This is an update on the celebration plans for Bluegrass Country Soul over Labor Day weekend. Below you will find a press release we thought you might enjoy reading, and a video about the 50th anniversary that we sent out to bluegrass associations around the country.

Cody Johnson has announced the line-up and schedule for this year's festival in Camp Springs. Bluegrass Country Soul will be shown on Friday, September 3, at 9:30 PM! You can see the complete festival schedule here.Please say "hello" to us if you make it there and see us wandering around...or signing your copies of Bluegrass Country Soul!

(Producer/Director, Bluegrass Country Soul)

It has been said that General Cornwallis and his British troops camped there in 1781, during the American Revolution. That’s how this area in Caswell County, some 12 miles from Reidsville, got its name. More recently, Camp Springs witnessed a different kind of revolution. This Labor Day weekend, there will be a celebration of the 50^th anniversary of that event, and a reunion of many of its participants. 

In 1971, Camp Springs was the site of Carlton Haney’s 7^th Annual Labor Day Weekend Bluegrass Music Festival. Performers included a “Who’s Who” of bluegrass music, from Earl Scruggs, to Ralph Stanley, Chubby Wise, Jimmy Martin, Mac Wiseman, the Osborne Brothers, J. D. Crowe, the Country Gentlemen, and others. There were also young artists who became major stars such as Ricky Skaggs, Del McCoury, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, and Keith Whitley.

Fortunately, for future generations of music lovers, that festival in Camp Springs happened to be the location for the very first bluegrass feature documentary. The movie, Bluegrass Country Soul, documented what many at the time considered revolutionary. It showed the beginnings of an experimental style called “new grass,” which attracted many young musicians to the music.

This coming Labor Day weekend, my wife and I will be visiting Camp Springs for the 50^th anniversary celebration of that legendary festival I was lucky to have filmed. Some of the artists who appeared in Bluegrass Country Soul will be performing this year, including: Doyle Lawson, Bobby Osborne, Missy Raines, and the the Wilson Brothers.

On Friday, September 3, at 9:30 PM, Bluegrass Country Soul will be shown where it was filmed a half-century ago, which may well be an historic first for bluegrass, and for motion pictures as well.  

Bluegrass Country Soul is now in the permanent collection of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, KY. To help defray the costs of restoring this piece of bluegrass history, we have created a “Golden Anniversary Edition” of the film available through BluegrassCountrySoul.com. A multi-media experience (Blu-ray, DVDs, companion book, and CDs), the collection features over 7 hours of bluegrass programing.

For more information about this year’s Labor Day Weekend Bluegrass Festival, please go to campspringsevents.com.

Often, we hear from folks who were at this legendary festival. If you have a story you’d like to share, or a photo, we’d love to hear from you and include you on our website or in one of our newsletters.

© Copyright 2021 Bluegrass Country Soul, Inc.