Cold rainy foggy Saturday night in January. Being guided through the nifty by my wife reading directions I had clipped from the web into evernote. Finally after many curve and tops of rises that sometimes looked like the road would drop us into the great abyss. Then we saw the faint light of a traffic directing flashlight waving us into the most unlit parking lot of the CFF. From the outside it does just look like a large country shed. Maybe it’s some sort of a plant or a farm shed or even a shed for some coal mining equipment fond in this area.
After we entered we were surprised by what we found. A very sophistaced “country auditorium” filled with state of the art electronics and sound equipment lot of memorabilia from the Carter’s souveniers and junk food concessions to satisfy anyone the crowd was filings in and fill the thousand seat auditorium. Between the seats and the stage there was dance floor that was filled during most numbers with people dancing.
Mostly clogging, some rocking, shagging, twirling, or jitterbugging or just moving to the music. On woman brought her dog and danced with him all night. I did notice her moving a little more quickly when she danced with a man. One dog, “Lucky”, just wandered in unseen by the ushers, offering no ticket or price of admission other than his friendly tail wagging. Lucky was an old dog and moved very slowly but found a great place to be out of the chilly wet Virginia night. The band said they had been on the road more than two weeks and needed a dog petting break.
This was a wonderful family friendly evening where we can all celebrate our Southern Mountain traditions and music. Anyone can dance, with or without partner. This was one of the most enjoyable evenings that Ruby and I have had. It’s only about 3 hours from Shelby.
CarlHughes 