Sunday, April 12, 2009

2009-04-12 Pickin' n' Grinnin'



Dateline, Winchester, KY
Longitude: -84.212693
Latitude: 38.005814

If you ever find yourself in the Winchester, Kentucky area on a Sunday, Monday or Thursday afternoon, you can experience an amazing slice of Americana in the back corner of Peddler's Mall.

Helen Martin set up the area for local musicians to gather and play eight years ago and operates the snack bar in the adjacent booth. Local tip: a "dressed" (and pronounced "drayussed") hamburger means "the works".

Initially, Helen told me, the music was headed up by an old guy that couldn't hear so good, who eventually left over what I gathered were philosophical differences.

In the fullness of time the group came to be known as "Peddler's Pickers", yet on the two occasions I heard them play, it was an entirely different group of pickers.

And yet the music was the same: the real-deal, down-home Kentucky Blue Grass, played with stoic enthusiasm right from the heart. Beautiful, plaintive, old-time style stuff like you might have heard in the movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"

More photos and a few short video clips are on my Peddler's Pickers Album.

3 comments:

Berynn said...

"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" Wooo, I loved that movie! :)

Jon, I do believe that you should have asked one of those friendly pickin' n' grinnin' guys to allow you to don their hat, suspenders, guitar and be as one of the natives! ..what a photo THAT would make! :)

Paula said...

Hi Jon! It's Paula Kakapo from SL! I was searching around on one of Tricia Aferdita's sites and found a link to you and eventually found your blog. Anyway, over the past couple of days I've read your entire blog. Your adventure sounds like so much fun and I especially love how you talk about Shelby and the dogs you've come across. I have 3 beagles and enjoy hearing stories from other pet lovers. I haven't been on SL much lately as I'm preparing for a move to Denver, but hope to see you around. I'll keep checking your blog...can't wait to hear where you are next.
BTW, my RL name is Paula. ;-)

Jon Sisk said...

I didn't realize there were comments until just now. I need a better mechanism to check them.

Berynn: Yep that was a great movie and I will try that number once I get me some of that Dapper Dan Pomade. {:) You do know I play guitar, right? But to save space for this trip, I only brought a ukulele. This has severely limited an already-crippled repertoire.

Paula: Thanks for finding and following me! Always room for another dog person. 3 Beagles, eh? I am guessing you spend a lot of time at the gas station washing the inside of your windows. Hope your move goes smoothly, to one of my very favorite towns.