Lucketts Bluegrass Archives

Photos from Lucketts 50th anniversary celebration

Joe Zauner, Tommy Lewis Junior, Leon Morris, Valerie Smith, Wayne Lanham, Eldred Hill and Teri Chism
at the Lucketts Schoolhouse 50th anniversary celebration (1/2024) – photo © Jeromie Stephens

Jeromie Stephens braved the bitter cold for Saturday’s special get together to mark the 50th anniversary of bluegrass concerts at the Lucketts Community Center in Lucketts, VA, known to locals as the Old Schoolhouse. He captured a bit of the stage show, but mostly focused on participants backstage, which at Lucketts, means the classrooms.

Lucketts School House in Virginia celebrates 50 years of bluegrass

Bluegrass lovers in northern Virginia quickly recognize “the old schoolhouse” as the Lucketts School, a school building turned community center in Lucketts, VA, which hosts bluegrass concerts throughout the year, mostly during the winter and spring months.

This Saturday, January 20, the Lucketts Foundation, which manages these shows, will celebrate 50 years of bringing bluegrass to Loudon County with a special homecoming concert and celebration, starting at 3:00 p.m.

Over the years, most everyone in the bluegrass world has played there, knowing that they will perform for a serious and educated audience of fans, in a comfortable setting, and be treated fairly by management. The Johnson Mountain Boys recorded their breakout double album, Live at the Old Schoolhouse there in 1989, and top players of every era from 1973 forward have appeared on the stage, which was the auditorium for the original school opened in 1916.

On Saturday, things get started at 3:00 with a concert by the Seth Mitchell Band and the Lucketts All Star Veterans band. More than 40 musicians who have played at Lucketts in the past have been invited to play with the veterans group, as have many volunteers and staff from the earlier days.

Then from 5:00-6:00 p.m. the DC Bluegrass Union will lead a jam session in the classrooms upstairs.

The main program begins at 7:00 with Crandall Creek.

It was the popularity of the bluegrass concerts that saved the Lucketts School from demolition, and enabled the renovation of the building into a community center. Research done by the Lucketts Foundation suggests that at 50 years, this is the longest running bluegrass concert series in the world.

Tickets for the Crandall Creek show are $22 in advance, with children 5-17 charged only $5, and 4 and under admitted at no charge.

You can see all the remaining shows on the 2024 schedule online, which includes concerts with Danny Paisley, Kristy Cox, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, The Kody Norris Show, Amanda Cook, High Fidelity, and several others.

Bluegrass Country to broadcast live shows from Lucketts

Bluegrass Country has announced that they will begin airing a series of live concerts recorded at The Old Schoolhouse in Lucketts, VA as part of their free, 24/7 music stream online.

For years, bluegrass artists have performed in Lucketts at the Community Center, affectionately known by locals as The Old Schoolhouse, which was its former function. During the winter months when festivals were not running, Lucketts Bluegrass typically offered a live concert each weekend, drawing groups from all over the US who were traveling through northern Virginia.

Of course the shows at the Schoolhouse have been cancelled since last March, but the spirit of these lively performances is being resurrected on Bluegrass Country starting this week.

Every Friday at 4:00 p.m. (EST), you will be able to listen to a live recording of past shows online. These date as far back as 2010, and include sets from Michael Cleveland, Bill Emerson, Larry Stephenson, Danny Paisley, Nothin’ Fancy and many more. More than a hundred concerts will be featured during this series.

Chris Tesky, Bluegrass Country Program Manager, says that they are delighted to broadcast these spirited shows on their feed.

“We’re thrilled to be able to air these live performances from one of the oldest and most fabled bluegrass venues in the country. We’re also very pleased to be working closely with the Lucketts Bluegrass Foundation to make these broadcasts possible.”

Speaking for the Foundation, Karen Capell agreed with that sentiment.

“We’ve been presenting bluegrass shows for more than 45 years. COVID-19 has caused us to go dark temporarily, so broadcasting past performances on Bluegrass Country is a great opportunity to share the music.”

You can access the Bluegrass Country stream online, or by using the free apps available for iOS or Android devices.

The channel is supported by listener donations. Full details about Bluegrass Country, including a complete program schedule and online donation information, can be found online.

Bluegrass Country airs Lucketts show

If you love bluegrass, and spend any time in the greater DC area, you probably are familiar with the Old Lucketts Schoolhouse, and the concert series that has been hosted there for the past 40 years. Now known as the Lucketts Community Center, they host the Lucketts Bluegrass concert series every Saturday night from October through April.

The shows really are staged in an old schoolhouse, built in 1913. Concerts are held in the old school auditorium, with classrooms serving as backstage and meet-and-greet. Over the years, almost everyone who plays bluegrass professionally has stood on their stage, before an audience that really enjoys traditional bluegrass.

WAMU’s Bluegrass County has partnered with Luckett’s Bluegrass to record and broadcast these concerts during their Open Mic program. Hosted by Jared Walker, Open Mic airs on Saturday mornings at 6:00 a.m. and again on Friday evenings at 7:00 p.m. A Lucketts show will be aired on the 2nd Saturday of each month, rebroadcasting the following Saturday.

The show tomorrow night (12/20) will feature sets from Jim & Valerie Gabehart and Danny Paisley & the Southern Grass, recorded earlier this year.

Walker did a piece for WAMU’s main radio station last Friday that tells the story of this iconic Virginia venue, the people who volunteer to keep it going, and their concerns about keeping it going into the future.

Although the crowds are healthy, they skew to an older demographic. Lucketts volunteer and live sound engineer Paul Hope says this presents a long-term dilemma.

“The only way I can see [the event] going forward in the future is if we can find someone to pass it on to because we don’t want it to end with us.”

Lucketts Bluegrass Foundation president Paul Garvin says his organization is committed to preventing that, even if that means moving away from the traditional style with which Lucketts has long been associated.

“I look at the goal as keeping the program going,” says Garvin. “If it means going away from the traditional stuff and trending more towards the contemporary we’re going to have to do that.”

Read/listen to Jared’s whole piece online, and listen to tomorrow’s show at www.bluegrass country.org.