(upbeat music) - [Announcer 1] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

- [Announcer 2] This program is brought to you by Soundtrack of America: Made in Tennessee.

- Hi, everyone.

I'm Shan Stout, one of your hosts for the Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree and Crafts Festival, home of the National Championship of Country Musician Beginners.

Now, the show you're about to see is full of the best of old time Appalachian music, craft, and dance, held in the historic downtown Smithville Tennessee Square.

So get ready for a toe-tapping good time, and enjoy the show.

(soft country music) (uplifting country music) Welcome to the 51st Annual Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree and Crafts Festival.

I'm Shan Stout.

- And I'm Jennifer Fibbs.

- And we wanna welcome you to 51 years of great Jamboree traditions and old time Appalachian music, craft, and dance.

- Absolutely, but first let's take it back to the stage where the crowd is getting ready for some great competition.

- Take it away, fellas.

- Welcome to the 51st Annual Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) We are here in downtown Smithville.

If you're not here, you're missing out.

Folks, this competition has been going on for 51 years, and we're gonna keep it going on tonight.

We're heading into the Senior Fiddle competition.

My co-host, Mr. Luke Willaby, is gonna take you into that.

Put your hands together, and let's get to fiddling.

- Thank you, Alex!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) Good evening, Smithville!

How we doing?

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) Oh yes, oh yes.

Well, the reason we're all here is to see who's the best fiddler in all the land, and we got a great lineup for you tonight.

We have fiddling, we got bluegrass band, and we got square dancing!

So get excited!

But we got a Jamboree legend coming to the stage.

Judges, are you ready?

They're ready.

(soft guitar music playing) This is contestant number 144 from Spring Hill, Tennessee.

He's 87 years young.

He's only, yeah!

(audience cheering) Ladies and gentlemen, let him hear you!

This is contestant number 144, Mr. Billy Gene Hazlewood!

(playing exciting fiddle music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) From Spring Hill, Tennessee!

One more time for Billy Gene Hazlewood!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) Our next contestant hails from Springville, Tennessee.

Judges, this is contestant number 143.

That's 143, from Springville, Tennessee.

Jamboree, please welcome Heather Brown Currie!

(playing lively fiddle music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Thank you!

- Rounding out our preliminary round of Senior Fiddle.

Our next contestant is contestant number 59, from Rockville, Tennessee.

It's contestant number 59.

Give it up for Ms. Sarah Harris!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Hey, y'all!

I'm gonna play you a little Sally Anne.

Or "Sail Away Ladies".

(playing lively fiddle music) Thank you!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - I love this competition, and I know you do!

- Oh I absolutely do.

And it's just an incredible time to get out here in Smithville, Tennessee.

- Now for those of you have never been to the Jamboree, we're gonna fill you in on what it's all about.

Now, you're gonna see the competitions on stage, and this is the National Championship of Country Musician Beginners.

So the Jamboree is all about getting beginners to compete, and grow up through the ranks, and you'll see senior competitors on the stage as well, just like a moment ago, but then we also have the square, all the streets are full of old time handmade crafters.

(cheerful bluegrass music) And there's all that food that you love.

- Oh absolutely.

Well, and when I think about the Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree, it really, it means a lot to me, and others around here, I'm sure, that the whole purpose is to preserve Appalachian history.

(playing lively bluegrass music) - All right, good job!

- I've never played that before.

- [Fiddle Player] You've never played that before?

- No.

- You done a good job.

- Okay, Junior Buck Dancing!

Give it up for contestant number 35 from Walland, Tennessee!

Kody Hash!

(audience cheering) (audience applading) (lively fiddle music) (Kody whoops) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) From Dickson, Tennessee.

Give it up for contestant number 22, double deuce!

Jacob Fennell!

(audience cheering) (lively fiddle music) (audience members cheering) (audience cheering) Up next, contestant number 32, from Walland, Tennessee.

Ms. Jamie Hash!

Make her welcome, everyone!

(lively fiddle music) (audience cheering) (upbeat bluegrass music) Jacob, I want you to stand right up here.

And don't you move.

Jamie Hash, you come up here.

There's this little pamphlet they give you when you do this stuff that explains the difference.

