The Blue Ridge Descendants Story
Dulcimer player Bob Harman tells all on the eve of reunion show in Blowing Rock

By Jeff Eason

One of the great regional bands of the High Country was the Blue Ridge Descendants, a string band that played traditional mountain music in and around Blowing Rock in the 1960s. Four decades after the band’s heyday, members of the group and special guests will perform a reunion concert at the Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock. The show is scheduled for Sunday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance and $14 at the door.

The Mountain Times caught up with original Blue Ridge Descendants member Bob Harman to find out about the group’s origins and how the reunion came about:

The Mountain Times: How did the Blue Ridge Descendants get its start?

Bob Harman: My grandfather was John Goodwin, and our family has Goodwin Family Weavers, a very famous weaving company. Back around 1960 a man came into the store and wanted to sell us a dulcimer. He said, “My daddy invented this here instrument and it’s a “dull-see-more.” I thought “Good lord.” So we bought it and paid him 15 dollars for it and took it home that night. Everybody played with it and I sort of took to it.

We started selling them at the store. I began playing and demonstrating how to play the dulcimer. We had various dulcimer makers in the region. I probably sold one thousand dulcimers through that gift shop. Over the years of doing that, I got pretty good at playing it.

The Mountain Times: When did you start playing professionally?

Bob Harman: One day a man came into the shop and said, “Would you come over to Shatley Springs and entertain people with a little background music?” I said I didn’t know if I wanted to do that or not. He said, “We’ll give you twenty dollars.” So I said sure. Remember, this is back in 1960.

I ended up going into the military in 1963 and got back in ’66 and when I got back I took up the dulcimer again and started playing private parties and civic club luncheons and things like that.

The Mountain Times: Is that when the Blue Ridge Descendants started?

Bob Harman: I met a guy here in town named James Coffey who was a really good guitar player. James had been playing all his life. He’s descended from Happy John Coffey, a very famous musician out on the way to Grandfather Mountain, in a region known as Coffey’s Gap. He would sit on the side of the road and play the autoharp. He had apples and a little produce and he would pick out tunes and cars would stop. This was in the late thirties and forties. He was an early roadside musician. People would stop to hear him play and sing songs.

James was a little guy and as soon as he got big enough to get his arms around a guitar, he’d sit out there and play with his granddad. They put on little shows on the side of the road and that kind of stuff.

James became a master musician so he keenly understood what I could do with this dulcimer. The two of us sort of bonded and blended and just read each other’s mind and we came out with some pretty cool stuff. I mean it was just unusual.

The Mountain Times: How did the other musicians join the band?

Bob Harman: James and I ended up playing here, playing there, and pretty soon we picked up Tommy Cannon, a bass player. He’s a local boy who is now deceased. Tommy was a superior bass man. Now we had rhythm and lead with the three of us. Then we got a guy named Rand Shook, of the Shooks from over in Foscoe. Rand was a noted regional banjo player—really good. His best buddy in the world was Audie Rogers. Audie was Jimmie Rogers’ first cousin. Then we picked up—off and on—some other musicians. We had Ora Watson. Ora and Arlie Watson played with us a lot.

Glenn Bolick came along and said, “Y’all are getting pretty good. Why don’t you let me sing with you?” And I said, “Glenn, we don’t need a singer. We’ll think about it. We’ll let you know.” Well, he went away. But every two or three months, here’d come Glenn wanting to sing with us. And we’d say, “Nah, we’re an instrumental band.”

After about a year-and-a-half, Glenn came to rehearsal and said, “I’ll tell you what, boys. I’m going to sing and I ain’t leaving until you hear me.” Well, the minute he opened his mouth and started singing I said, “Good God, Glenn, where have you been?”

He could have slapped me for that.

The Mountain Times: How popular and successful was the band?

Bob Harman: We had good vocals, with Beth Jones and Glenn, and good music. We played the Grove Park Inn in Asheville and we did national conventions and James and I were on the Ralph Emery Show in Nashville. Things were looking up. Gary Eberhardt was the superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway for several years and he and I had been friends for years. He had us do live shows for people. We ended up entertaining congressmen, senators, all kinds of people.

Things were going very well and we came down to almost buying a bus and going out on the road. Then I got hooked up with somebody who said, “Hey, you’re getting away from your textile roots. Let’s do that instead and put this music business on hold.”

And that’s what I did. That was a mistake I think.

The Mountain Times: How did the idea for a reunion occur?

Bob Harman: After all these years we just felt like we wanted to get together and see what happens. So here we are. We’ve lost some players. Ray Dotson was one of our players. He and James grew up together playing guitars. Ray’s health is bad. He’s on oxygen down in Lenoir. We tried to get him to do this but he just can’t. He’s too far over the dam. But he’s here with us in spirit.

Blue Ridge Descendents Concert

The Blue Ridge Descendents Reunion Concert at the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock will feature Bob Harman, Glenn Bolick, James Coffey, Janet Calhoun, Lanna Trantham and Rebecca Jones.

According to Harman, the first part of the concert will be dedicated to the “old-time primitive” music of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the second half will feature some fast-picking bluegrass.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, call the Hayes Center Box Office at (828) 295-9627, or visit www.hayescenter.org.