Smithsonian Magazine
The Smithsonian Folks came to visit! Check out this great video they produced and Read the Article!
Roanoke Times
September, 2011 : Live From Floyd
Ralph Berrier stopped by and interviewed Anna & Elizabeth, The Hosts of our newest program The Floyd Radio Show. Check out the story!
Blue Ridge PBS
Blue Ridge PBS just completed a new series on the Crooked Road, check out what they had to say about the Floyd Country Store!
On the Crooked Road: Floyd Country Store & County Sales from Carol Jennings on Vimeo.
The New York Times
May 22, 2011
Sarah Wildman can to visit us at the Store during her travels along the Crooked Road.
Read the wonderful article she wrote for the New York Times! Mountain Music by the Mile
We’ll look forward to seeing you and your family next time Sarah! Thanks for coming!
Fox News Channel 21 27
On Friday, April 29th John Carlin came for a visit!
The Washington Post
At 100, Bob ‘Granpa’ Miller still speaks fluent harmonica in Virginia
By Associated Press, Sunday, March 20, 12:01 AM
FLOYD, Va. — Bob “Granpa” Miller recalled the thrill felt when his hands first cupped a harmonica.
“I reckon I was about 6 or 7 years old,” he said. “My aunt sent me one of them little harps through the mail. And I thought that was the most wonderful thing in the world.”
Last month, on the eve of turning 100 years old Feb. 12, Miller celebrated his birthday by playing one of his 14 harps at the Floyd Country Store. The world-famous venue hops during Friday Night Jamborees when bands assemble from near and far to perform bluegrass, gospel and old-time mountain music.
Miller sat in with a group and played “Turkey in the Straw” and “Old Joe Clark” and “Wreck of the Old 97.”
Eleven days later, Miller grinned remembering the crowd’s reception.
“They give me a mighty big hand,” he said. “They tore the roof down. And then, boy, after I got off the floor, you talk about a stomp-down, flatfootin’, stompin’ the floor. I just wish I could have got in there with them on that flatfootin’.”
Woody Crenshaw owns Floyd Country Store. After Miller played, Crenshaw announced from the stage that from that day forth anyone turning 100 will be eligible to sit in with a band.
“To me, Granpa Miller showed that he still has passion for his life and wants to live it fully,” Crenshaw said.
More than 90 years ago, after receiving that first harp at his musical family’s Bland County farmhouse, Miller’s determination reared like a frisky horse.
“I was going to learn to play it. I’d get out on the front porch, even in the wintertime, you know, sit down in a rocking chair and play,” he said.
Miller demonstrated the blow-and-draw breathing required to wring music from the small wind instrument.
Read the complete article here!
Cruze-arati Travel Unexpected
Cruze-arati Travel Unexpected: Jamboree in Floyd, VA
We had a special visit from Mike Barish on February 15, 2011
View the Video here:
Read the full story HERE
Thanks for comin’ Mike!
Michael Ward-Bergeman Performs at Americana Afternoon
In the last month we have been amazed with the very talented and new, interesting folks who have been impressing our audience for the last few weeks. The word is out about our Americana Afternoons and new people are showing up every week. One very interesting fellow performed a couple of weeks ago who has pledged to perform for 35 minutes every day of the entire year of 2011 and we were number 43. He is calling this effort gig365 and is name is Michael Ward-Bergman. Heather had a chance to catch up with him to find out a little more about his story.
Americana Afternoon Performer Michael Ward-Bergeman – 3:45 (minutes)
January 2011: Mother Earth News!
Floyd, Virginia: Celebrating the Past, Preserving the Future
American folk music exists everywhere, but what we tend to think of as traditional American folk was born in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains and the Piedmont region. Various old-time fiddle and banjo styles practiced there — after they were recorded — influenced virtually all of American popular music. Floyd, Va., lies in the heart of the region, and it’s a place profoundly influenced by this musical tradition.
October 2010 : Natural Awakenings Magazine
The Floyd Country Store is featured in the October 2010 issue of Natrual Awakenings Magazine!
Thanks Colleen Redman for the great story!
Click Here to see the article!
The Country Store Celebrates 100!
Recently Ralph Berrier came for a visit and wrote a great article on the Country Store and Floyd!
Read his story HERE!
May 17: Richmond Times Dispatch
Country Store Showcases Music in Town of Floyd
Check out the store HERE!
May 14: WSLS Channel 10 Visits the Store!
The Country Store was on TV!
On Friday May 14, the Floyd Country Store was the host of WSLS Channel 10 News at noon and at 6 PM. We had loads of fun watching the camera crew set up and getting to mingle with the Our Blue Ridge hosts Natalie Faunce and Jay Parter.
View the Live Video HERE!
thanks for coming guys and hope you visit again soon!
Blue Ridge Muse: Feb. 4, 2010
A national honor and playing with the master
Roanoke Times: Feb 4, 2010
Musical Heritage Trail Gains National Distinction
Washington Post: Virginia’s Crooked Road
A Warm Welcome to Mountain Music, October 4, 2009
Daily Mail: Driving the Crooked Road
Traveling Crooked Road in an Old Buick
Roy’s Folks: The Floyd Country Store
The Floyd Country Store carries on in the old country store tradition
Read more at fox8news
Bill McKibben at The Floyd Country Store
Ecologist and philosopher Bill McKibben shared a sense of urgency and hope with a capacity crowd at The Floyd Country Store on Tuesday morning.
