The Raleigh Wide Open music festival this weekend has roots in the International Bluegrass Music Association's annual festival, which was hosted by Raleigh for the past 12 years.
Like those gatherings, Raleigh Wide Open is being produced by PineCone, the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music. Americana, folk, gospel, and bluegrass artists will be performing across the three-day event — much of it free of charge.
David Brower, the executive director of PineCone, and banjo player Trey Wellington spoke with WUNC's Eric Hodge about the upcoming event.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
First of all, David, what prompted your organization to decide to continue the tradition that was established by the IBMA events?
David Brower: We had no choice but to continue doing it because really, we were just having too much fun to stop. When I went to my very first one, which I think was the first one that was held in downtown Raleigh, it quite literally brought tears to my eyes to see all these people up and down Fayetteville Street enjoying this music that's rooted in community, rooted in North Carolina, and especially to see people, you know, digging fiddle and banjo music up and down Fayetteville Street.
And then now in particular, we are in desperate need of times when we come together for shared cultural events. This music that's rooted in community like like bluegrass, like gospel, it really stretches across political boundaries and allows people who might disagree on every other front to come out and enjoy it. And not only that, we're trying to present it free of cost, so there's no economic barrier. We want people to come down, enjoy each other, enjoy the community, and share this experience.
How's it feel for you, Tray, to be involved?
Tray Wellington: I think for me Raleigh Wide Open and just the whole tradition of this festival, you know, I've been coming to this since I was about 15 years old. And it was one of the first places that kind of got me inspired to want to do music for a living and really dedicate a big part of my life to music.
I'm always meeting new people from the area as well as seeing friends and family come out. And so that's like, was always a really important part of the festival for me.
Brower: Tray, one of the reasons I'm so excited about you coming back this year is that we're getting to have you play the field trip festival that we're doing for school kids around downtown Raleigh. Kids are walking in and they're gonna get to experience this music, so I'm hoping that somewhere in that audience this coming Friday morning is gonna be a little Tray who's seeing you up on stage, playing the banjo, having a great time, blending all these different kinds of musical experiences that you've enjoyed all into one thing and hopefully inspiring people, kids to to play again.
One of the big names involved is Grammy nominee Dom Flemons. Can either you explain his importance to this kind of music today?
Brower: The music that Dom loves is rooted right here in the Piedmont. I mean, Dom made this, you know, celebrated pilgrimage to the Piedmont of North Carolina to dive into the fiddle and banjo traditions that were championed by his mentor Joe and Odell Thompson, who live right down the road in Mebane, North Carolina.
And Dom's coming back having won a couple of Grammys having had a huge performance at Biscuits and Banjos in Durham that Tray was also a part of. You'll hear stuff from Dom that is vintage western cowboy music. You'll hear gospel music from eastern North Carolina. There's solo ballad singers from western North Carolina, and you'll hear what's next on the horizon for the music from people like Tray Wellington and Greensky Bluegrass on Friday night.
Trey, what has Dom Flemons he meant to you in your music making?
Wellington: Dom has been somebody that I think paved the way, especially for the Black string band tradition, of course with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and I think he's very much somebody that tries to keep that music alive and is very passionate about it and very knowledgeable about it.
Blue Cactus is one of the up and comers on the schedule. What drew you to their music?
Brower: We've been working with them since they were playing around as a duo. I'm pretty sure they might've been the first band that PineCone booked coming out of the pandemic to play out on City Plaza in one of the free concerts that we were putting on to try and draw people back downtown. They've really come a long way.
What about Big Fat Gap?
Brower: Big Fat Gap are awesome. It's more a collection of friends than it is a band. I mean, they've been playing together since college and hang out, and you can clearly see that they all enjoy each other's company.
They're also a part of something we're doing both Friday and Saturday night. From 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., we're having a big open street square dance.
One other artist I wanted to ask you about is Jim Lauderdale who is always an amazing experience.
Brower: Jim's been there every year and this year, Eric, you'll really like it because he's bringing his full electric band to play. So he is doing some of the, the kind of more Americana sounding stuff. You never know what Jim's gonna bring. Sometimes it's a straight up bluegrass band. Sometimes he's playing by himself, but man, what a sweet human being and talk about somebody who brings people together and brings people of all different stripes across America together. His songs really hit you in your gut.
A lot of the music we've been talking about and hearing is free and open to the public, but you do have a ticketed event. Where is that and who's gonna play?
Brower: It's Friday night with JJ Gray & Mofro, and then Greensky Bluegrass are really kicking us off with a big event at the Red Hat Amphitheater. Tray, you're a Greensky fan, aren't you?
Wellington: I think Greensky, I think they're a very important band, especially in the jam band scene. I think they really paved the way and I've heard Billy Strings talk about it where Greensky was one of the first bands that he saw that was playing on bigger scale events, playing like to a large amounts of people within the bluegrass world. Yeah, they're gonna be great.
