Old-Time Country Music fest brings hundreds of performers to Le Mars

Terry Smith is one of hundreds of old-time country and bluegrass performers coming to Le Mars. [Click to enlarge]

Le Mars and the Plymouth County Fairgrounds will be the place to be as the 33rd Annual National Old-Time Country & Bluegrass Festival and Contest comes to town Aug. 25-31.

Organized by Bob and Sheila Everhart of Anita, the festival features old-time traditional country, bluegass, folk, ragtime, cowboy, mountain and all types of acoustical music.

The festival is the largest gathering of this kind of music in America, according to the Everharts website, www.oldtimemusic.tipzu.com.

The event is the couple's only fundraiser of the year for their on-going work in the preservation of America's early rural musical art forms at the Pioneer Music Museum.

The Everharts, who call Anita, Iowa, home, through the years have put the festival on in Avoca, Council Bluffs and Missouri Valley before deciding to give Le Mars and the Plymouth County Fairgrounds a try.

A long list of more than 600 top performers will take the stages during the seven-day event. According to Bob Everhart, 56 international entertainers from New Zealand, Holland, England, Ireland and more will be on the stages during the festival.

Terry Smith, who wrote the song, "Far Side Banks of the Jordan" for Johnny and June Carter Cash will take part in the festival, according to Everhart.

Bob Everhart calls him "an incredible songwriter," who traveled with the Everharts to New Zealand this last year. As a singer, Smith has steadily built a following over the years in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, where his recordings of his own songs are played regularly. Smith now calls Nashville home.

Everhart lists among his USA celebrities Bobby Awe; the Blackwood Brothers; Gary Bradshaw; Joe Berry; Bluegrass Fire; Bill Clifton; Willie Carver; Delmore Brothers represented by Debby Delmore; Johnny Bond represented by Sherry Bond; Dale Eichor; Greta Elkin; Bob and Sheila Everhart; Stan Hitchcock of Blue Skies Television; Carlton Haney; Red Johnson; the Kenaston Family; Dick Kimmell; Morris Brothers; Frank Ray; Ralph (Ola Belle) Reed; Dusty Spittle; Smokey Smith, Ben and Carmen Steneker; Terry Smith; Tangleweed, Hal Willis and Whistepigs to name a few.

One family, the Balzats of New Zealand, bring to the stage a fusion of contemporary celtic, bluegrass and original compositions using violins, cello, fluite, keyboard guitars and percussion. Basically the theory is that they have fun together and want to let others share in what they play.

Dusty Spittle, perhaps New Zealand's foremost and most successful country music songwriter, recording artist and performer will also be performing.

Bill Clifton from Mendota, Va., joins the 2008 festival, according to Everhart. Clifton was the first person to do an outdoor bluegrass festival, and is a longtime proponent of early bluegrass and mountain music, and a longtime recording artist of that music.

The Downhome Dulcimers from Silver City, Iowa, with Fred and Dorothy Tachau who keep the old-time music alive and well in western Iowa will perform, along with the Sliver Creek Cloggers.

Local performers Elaine Peacock of Elk Point, S.D., and Ervin Pickhinke, "The Singing Farmer" who lives in Sioux City, will also take the stage during the week-long event.

The list of performers, who hail from small towns and communities from across the U.S., is filled with talent, ready to share their love of old-time country music.

There will be seven indoor and three outdoor stages with performances each day of the festival, with music performed from 9 a.m. to midnight.

Workshops on learning various aspects of old-time country music will be offered, including beginning and advanced dobro, beginning songwriting, beginning and advanced guitar, beginning harmonica, New Zealand songs, beginning dulcimer, beginning fiddle; beginning saw; beginning yodeling; and more.

There will also be contests, such as the Over-50 Singing Contest; Cowboy Poetry & Storytelling Contest; Open Yodeling Contest; Acoustic Bass Contest, Flat-Top Acoustic Guitar Contest, Fiddle contests; Adult Accordion Contest; Banjo Contest; Bones Contest, Dobro Contest; Old Time Bands Contest Hank WIlliams Song Writing Contest and more.

Numerous displays and booths will also be available during the week, including the Pioneer Expo of Arts & Crafts, displays on agricultural lifestyle and a Native American Tipi Village.

Food booths will also be available on the grounds.

Admission is $15 per day for adults $11 per day for adults over age 70 and under 18; and free for kids under 14. A special 7-day pass is available for $55.

During the week, inductions into the Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame will be conducted.

Sherry Bond, the daughter of Johnny Bond, will be on hand to accept her father's induction in the hall of fame. She herself is a gifted singer and performer who lives in Nashville.

Debby Delmore, daughter of Anton Delmore of the Delmore Brothers will accept the Hall of Fame induction award for the Delmore Brothers.