If you are already a fan of MerleFest, then you can skip to No. 1. For the uninitiated, however, MerleFest is the younger, Eastern cousin of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I discovered this gem of Americana festivals more than two decades ago after I moved to North Carolina from spending nearly a decade out West attending the Telluride festival. You may be surprised to learn that MerleFest has nothing to do with Merle Haggard, although that has proved confusing over the years. It was especially confusing the year the Hag himself closed out the four-day music festival. Instead it is named in memory of Eddy Merle Watson, son of bluegrass legend and North Carolina native Doc Watson. Known as one of the best flat-picking and slide guitarists of his generation, Merle Watson died in a farming accident in 1985 at the age of 36. Doc Watson started the Americana festival that bears his son’s name as a fundraiser for Wilkes Community College in 1988 to honor his son and their style of music, that Doc referred to as “traditional plus,” meaning the traditional music of the Appalachian region plus whatever other styles the Watsons were in the mood to play. We lost Doc Watson in 2012 but he and Merle Watson’s musical celebration continues on featuring bluegrass, Americana, country, blues, rock and many other styles. This year’s festival will play host to a diverse number of artists, performing on 13 stages during the course of the four-day event April 23-26. Watch this video from the very first #MerleFest 1988 featuring Mark O’Connor, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Sam Bush and John Cowan, many of whom will be performing this year. And while there are many more than 12 reasons to attend MerleFest, it seemed fitting to highlight a dozen reasons since that is the same number of stages the festival features.
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