The Bluegrass Bus Archives - Bluegrass Today

Bluegrass Bus Museum adding new videos

If you’ve never visited the Bluegrass Bus Museum, you’ve missed a great treat for lovers of bluegrass history. The converted 1955 Flixible bus has been restored to look like the bus that carried Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs all over the country in the 1960s by Museum founder, Don Clark, who purchased it in 1987. For many years Don drove it to festivals and events, and opened it as a rolling tribute to the iconic artists of yesteryear.

Clark filled the bus with mementoes, photographs, and even clothing worn by the big bluegrass stars, most of whom toured the museum while they were living. The upkeep of the Bluegrass Bus Museum has now largely fallen to Don’s son, the effervescent Danny “Hootenanny” Clark, but with Clark the younger now living on the west coast, the old ’55 doesn’t get far from its home in Tennessee much these days.

But what Danny is doing is using his quarantine time to continue converting the hundreds of hours of VHS tape that Don shot at festivals in the 1990s to a digital format, and uploading them to YouTube. The Museum channel there already has about 50 examples of his dad’s festival vids online, with quite literally thousands yet to be reviewed and converted.

Clark says that it’s a time-consuming job, but for him it is a labor of love.

“In the mid 1980s my Dad was an early adopter of VHS shoulder-mounted home cameras. He went to a lot of west coast festivals, and also traded live tapes with other tapers from back east. I’ve got full shows of Monroe, Jim & Jesse, Jimmy Martin, Osborne Brothers, AKUS, Lonesome River Band, Larry Sparks, etc.

I do all this for free, and make no money off of the video uploads. I’m just looking for an outlet to share these precious archived shows. There are adverts placed within the videos, but those are out of my control and auto populated via YouTube.”

Here’s one he posted just this week of the Bluegrass Youth All Stars at the IBMA Fan Fest in 1994. See how many of these future stars you recognize.

If you check the Bluegrass Bus Museum’s YouTube channel regularly, you’ll be able to watch all of these historic groups on stage back 20-30 years ago.

Well done Don, and well done Danny!

Bluegrass Bus Museum trek to Maine

The Bluegrass Bus, a rolling museum of bluegrass and country music memorabilia, took a long trip this week from Tennessee to Maine for the Thomas Point Beach bluegrass festival.

The vintage bus contains a wealth of autographed photos, going back to the 1950s, plus stage wear and other items of interest to music fans. It’s operated by Don Clark, who shared a few words about the trip as he was heading out on Wednesday.

“Ten tons of American pride took off today before the sun came up over Goodlettsville, TN.

For the first time ever The Bluegrass Bus Museum is heading to New England. For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Bluegrass Bus, I’ll give you a short introduction. The portable museum has been around for over twenty years, and has seen its fair share of festivals. I have made it my personal goal to spread the joy of America’s music through my 1955 Flixible tour bus. The vehicle is a hands-on interactive museum that allows children and adults to become immersed in the history of country and bluegrass music.

This trip’s lofty goal is to make it to Brunswick Maine for the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival, a whopping 1,279 miles away from my home base near Nashville. Pati Crooker, the promoter of the festival, has been trying to get the bus to come up to her event for almost the entire existence of the museum. After years of phone calls with Patti, I finally reconsidered. The promise of great bluegrass and beautiful beach weather finally got me.

I like to leave early to beat the traffic, so at 4:15 a.m. we hit the road. My son, Danny Clark, will also be traveling along with me on this tip. This will actually be his first time driving the bus. I think I will handle the driving duties when we get near Boston.

Today’s trip was uneventful, the perfect way to travel when you are in a vintage vehicle. We made it through Louisville, KY around sunrise and eventually to Columbus, OH by the early evening.

For those of you who are seasoned travelers, you may be wondering why it took us so long to move almost 500 miles. We make it a point to brake for every single rest stop. We get out and check the tires, inspect the air brakes, and make sure the radiator is staying cool.

We also get stopped frequently by what we call “lookey-loos,” the friendly folks who stick their head into the bus and get lots of photos with their cell phone camera. Tomorrow’s grand adventure will hopefully take us to Albany, NY.

Thomas Point Beach here we come!”

From the photos Don sent, it looks like they made it just fine, and that the folks at Thomas Point are enjoying the bus.

Don’s son Danny works for the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, and says that he needs to hurry back to Kentucky after this trip for final preparations for their annual Monroe Style Mandolin Camp at the museum.

This year’s staff includes Mike Compton, Richie Brown, David Davis, Chris Henry and Skip Gorman. Full details online.

More bluegrass at CMA Music Fest

We’ve found out about a few more bluegrass happenings during this weekend’s Country Music Association Music Festival and Fan Fair.

The Grascals have a full day there in Nashville on Sunday (6/8). They have a Fan Fair Booth in the morning, and a number of performances and appearances throughout the day. Here’s the full schedule (all times CDT):

10:00-11:00 a.m. – The Grascals Booth #510
11:45 a.m. – Performance on Chevy Stage at Sommet Center Plaza
1:00-2:00 p.m. – Grand Ole Opry Booth #722
2:00-3:00 p.m. – GAC Booth #200
3:00-4:00 p.m. – Chevy Booth #517
4:00-5:00 p.m. – Chevy Ride & Drive – 5th Ave. at Chevy/Sommet Center Plaza

Plus The Bluegrass Bus Museum will be on hand in the Nashville Convention Center through the weekend. This rolling repository of bluegrass memorabilia is lovingly tended by Danny Clark, who would like nothing more than to share his love of the music and its history with visitors.