I read it, and I don't understand it.

So we're gonna have a visual lesson.

Band, the song's gonna be "Arkansas Traveler".

Does that sound okay?

- [Musician] Yes, sir.

- Okay.

Now, Jamie, do you wanna clog, or do you wanna buck dance?

- I'm gonna clog.

- She's gonna clog.

Mr.

Bright Shirt's gonna buck dance.

Okay, "Arkansas Traveler".

I want you to look at the differences.

(playing "Arkansas Traveler") (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Woo, that was good!

This is Old Time Appalachian Folk Singing, solo.

Contestant number 18 from Smithville, Tennessee.

Please welcome Ms. Sarah Cripps.

(audience cheering) - (sighs) I'm gonna send this one out to my husband, Mike, because he requested it.

It's "The Water is Wide".

It's also known as "Oh Wally Wally", but I'm doing "The Water is Wide".

(playing soft guitar music) ♪ The water is wide ♪ ♪ I cannot cross over ♪ ♪ And neither have ♪ ♪ I wings to fly ♪ ♪ Give me a boat ♪ ♪ That can carry two ♪ ♪ And both shall row ♪ ♪ My true love and I ♪ ♪ Oh love is handsome ♪ ♪ And love is kind ♪ ♪ Gay as a jewel ♪ ♪ When love is new ♪ ♪ But love grows old ♪ ♪ And waxes cold ♪ ♪ And so my love ♪ ♪ With morning new ♪ ♪ And fades away ♪ ♪ Like morning dew ♪ (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Now this next segment you're about to see honors an individual or group that keeps the embers of bluegrass music glowing for future generations, and the Jamboree likes to call this the Blue Blaze Award.

This year's recipient was the Cody Norris Show, and they were a wonderful crowd favorite.

Take a look.

(audience cheering) (lively bluegrass music) - Woo!

Oh, how we doing out there Smithville?

♪ I got a pig at home in a pen ♪ ♪ Corn to feed him on ♪ ♪ All I need's a pretty little girl ♪ ♪ To feed him when I'm gone ♪ ♪ Well I'm going on the mountain ♪ ♪ To sow a little cane ♪ ♪ Raise a barrel of Sorghum ♪ ♪ And sweet little Liza Jane ♪ ♪ I got a pig at home in a pen ♪ ♪ Corn to feed him on ♪ ♪ All I need's a pretty little girl ♪ ♪ To feed him when I'm gone ♪ Let's hear some noise!

♪ Bake 'em biscuits, baby ♪ ♪ Bake 'em good and brown ♪ ♪ When you get them biscuits baked ♪ ♪ We're Alabam'y bound ♪ ♪ I got a pig at home in a pen ♪ ♪ Corn to feed him on ♪ ♪ All I need's a pretty little girl ♪ ♪ To feed him when I'm gone ♪ ♪ Well yonder comes that gal of mine ♪ ♪ How do you think I know ♪ ♪ Can tell by that gingham gown ♪ ♪ Hanging down so low ♪ ♪ I got a pig at home in a pen ♪ ♪ Corn to feed him on ♪ ♪ All I need's a pretty little girl ♪ ♪ To feed it when I'm gone ♪ Woo!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - [Host] From Cookville, Tennessee.

(soft banjo music) From Cookville.

Judges, he is contestant number 92.

Number 92.

His name is Trenton Caruthers.

Better known as Tater.

Put your hands together.

(audience applauding) (plays banjo) - Thank you!

I'm gonna do one now that Earl Scruggs put out in the late 40s.

One called "The Farewell Blues".

Are you ready?

(playing lively bluegrass music) Yeah!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) Thank you!

- [Host] Great job.

Contestant number 92, Mr. Tater Caruthers.

- We have a charming thing that happens here on the Square that has nothing to do with the competitions that happen on stage, and we call it the Shade Tree Pickers.

Now, people come from across the United States of America, and even farther, to gather under the shade trees once a year, and they just have these jam sessions with people they know, people that are new friends, and as Tater Caruthers says, you can't make old friends until they start as new friends, so that's the way they roll.

- [Jennifer] Words of wisdom.

- Now, you've been a Shade Tree Picker.

Tell me about that whole experience.

