Loose Leaf Notes

1. Fiddling around Memorial Day weekend in Floyd.

2. Plum is yum / and cherry is cheery / But what part of berry is raspy? / Bananas can be split / or cause you to slip / Apples remind me of fall / I figure a fig is easier to figure / than three meanings / of the word date / A lemon could be worthless / Prune could mean cut / A raisin is a grape / But a grapefruit is not… Read Jam Slam in its entirety HERE.

3. Sunday Jam in the Country Store Alleyway.

4. “At The Floyd Country Store in downtown Floyd you can purchase penny candy, play checkers with a neighbor, or enjoy a lunch of beans and cornbread.  You can also pick up wireless on your laptop, buy eco-friendly products, or maybe catch a Virginia governor playing banjo on stage.” From a story I wrote about The Floyd Country Store in 2010 for Natural Awakenings Magazine. More HERE. 

5. “Floyd has always been rich with mountain music, whether it was played on porches, in living rooms, in hollers or churches.  The Floyd Country Store’s Friday Night Jamboree was one of the town’s first music venues, which started when The Country Store was a farmer’s supply store and friends gathered around the woodstove to play old-timey tunes. Since then, ownership of the store has changed hands several times and the crowds have grown.  Every Friday evening, the sidewalks and alleys overflow with musicians and people who come to play or hear the music.  Inside, bands perform on stage and people of all generations fill the dance floor to flatfoot.  Under the ownership of Jackie and Woody Crenshaw, and now Heather Krantz and Dylan Locke, the renovated building has grown to include a general store and café.  It hosts Americana Afternoons, Saturday Headliners, Sunday Jams, workshops, The Floyd Radio Show (modeled after The Prairie Home Companion) and more…” From  Floyd’s Growing Music Scene, which appeared as a feature in Sounds of Floyd, a July 2017 magazine insert publication of The Floyd Press. More HERE.

6. “The Floyd Country Store’s Friday Night Jamboree was one of town’s earliest draws, and still is.  On Friday evenings the sidewalks and alleys overflow with musicians and friendly people, some of whom flatfoot along the walkways.  The Jamboree started with friends pickin’ around the store woodstove and has grown to include a general store and café, Americana Afternoons, Floyd Radio Show (modeled after The Prairie Home Companion) and more.” – from Where Else But Floyd,” a piece I was commissioned to write about Floyd for Real Small Towns in 2017.  See HERE. 

7. But in Floyd, you’re just as likely to see free-style, flower child twirling on dance floors as you are to see flatfooting and clogging, which we did at Dogtown Friday night to the Jordan Harman Band.

8. How does your garden grow?

9. These usual suspects are in a jam. One of them is eating eggs and we have to figure out which one.

10. When strippers win Grammys / And rappers praise their crotches / You wonder what it will be like / to be put out to pasture / When bells and whistles / replace on and off switches / you wait for bluebirds / instead of buses… Read When You Come Full Circle in its entirety HERE.

11. Favorite line from Little River Poetry Festival Open Mic: “I ain’t nearly as old as the dirt, or even all these mountains around here. I just happen to be older than plastic,” which brought big laughs from the audience. – Sharon Wood. More HERE.

12. Favorite photograph of the week HERE.

13. “I’m not telling you it is going to be easy; I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” – Art Williams

Note: Several of the following photos first appeared in The Floyd Press in the Press’s online photo gallery HERE.

_________Thirteen Thursday