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On a hot July in 1978, musicians and listeners gathered on the Murfreesboro Public Square to compete in the inaugural Uncle Dave Macon Banjo Pickin’ Contest. The one-day event was spearheaded by downtown business owner Jesse Messick, who wanted to draw attention to the square.

“It was exciting. It was something new,” Jerry Messick said. “I thought my brother was crazy by starting it because it would never go anywhere. But I was wrong about it,” he chuckled. 

More than 40 years later, Uncle Dave Macon Days: A Roots Rendezvous has transformed into a two-day old-time music competition and festival that has been named a Top 20 event by the Southeast Tourism Society.

“I think Jesse would be … thrilled to death if he saw it today,” said Jerry Messick, whose brother died in 1988, just a decade after the festival began.

Just five years after Uncle Dave Macon Days started, the current festival president Gloria Christy joined Messick in producing the festival as a way to get involved in the community where she grew up. Two years later she took over for Messick, unsure, really, of what she was doing.

The former educator said she “just ran it like a classroom,” and organized it that way ever since. So far, it’s worked. But just as times change, so has the free festival.

As popularity of the banjo contest grew, more contest categories were added: old-time fiddle, guitar, mandolin and jug band. And then there’s the free-wheelin’ banjo contest, which gives nod to Uncle Dave’s signature style of playing that garnered him the title of first superstar of the Grand Ole Opry.

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Big changes

By 1989, the festival was moved a half-mile away to Cannonsburgh, a replica of a pioneer village built by Murfreesboro to celebrate the United States Bicentennial.

The new venue sparked a big challenge, however. “We blew a transformer,” laughed Christy. “But Murfreesboro Electric was right out here and had it up and running within an hour or two.”

Two decades after moving locations, the recession depleted festival funds. So they started charging admission — just $5. Transition was met with resistance.

“We knew this thing was not sustainable in the particular modality that this started,” Christy said.

The admission kept the festival going. Fans and musicians got used to the change, too.

Big names a ‘game changer’

Trailblazer and Heritage Award winners were added to the festival to bring even more awareness to the genre — and bolster the crowds. Hundreds turned to thousands.

At one time, the only big concerts were Trailblazer and Heritage Award winners. The rest of the festival focused on competitions.

In 2013, Ricky Skaggs was the Heritage Award winner and the number of fans that came to see him was “eye opening,” said Christy’s son, Ben Wilson, who took over as festival director in 2014.

“The next year we had (award-winning) Dailey and Vincent perform. And that was another game changer. That let us know people really wanted to see concerts,” Wilson said. 

Contests weren’t self-sufficient. To support that part, bigger names were tapped for performances. “That’s what drives the money for the festival, and sponsors, so we can still have the contests,” Wilson said.

Competitions still remained a draw for young musicians and dancers. Many started as contestants, won award and eventually became professional musicians.

Mickey Harris attended Uncle Dave Macon Days since he can remember. By age 10 he was participating in impromptu jams. As a teenager he began winning contests. Today, he tours with bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent and the Rage.

“It’s been such a big influence,” said Harris, who will perform with his own group as well as Rhonda Vincent. “It’s given lots of people a place to play music.”

Festival roots

Last year the festival made a transition, albeit a quiet one, to Uncle Dave Macon Days: A Roots Rendezvous, allowing expansion of the genre, Wilson said.

This means blending old with the new, both crowds and musicians.

Bridging generations is a challenge, Wilson admitted. Older fans are used to traditional bluegrass, younger generations are drawn to the faster “jamgrass.” 

“I was fearful of blending the more progressive stuff with the bluegrass. I think people are more open to it. I think people who are going to want things to be the same … but things change,” Wilson said.

Rising stars are “reinventing the genre and making it more palatable to the next generation,” Christy said.

“I think Roots Rendezvous is the umbrella and Uncle Dave is a piece of it,” Wilson said.

This year classical music is coming. The Tennessee Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will play with 2019 Heritage Award winner, Balsam Range.

In the future Wilson hopes to host events at various venues, eventually extending the festival to a whole week.

Uncle Dave Macon Days provides a springboard to so much more than a two-day festival.

Festival runs ‘the whole gamut’

“I think our show is unique. … You can see a person who has just picked up a guitar all the way to professionals,” Wilson said. “This is why I think it’s so important we continue to have the contests.”

More change is on the horizon, including the possibility of a return to the public square for some of parts of the festival.

Wilson said he also hopes to expand the Roots Rendezvous brand outside of the two-day festival in July by hosting other “pop-up” events related to the festival throughout the year. Right now, the festival hosts regular showcases at Puckett’s Grocery on the Square.

“We started out so small and everything has grown and grown. But with every phase, we’ve learned and taken it to the next level,” Christy said. “The same process that got us here in 1978, we’re still working that process out.”

Reach reporter Nancy DeGennaro at degennaro@dnj.com and follow her on Twitter @NanDeGennaro.

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