Jared Stout Band’s Guitar Swag
Joe and I have been interested in taking videos of guitarists in action since our eldest grandson Bryce has been learning guitar. It’s also true that the guitar has long been my favorite instrument.
I also love a good singer/songwriter, which Jared Stout is. It was actually Jared who coined the phrase “guitar swag” at their Dogtown Roadhouse performance Friday night.
I wish I had recorded Jared, a Blacksburg homeboy, singing one of his originals, but I was too busy dancing. The one clip I got was not an original and the place was noisy with the band’s followers who were dancing and who knew and sang all the words to every song, so the video is hard to hear. 
When I wasn’t dancing, which was only during the band’s break, we sat with friends, one of whom is from Blacksburg and has known Jared since he was a kid. It was fun to get an inside scoop.
The band won Floydfest22 On the Rise runner-up, which is quite an honor in these parts. Jared’s song “Home” references places in Blacksburg and around VA Tech, like Gillies, the Duck Pond and more, which was a kick for us locals and people like me who spent a lot of time in Blacksburg when I worked at my friend Juniper’s Seeds of Light bead shop back in the day. I’m looking forward to the band’s 2024 main stage Floydfest appearance at the festival’s new location, part of the winnings of the festival’s patron-voted competition.
