation encompasses concert attendees, volunteers and musicians. There is a core group of event-goers. Roughly 25%-30% of any given show is made up of weekly return ticket buyers. And they love their bluegrass music and the people who make it. Many musicians are aglow when they describe the feeling of family when they come to Lucketts. And sometimes it’s just the little things, like a long-time volunteer who makes cookies for each visiting band member. Amazingly, she’s been doing it for the entire 50-year run of the bluegrass series.
On a more practical level, taking care of the bands entails seeing that they get paid. And well. Bands appearing at Lucketts usually receive 85% of what is taken in at the door. A unique arrangement with the folks at Loudoun County’s Parks and Recreation (the overseers of The Old Schoolhouse) contributes to a low overhead for each concert, thus allowing a larger percentage of the gate to go to the musicians. In appreciation, the Lucketts Bluegrass Foundation donates a significant portion of the remaining 15% to Parks and Recreation. It is but one example of the symbiotic relationship that exists between Loudoun County and the bluegrass series.
Always a volunteer undertaking, the behind-the-scenes mechanics to make it all happen took on a more formal structure in 2007. It was then that the non-profit Lucketts Bluegrass Foundation was formed. Current board president Jeff Ludin and his wife Karen Capell have been involved as volunteers and board members for the last ten years or so. They are the fourth team to stand at the helm of booking the bands and overseeing (with the help of other longtime and new volunteers) the smooth execution of each program. They are positions that the couple has held for the last four years.
Attendees at Lucketts tend to like their bluegrass tried-and-true. In booking bands, Karen Capell strikes an artful balance between old and new. As many of the music’s pioneers have passed on, Capell oftentimes looks for younger bands who emulate the spirit of past masters. And no one gets booked without having first received an audio audition from either a CD, DVD or YouTube clip. The careful vetting always ensures a great show at Lucketts.
Over the years, not much has changed on the surface at Lucketts. One of the few acquiesces to modernization is the acceptance of on-line payments for concerts. Jeff Ludin noted that, behind the scenes, running the concert series is pretty much a cookie-cutter operation. Volunteer duties are well-defined, thus making the process of breaking in new volunteers a streamlined process.
The concert season at Lucketts runs from October to April. Traditionally, shows were presented every weekend. The covid pandemic necessitated scaling back to every other weekend. The Foundation hopes to return to an every weekend schedule in the foreseeable future.
While 50 years of presenting bluegrass concerts at The Old Schoolhouse is certainly a cause for celebration, the milestone is being observed much as the music has been presented over the years – low-key and unpretentious. A concert on January 20, 2024, featuring West Virginia-based Crandall Creek, is slated to get underway at 7:00 PM. Earlier in the day, an invitation-only gathering is scheduled for 3:00 PM where many long-time attendees, volunteers and musicians can munch and mingle while several ad hoc bands, assembled from area pickers with ties to Lucketts, provide a melodic backdrop. A keepsake for each attendee is a gold 50th anniversary commemorative pin.
For some, the Johnson Mountain Boys album served as their introduction to Lucketts. Fiddling songwriter Becky Buller noted that “At The Old Schoolhouse by The Johnson Mountain Boys is a personal fave.” To her, the old school house “sounded like a mythical place to this Minnesota Bluegrass kid. There was so much energy resonating in that sacred space; the band was on fire; the audience was all in! In 1989, I started learning fiddle. Eddie Stubbs is my first favorite fiddler; that particular version of his ‘Orange Blossom Special’ blew me away. Fast forward 30 years to 2019 and my first invitation to play Lucketts. I literally got the chills – and I got ‘em bad – as I sat in the hall when we first arrived, quietly soaking in the scene where so many of my heroes created so much great music over the years.”
While Becky Buller was awed by the schoolhouse’s history, others such as Danny Paisley helped to actually make that history. One could say he literally came of age there. He recalled that “I first played there with our dads’ band: Ted Lundy, Bob Paisley and the Southern Mountain Boys. This was most likely around the 1975 season. And we have performed there every year since.” Danny is keenly aware of the venue’s place in history. “Lucketts is like a step back in time! It harkens back to the early days of bluegrass, when bands performed schoolhouse concerts. Every Saturday night the walls vibrate with good ole bluegrass music. The feel of nostalgia and the history of the concerts held there make it a special venue. The fans and musicians are all like a family gathering. They’ll bring us cookies and sweets.” Danny echoes the sentiments of many when he says “We love the Lucketts schoolhouse and everyone there!”
The feeling of family at Lucketts rings true for Ron Thomasson of the Dry Branch Fire Squad. According to Ron, the group has “performed at Lucketts annually for 40 years or more. Last year was a very special year for us since I had undergone a major surgery regarding cancer. Neither I nor the other men knew how our gig would go since I was still recuperating from the cancer, and I had what’s called ‘chemo brain’ (bad memory) which is caused by random meds. For DBFS the audiences at Lucketts have been a ‘love story.’ 2023 was the best ever. The audience understood what I was going through, and they were nothing short of wonderful in giving me the hope that DBFS could go on. No one in the band will ever forget that night!”
Given the triple threat that Lucketts provides – the people, the music, the history – it’s little wonder that some bands travel great distances to perform there. For one group, Special Consensus from Chicago, it’s a 650+ mile/10-hour drive. Banjoist/leader Greg Cahill is in awe of the place and its history. “It is truly amazing that the Lucketts Community Center has been presenting quality bluegrass music for 50 years. They have featured hundreds of bands, from ‘first generation’ bands like Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys to the Johnson Mountain Boys to many touring bands of today. The schoolhouse has become a national treasure for the entire bluegrass community. It is a ‘special’ place for Special Consensus because we have made so many bluegrass friends over the years – it truly feels like we are ‘picking in the living room’ at the old schoolhouse. We sincerely thank the volunteers who have kept the concerts alive and well all these years!”
While playing at Lucketts is a reward in itself, the venue’s proximity to other bluegrass hotspots allows touring artists the opportunity to string together several days-worth of dates. This has proved especially true for the Kody Norris Show. The colorful bandleader recounts that “for many years now, not only the Kody Norris Show, but any band in bluegrass music has used the Lucketts schoolhouse to help anchor dates together. However, Lucketts always proves to be more than just a pass-through date. The history itself keeps the music present and alive and the fans always turn out for the bands. I have many fond memories of playing there throughout the years and look forward to making many more. The music community at large is very thankful for the ongoing efforts of all the volunteers at Lucketts.”
High Fidelity’s Jeremy Stephens echoes many of the same sentiments. He said that Lucketts is “one of the places that has been a perfect connecting date for High Fidelity trips in that part of the country.” And, like so many others, Jeremy holds a tender spot for the place. “I have admired the old Lucketts schoolhouse for many years, as I used to go and visit my great uncle who lived directly across the road from it. I had no clue then about the history that it held for bluegrass music in the DC region. In recent times, I’ve been so honored to perform on the stage there just like so many of the greats in bluegrass in the last 50 years.”
As bluegrass at Lucketts moves into its second half-century, may the joyful sounds of fiddles and banjos continue to ring out for many years to come.
