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.

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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

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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Try Rhyming "Orange"

I'll admit, I got nothing. We all have access to the same words, but very few of us can write a really good song. This is what lifelong musician Sandy Carlton told me in the course of our interview about his experiences at Green Acres Music Hall and beyond, as I captured more voices for our upcoming podcast on the venue. Sandy is from nearby Shelby, NC, and he revealed some interesting history of other venues there that I was not familiar with, like Brackett Cedar Park, the Ponderosa and the Bluegrass Inn. It seems there was more going on back in the day than I had originally thought!

Sandy Carlton at his home in Cleveland County, North Carolina

Sandy Carlton at his home in Cleveland County, North Carolina

After our first episode on Green Acres released, I have been fortunate to come across people like Sandy who have revealed more of the history of that venue, the surrounding region, and the era. Sandy will be featured in our next installment later this month, which will draw more from of my interviews with Bela Fleck, John Cowan, Acoustic Syndicate, and Darin Aldridge among many others. There will be plenty of music from shows at the Acres too, and observations about what it was like to be a player and a participant in the live music scene decades ago. In very many ways, the old saying holds true: "the more things change, the more they stay the same". Most artists are still playing music because they love it, not because they can get rich (and very few are getting rich). A good song is still more important than flashy technique. Music still moves people in profound ways. But thirty years ago, a lot about music was very different, sometimes a lot better, and that is some of what we will reveal in this upcoming podcast.

The late great Vassar Clements (L) with Larry Keel (middle) and "Little King" Steve Metcalf (R) at Green Acres Music Hall

The late great Vassar Clements (L) with Larry Keel (middle) and "Little King" Steve Metcalf (R) at Green Acres Music Hall

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