- I have.

I actually learned more about being a musician under the shade trees than I think I ever did from competition.

Competition is just a specific path that you go down with playing music, but the biggest thing is that you become friends with these people.

(playing lively bluegrass music) - One part of the Jamboree is the competition, but the other half is this great Shade Tree Picking.

I got started here, and I've met so many great people playing bluegrass music under the shade tree here at Smithville, and this is where you learn how to play music.

You interact with other great musicians, great talent, and it's just a great time.

You let your hair down, enjoy the weather, enjoy each other, and enjoy bluegrass music.

I encourage all young people to come out, and this is again how I got started.

It makes you more comfortable and you get to know other people, so shade tree picking is a tradition that's been going on for many, many years.

This goes back to the first bluegrass festival that ever happened.

Shade tree picking is absolutely what we come here to do, and meet other people.

So we love it.

Encourage everybody to come out and get under a shade tree and do some picking.

(playing lively bluegrass music) (all singing) - How long did you play Dixie and Memphis?

- A long time.

40 years, I guess.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, 40 years.

- So I tell you you've been coming up here some 40 years, eh?

- Yeah, close to it.

- Approximately that.

- I missed a few in the early days, but in the older days, I never missed.

- Oh boy.

- I kept coming.

And I hope I keep coming.

I'm shooting for 100.

(lively bluegrass music) - This is our national treasure of bluegrass at Smithville Jamboree.

- Thank you.

There's no substitute for practice.

I don't care how good you might ever be.

No, I don't know there's a substitute.

And I don't practice.

I don't have time!

I still work!

I'm a farmer.

(laughs) - Please welcome back to the stage contestant number 19, Ms. Kendra Ward.

(playing lively xylophone music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Ladies and gentlemen, from Murphysboro, Tennessee, give a Jamboree welcome to Justin Branum!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) (playing lively bluegrass music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Now, we have worked our way down halfway through the finals, I'd say, at this point.

And we just have a little bit more to go, so you need to hang in there with us, because we're working through these competitions pretty quickly, and the stage is just getting better and better as the night goes on, so we're having a great time with these bluegrass bands.

Let's go back to the stage.

- One, two, one, two, three, four.

(all playing lively bluegrass music) ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ Engineer, won't you let your whistle blow ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ I paid my dues and I feel like traveling on ♪ ♪ A runaway team of horses ain't enough to make me stay ♪ ♪ So pull your rope on another man ♪ ♪ Turn him down your way ♪ ♪ Turn him into someone to take the place of me ♪ ♪ Make him any kind of fool you wanted me to be ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ Engineer, won't you let your whistle blow ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ I paid my dues, and I feel like traveling on ♪ ♪ Maybe I'll go to Santa Fe ♪ ♪ Maybe San Antone ♪ ♪ Any town is where I'm bound ♪ ♪ Anyway to get me gone ♪ ♪ Don't think about me ♪ ♪ Never let me cross your mind ♪ ♪ Even when you hear that midnight lonesome whistle whine ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ Engineer, won't you let your whistle blow ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ I paid my dues and I feel like traveling on ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ Engineer won't you let your whistle blow ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Midnight flyer ♪ ♪ Paid my dues and I feel like traveling on ♪ ♪ Traveling on ♪ (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Thank y'all.

- Let 'em hear ya!

Mountain Cove Bluegrass Band!

Great job, great job!

- [Host] Judges, he is contestant number 80.

Number eight zero.

Y'all welcome back Mr. Tylar Andal.

(playing lively guitar music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - The house band, do you hear that?

The house band is getting ready.

(bright bluegrass music playing) - They're getting primed up for the square dancing finals.

- The best night ever.

It's the best night ever.

- [Host] Contestant 145.

Give it up for Step Aside!

(lively bluegrass music playing) (audience cheering) (all clapping rhythmically) (stomping rhythmically) (audience cheering) (dancers whooping) (dancers whooping) (dancer whoops) (dancers whooping) (audience members cheer) (dancer whoops) (audience members cheer) (audience members cheering) (audience members cheering) (audience members cheering) Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Rocky Top Revue!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) (lively bluegrass music playing) (stomping rhythmically) (audience members cheering) (audience members cheering) They're from Mount Juliet, Tennessee.