Read more at www.fragmentsfromfloyd.com
Blue Ridge Bluegrass
If you drive through Floyd on a Friday evening, you’ll have slow down when you pass the country store of this tiny town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Crowds of people mill about the street, many carrying mandolins, banjos, basses and other instruments.
Read more at Smithsonian.com
Fun for Kids at The Floyd Country Store
It was a jamboree of a different kind at the Floyd Country Store this past Saturday morning when kids from all over the county took to the dance floor to wiggle and giggle to the music of Kari Kovick.
Read More at The Floyd Press
Floyd Friday Nights
There’s just more room now. Better lighting. A significantly revamped sound system. And air conditioning when 200 dancing bodies send the temps soaring. Lots more shelf space, waiting to be filled with local offerings. An active soda fountain. And soon, open beyond Friday nights.
Read more at Fragments from Floyd.
Floyd Country Store Reopens
Music fans that have followed the bluegrass Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store have had to cut back on their visits. The store along the Crooked Road Trail in Virginia is known for its bluegrass and mountain music on Friday nights. During the recent upgrade, the store was only open Friday and Saturdays. After this weekend, the store will be open all week again.
Read more at Cybergrass.
Floyd Bluegrass tradition is back in business
WDBJ7 in Roanoke recently did a story on us:
Traditional bluegrass has been a Friday tradition there for more than two decades, but over the years, the story had gone into a decline. The owners didn’t want to see this landmark lose its luster for good, so earlier this year, the owners closed the store to make improvements and additions.
Floyd Country Store: Alive and kickin’
If you ask the Friday Night Jamboree regulars what they think about the Floyd Country Store’s grand reopening tonight, Kay Gordon will be the first to tell you that it never actually closed.
Read more at The Roanoke Times.
Floyd Country Store Jam Sessions
The Friday evening jam sessions begin with an hour of gospel music performed by a group of local old-timers‚ and then various bands take turns playing onstage. Often musicians jam in the parking lot‚ and the audience sometimes flows over into the street on summer nights.
Read more at From Blue Ridge Music Trails.
Floyd Country Store Friday Night Jamboree
The Floyd Country Store, home of the Friday Night Jamboree, was constructed around 1910, and has been an important part of the community ever since.
Read more at the Virginia Tourism site.
Visit the Floyd Country Store
David St. Lawrence gave our lunch counter a nice writeup:
If you can imagine grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon on home baked buttermilk bread, you can get an idea of the attention to detail that went into every menu item.
The classic fifties-style sandwiches range from Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato as shown at left to pimento cheese sandwiches to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
You can read more at the Making Ripples blog. Thanks, David!
Friday night bluegrass at the Floyd Country Store
If a man named Shirley ever asks you to dance, don’t ponder the invitation for too long. At least not at the Floyd Country Store on a Friday night. In fact, if you don’t say yes pretty darn quick, you’ll likely be trampled by the flat-footers who’ve accepted his offer, and are now rushing past like their feet are on fire.
Read more at The Houston Chronicle.
Straight-up pickin’ on the Crooked Road
The Country Store is just one stop along Virginia’s Crooked Road, a 253-mile route that weaves through lush hemlock and hardwood forests, stitching together dozens of small-town venues in the region where old-time American music first took root.
Read more from USA Today.
Paradise by the lone stop light
So you can imagine my surprise as I sat enjoying a cold one on the outdoor patio of Mama Lazardo’s pizza parlor in downtown Floyd, awaiting the start of the Friday Night Jamboree across the street at the Floyd Country Store, when all of a sudden Seth the Jersey guy came running up and hollered, “Ralph, there’s a woman from ‘Hee-Haw’ here!”
Read more from The Roanoke Times.
Pulled up by the banjo strings
On Friday night, $3 gets you in the door at the Floyd Country Store, but you don’t have to pay to watch the impromptu bluegrass circles on the sidewalks, crowds spilling onto the street. On any given night, easily half the audience is tourists. Even when college students come down to make fun of the scene, locals say, they often end up in the thick of the dancing.
Read more at The Christian Science Monitor
Think Floyd
A burly man in an orange T-shirt that says “#1 Dad” grabs my girlfriend and drags her toward the dance floor. His feet clack — he has taps on his shoes — and Ralph Hayden and the Barbershop Grass are filling the Floyd Country Store with a lilting two-step. I have no choice but to smile as my girlfriend is twirled like a top. Funny thing is, I mean it.
Read more at the Washington Post
Looking for the Roots of Bluegrass?
The Washington Post wrote about our concerts:
This unprepossessing place, with its shelves of rusty saw blades and Raggedy Ann dolls, is slowly gaining fame as one of the best places on the East Coast to hear live bluegrass and country music (real country — we’ll get to that) in a setting so sincere that it’s almost hard for a city dweller to comprehend.
Julian Smith is welcome back any time!
Friday Night Jamboree
Most days, the Floyd Country Store is a quiet place, selling crafts and bluegrass CDs. When Friday rolls around, though, the store dusts itself off and throws its doors open to some of the finest old-time and bluegrass music southern Appalachia has to offer. For 20 years, musicians and dancers from across western Virginia have flocked year-round to Floyd’s Friday Night Jamboree.
Read more at American Profile.
