Dozens of bluegrass music fans filled bleachers and lawn chairs for the Appalachian Echoes- A Musical Homecoming concert near Sandy Hook at the end of May. Next door neighbors sat alongside listeners from as far as Michigan, Indiana, and beyond. Don Rigsby, a prolific mandolin player and singer from Isonville, was the first person guests met, handing out wristbands at the entrance.
It wasn’t just Rigsby’s homecoming, though. He called up one musician after another, each rising from their seats among the audience to the stage, for what Rigsby called Tall Tales and Tunes.
Wayne Lewis stood, hands behind his back, with the powerful tenor voice that earned his spot with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys for more than a decade. Lewis said it was one of the most rewarding jobs he’d ever had.
“I sat down in the dressing room, and Bill, we just sat there and talked and we sang a couple songs. And he said, you’ve got to go work for me. And that can be a powerful thing right there,” Lewis said to the crowd.
And, once he left to pursue a solo career, he said working with Bill was the hardest job he ever quit. That love for music, for Lewis and many others, was planted in and around Sandy Hook. Accomplished bluegrass and country musician Dwight Whitley reminisced on his first banjo, homemade in a blacksmith shop, alongside musical adventures with his brother, the late country powerhouse Keith Whitley.
And Junie Stevens, an Elliott County old-time fiddler, showed off his chops.
Ron Rigsby and Don chatted as brothers, giving their own accounts of growing up in eastern Kentucky, and what the music community means to them.
“I don’t get back to this area very much,” Ron said, “but I think I’m going to start coming more often now.”
These musical skills are honed by each generation- early into the afternoon, local rising artists like Dreydon Gordon and Elijah Boggs played to the growing crowd. Andrew Rigsby, Don’s son, flatpicked the guitar with his band, Solid Ground.
In front of the stage, before the audience, was a wooden platform. Flatfoot dancers took the invitation.
Rigsby’s newest record, ‘Kentucky Troubadour,’ circles back to those influences. It’s a collection of remastered songs he’s co-written and recorded in the last 20 years under Rebel Records, like the Band of Ruhks hit My Ole Tattoo. One of the songs most special to him, though, isn’t his own writing.
“This one’s called Empty Old Mailbox,” Don Rigsby called from the stage. “And it goes something like this- one, two, three…”
Tom T. Hall, from Carter County, is often called simply ‘The Storyteller’. It’s a well-known name across northeastern Kentucky and throughout country music. He wrote Empty Old Mailbox alongside his wife Dixie Hall, and Rigsby later recorded it. Tom T. and Dixie were great influences on Don’s art, and even better friends. During a particularly tough recording session, he remembered Tom T. Hall’s solution.
“He had come in, and he said ‘Donald, what’cha got planned this evening?’ I said, “I don’t. I don’t have anything planned except I’m going to find a bed somewhere and crawl in it. Maybe die.’ He said no, no, no, just don’t make any plans,” Don Rigsby recounted.
The two played golf and relaxed. There was only one rule.
“He said, ‘we’re not going to talk anything about music. You can decompress here. That was good,” Rigsby said, “So we talked about gardening and farming and Kentucky.”
Rigsby explained the people and musical culture across northeastern Kentucky breathed life into his craft. Like many rural communities, Elliott County is much quieter now than when the Rigsby brothers were young. Don Rigsby said the challenge now is helping people appreciate the music that’s right next door. With events like the Appalachian Echoes concert, he aimed to bring this vibrance back into the spotlight.
“Look, there’s plenty of room here,” Rigsby gestured to the vast space around Lakeside Elementary School, where the concert was hosted. “You can bring your kids, they can go play out on the playground. Bring your instruments, we’ll find a spot you can jam. I mean, it’ll be fun, just invest your time. Come out and see your neighbors.
It all comes back to the place he and countless other musicians call home.
“I’m going to try to use the music as a catalyst to wake people up to the treasures that we actually have here in eastern Kentucky,” said Rigsby.