Judges, contestant number 49.

Give a big welcome to Tennessee Dance Alliance!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) (playing lively bluegrass music) (dancers whooping) (all chanting) (all chanting) (dancers whooping) (all chanting) (dancers whoop) - Yeah!

(lively bluegrass music) - Welcome back to the 51st Annual Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree and Crafts Festival, and we are down to the finals of the finals of the finals.

This is where you're gonna see the best in old time Appalachian bluegrass competitions, and we're headed toward the Grand Fiddle Off championship, and we have a true Junior competitor, and a Senior competitor, that are gonna go head to head, or fiddle to fiddle.

- All right judges, this is contestant number 143, contestant number 143.

She is our Senior Fiddle champion.

She's gonna play a breakdown, or a fast pace, a waltz, and a tune of her choice.

Please welcome to the stage Ms. Heather Brown Currie.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - For my first tune, I am going to do "Lost Indian".

(playing lively fiddle music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Okay.

- This is exciting.

One down.

- She did so good.

- One more to go.

- So good.

Oh my goodness.

- Yes, she is showing tonight where her experience is coming into play.

I think it's a two time champion she's been so far, so this would be number three for her, I believe.

- And I don't think you breathed a bit through that whole thing, like everything she was playing, you were paying attention, like (gasps) (Jennifer laughs) So let's pay attention to what's happening on the stage right now.

- [Host] All right, this is contestant number four.

He is from Elkton, Kentucky.

He is our Junior Fiddle champion.

Put your hands together for Mr. Noah Goebel!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) (plays fiddle) - We're gonna do "Arkansas Traveler".

(playing lively bluegrass music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Could you have ever asked for a Junior champion to bring more than that?

- (laughing) No.

This is the Jamboree of my dreams, the Jamboree of all Jamborees.

If you have never seen a Jamboree, maybe you don't understand what's just happened here, but we have a very young 13-year-old Junior Fiddle Off champion, who's won his first Junior Fiddle Off, first thing.

- Yes, first thing.

- And then he's competing against a senior Fiddle Off champion who has won the Grand Fiddle Off, twice.

So there's so much competition here, behind the scenes, of their lack of experience and experience, and the age range between the two.

It's, this is just wild.

(audience cheering) - For my waltz, I am gonna do "Ashokan Farewell".

(playing melancholy fiddle music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Okay, we're gonna do "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz".

(playing melancholy bluegrass music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - For my last tune, I'm gonna do "Back Up and Push".

Oh, thank you.

(playing lively bluegrass music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Thanks!

- Great job!

Ms. Heather Brown Currie.

Your Senior Fiddle champion of 2022.

- We're gonna do "Washington County".

(playing lively bluegrass music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Great job!

Mr. Noah Goebel.

Our 2022 Junior Fiddle champion.

Our 2022 Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree is about to come to a close.

Folks, this is for our grand fiddle-off champion.

They are the recipient of the Barry C. Williams Memorial Trophy.

This is for 2022 at the Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree.

The winner goes to the Grand Ole Opry this year, courtesy of the Grand Ole Opry, and Daily & Vincent.

Our grand fiddle champion for 2022 is Mr. Noah Goebel.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Ladies and gentlemen, you have just experienced Jamboree history in the making.

Noah Goebel is the youngest Grand Fiddle Off champion of all time, and he is going to perform in the near future at the Grand Ole Opry.

- Oh, congratulations Noah.

What an amazing job.

You've brought so much poise, and so much talent.

Congratulations.

- You are gonna make us proud and represent us well.

We are so very grateful.

And now Noah's getting ready to take us off the air, and he's gonna play us right off the stage.

Thank you for joining us here at the 51st Annual Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree and Crafts Festival, and I am so happy to be here.

And now it's time.

This is a wrap.

We're taking back to Noah Goebel, our champion.

Goodnight, everybody.

- Goodnight.

(all playing lively bluegrass music) (clapping and stomping rhythmically) (audience members cheering) (bright cheerful music) - [Announcer 2] This program is brought to you by Soundtrack of America: Made in Tennessee.

(bright music) - [Announcer 1] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.