It’s just a few days before the start of the tourist season, and Andy Rutledge, co-owner of Ozark RV Park in Mountain View, is still putting the finishing touches on the office before opening day.
On the walls, members of bands smile out at visitors from signed promotional photos. A stack of guitar cases rests on one side of the counter, and their companion upright bass leans in the corner. Right now, it’s quiet enough to hear the coffee drip, but during tourist season, this room bounces with music from fiddles, banjos and mandolins in the weekly jam sessions that are a popular park attraction.
“Everybody comes in here, and at least one person in their RV is a musician,” said Rutledge, who owns the park with his wife, Virginia. “We play music two or three times a week right here in the office. We’ve got two CDs we recorded right here in this office, and it’s just been a great thing for me.
“In ’97, I retired the first day of September, and the 7th day of November, I had a stroke that almost took music out of me, but it has come back quite a bit. I’m not as good as I used to be, but good enough to enjoy myself.”
Rutledge does more than just take personal pleasure in the bluegrass that floats on the air here all summer. He’s also one driving force behind bringing mountain music to the masses. Shortly after landing in Mountain View in 2000, Rutledge started talking to other musicians about starting a bluegrass festival, both as a way to showcase the art form and to sweeten the tourist season.
“My friend used to own the Mountain View RV Park at the time; his name was Malcolm Lowe,” Rutledge said. “He and I would visit each other, and one day we said, ‘My gosh, we’re open the first of March, but we don’t have any business to speak of, so let’s do something to build up business.’ So we came up with the idea for a bluegrass festival.”
The notion for the Mountain View Bluegrass Festival quickly gathered steam among local musicians and Main Street businesses. Organizers asked 25 local businesses to pledge $250 each, if needed, to cover any budget shortfall on the first festival, which took place at the Ozark Folk Center.
“We had 22 that signed up and said they would give us $250 if we needed it. Well, we never needed the first dollar,” Rutledge said, a note of pride ringing clear in his voice. “We started that first festival, and it went so well in March that we decided, ‘Let’s do another one in November.’ Now we do one the second weekend of March and the second weekend of November. This is our 18th year.”
This spring’s Mountain View Bluegrass Festival will take place Thursday through Saturday at Ozark Folk Center State Park.
Scott Pool, a local entrepreneur who owns Mountain View Music just off the city square, was an innkeeper at the time the festival started. A musician himself, he became hands-on with the event from its earliest conversations and remains such today.
“We put a lot of thought into it. We knew we had to hire good bands to create the draw. We knew we had to get the word out,” he said. “We ran ads in all the bluegrass publications, and that helped. Also, the timing of the festival, we tend to catch those snowbirds who are traveling through the state from up north going south in the fall in November, and we catch them on the way back up in March. We did that very intentionally.
“We also studied all the other festivals and happenings from surrounding areas and states to make sure that we didn’t fall on another major event. We wanted to be the only thing going on those weekends.”
As a result, Pool said, “The very first one was a full house, and it’s been that way ever since.”
The event was also bolstered by the fact that Mountain View wasn’t devoid of a music scene, billing itself as the Folk Music Capital of the World. While not the same genre, bluegrass was familiar enough to attract crossover fans, as well as longtime aficionados, Pool said.
“There’s a lot of overlap within the genres,” said Pool, who plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and bass. “My wife, daughter, my son and I — we all play a genre called old time; it’s the stuff that even predates folk music. It’s the old 1800s Appalachian-style stuff that worked its way over into this area. All of that predates bluegrass, which kind of sprung from those earlier genres. Later on, country music evolved from all of that. There’s overlap in all of it.”
Over the years, bluegrass has steadily grown in Mountain View, something for which both Rutledge and Pool said the festival and its governing Mountain View Bluegrass Association deserve most of the credit.
“I think what we’ve done so well is, first of all, we’ve put a good little group together, as far as the association, to handle it,” Rutledge said. “But the other thing is we sponsor the Music Roots program here in town.”
“They have a Music Roots program in the school system, and I think it starts in the fourth grade and goes up even to graduation if they want to do that. They furnish an instrument and an instructor. All the students have to do is want to learn and have a little time that they can devote to it, like study hall or whatever.”
“The Music Roots program was in its infancy back when we started this festival,” Pool said. “There were a handful of students who were learning to play fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, those acoustic instruments, with people who were not certified teachers but local musicians who would go in and just pull a kid out of class for a few minutes. And from that, it has grown and grown and grown.”
“[Bluegrass] went from being something that was viewed as kind of lame, that old people did on the square, and now it’s the cool thing to do. We have 250 to 300 kids participating in the Music Roots program in our public schools. A lot of those kids, after three or four years, are really heavy hitters in the music scene around here. They’re unbelievable musicians, better than the old timers ever thought of being. There’s some freaky good talent in this town.”
This spring’s festival includes a couple of local acts peppered in among the touring pros, all of whom perform indoors at the Ozark Folk Center. Rutledge said the event draws quality acts because members of the organizing committee are musicians themselves, and they understand what bands on the road appreciate, like great technical support and healthy merchandise sales.
This year’s performers include The Seldom Scene, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, No Time Flatt, High Fidelity, Volume Five, Kody Norris, The Family Sowell, The Gravel Yard Bluegrass Band, Apple & Setser, and The Redmond Keisler Band.
“One of the things is, it’s their livelihood, so how they get paid and the sale of their wares, like T-shirts and CDs, is important,” Rutledge said. “Most festivals are outside, but because ours is an inside venue, you see people walking around with sacks full of CDs and T-shirts. I think that’s a good part of [our appeal].
“And I think part of it is because of who we are. We have a guy who does the sound, and he does a fantastic job. His brother started doing it with his help, and then his brother got sick, so he does it all himself now. The sound is perfect every time; that really makes a difference. We understand musicians and what they’re trying to do, and it shows.”
For more information, visit www.mountainview-bluegrass.com.