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Permalink Reply by Will James on January 31, 2010 at 8:52am

Andy Knefel: A little story here. Easter of 1973 we headed down south for the Union Grove, NC Fiddler's Convention from Baltimore, MD. I was wearing a custom made yellow letters on blue t-shirt FBB tee-shirt. A biker from California requested to trade his leather jacket for my shirt. I declined. It only shows how important that logo/symbol whatever, ... See Moreit was to both of us, if not our total groups. Union Grove, by then had grown so popular, that seeing east coast License Plates paled in comparison by how many West Coast plates were evident that weekend. It blew me away. Yes, Gram was responsible for merging total Cosmic Americana upon us all, the so-called majority hadn't realized it so early on. Long-hairs and Bluegrass folks were already meshing. We can also thank the likable Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Jerry Garcia & Vassar Clements who formed Old & In The Way.

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Permalink Reply by Will James on January 31, 2010 at 8:53am

WJ: I was also around when this community was a lot smaller but oh so passionate. A cop once pulled me over back then, I freaked, but the only reason: he saw my (Mark Holland) bumper sticker and also loved Gram. He just wanted to talk about him, and I was on my way...

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Permalink Reply by Will James on January 31, 2010 at 8:54am

AK: Yeah, every time I came upon a Gram/FBB fan back then... it was like...you remember in the early 60's....how a VW Beetle driver would honk to one another. Weren't many in the States back then... By the late 60's, however, they were everywhere. Yeah, that's how we Gram Fans would be. You've heard of Gram? Of course if you heard of him, you ... See Moreloved him and his music. What he was bringing to the table.
The difference between Gram and the beetle? Gram still isn't mainstream!
Howzat possible?
I feel lucky to be a part of the Gram community. One of the best well kept secrets.

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Permalink Reply by David Shaw on January 31, 2010 at 9:14am

I was around for Mark Holland's GPMF (even designed some issues of the CAMN but no bumper stickers) ... while working on a book in the late 70s I encountered a lady who had seen the FBB (in NYC?) and had coffee with them afterwards (she worked in production with CBC radio ... for a show I eventually was on in 1993 as part of a one hour nationwide radio GP extravanganza ... my GP CD got played on the radio BEFORE I had a CD player of my own ... it was part of a shrine that I hoped a CD player would materialize from ... it didn't, I had to pay for it like everyone else). The Memphis and Tampa GPMF chapters had a falling out in the '90s ... I went with Fredda Joiner but she passed on and her daughter wasn't interested in running it without Fredda. So it goes.

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Permalink Reply by Will James on January 31, 2010 at 9:25am

David, if I drop dead shoveling the snow today, promise me you'll continue my petition efforts (hey, you're only 90 miles away but you don't get the Lake Effect Monster). Will

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