For a festival that is fiercely dedicated to local talent, the NCBS Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival has had a surprising number of performers over the years who have “national television appearance” on their resume. On May 25th (Memorial Day), Scott Gates will become the 10th such GOF musician. He will play mandolin in banjoist Steve Martin’s band on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Scott joins Carl Abbott, Kyle Abbott, Luke Abbott, Leslie Abbott, Bob Cole, Bill Evans, A. J. Lee, Chris Stevenson, and Alice Stuart in this category. Remarkably, 6 of the 10 played both at the GOF and on national TV within a 12 month period.

And, we aren’t counting all of the close bluegrass friends who jammed on the Abbott Family’s TV show, now in eternal reruns. And, of course, we aren’t counting The Wronglers, whose Hardly Strictly festival was the subject of a national PBS documentary — but the band members (somehow) never made it on screen. And, we still await the national TV debut of longtime GOF favorites Tristan Clarridge and Tashina Clarridge, whose respective music careers are soaring these days, but just not (so far) on those little boxes in our living rooms.

All the rest of the GOF bands: Call your agents now!

Posted May 13th, 2009 by Michael Hall in GOF |