Free Web Site - Free Web Space and Site Hosting - Web Hosting - Internet Store and Ecommerce Solution Provider - High Speed Internet
Search the Web

     by Dennis Goodwin

    "The tuning don't cost no extra," joked one of the band members as he looked around the little stage.  All the other musicians were lost in their own worlds while they tuned their instruments.  Soft chuckles rippled through the audience as they waited for the next piece of homespun bluegrass.  Nobody minds waiting at the "Everett Brother's Music Barn."  They wait as patiently as the audiences did when the legendary Carter Family tuned to a different key between songs.  Mountain music has always been worth the wait.

Besides, the patchwork assortment of Saturday-night regulars didn't come to see fast-paced polished performances.  They drove down Suwanee's Stone Cypher Road to find something else.  They were looking for a place to relax and set their emotional clocks to "high-lonesome mountain time."

Nearly every Saturday night, that time-zone creeps across the room as the overhead fans stir the air and the high-toned harmonies stir the memories.  "Handsome Molly,"  "Sally Goodin," and "Down Yonder" reach out like old friends to the little music barn crowd.  The pure and simple mountain music binds them together as it has for the decades it has echoed through the Appalachians.

Even a first-time visitor can easily drift back through time as the little music barn works its magic.  From the abandoned hornet's nest near the door...past the rows of well-worn church pews and theater seats...to the little stage beneath the steer horns, the music barn is tailor-made for nostalgic "time-travel."

Not only does the barn's down-home atmosphere relax the audience, it temporarily melts away the boundaries between the musicians.  The music barn has drawn everyone from local amateurs to Opry legends like Jim and Jesse and the Osborne Brothers.  The Opry stars wholeheartedly applaud the locals who play between their sets.

Much of the relaxed atmosphere of the music barn comes from the down-home style of the Everett brothers themselves.  Randall, the oldest brother, regularly calms newcomers by reminding them they don't need to worry since "there's nobody here but us."  In fact, the whole idea of the music barn developed in a leisurely informal way.  Randall and Roger Everett have always enjoyed pure country music - especially from the old Opry legends like Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs.  They began to play together for fun, and eventually became good enough to land a regular show on Buford's WDIX radio.

During this time, in 1964, a tragic event struck the family.  Their brother, Jerry, died in the line of duty while working as a police officer in Gwinnett county.

Randall and Roger began to invite musicians from the radio station to come over and help them and their parents take their mind off the sad incident.  Little by little, the word spread to nearby bluegrass lovers that Randall Everett's house was the place to be on a Saturday night.  In response to the increased attendance, they built a twenty-four by thirty-six foot "music room" on the side of the house.  Within a couple years, however, this addition was also bursting at the seams.  Musicians poured in from all directions, toting their banjos, fiddles, bass violins, guitars, dobros and mandolins.

As the music-room regularly spilled outside into the yard, people started to think about creating a building exclusively for the musical get-togethers.  This was the birth of the music barn.  With donated lumber and the helping hands of neighbors and friends, the barn was erected in five months.  By the summer of 1970, it was ready to treat crowds of up to a hundred people to generous portions of Saturday-night bluegrass music.  The old music room - along with the two bedrooms and the kitchen - was then turned over strictly to "jamming."  In fact, in good weather, the jammin' crowd still spills outside into the yard.

Now, over twenty-five years later, not only are many of the original musicians still going strong, but in many cases their children are also carrying on the tradition.  Through their love of music and their generous hospitality, the Everetts have discovered the secret of time travel.  If you want to drift back into "high-lonesome mountain time," you need to attract bluegrass lovers from all directions.  And the best way to lure them in is to build a "music barn."  Yes, just..."build it and they will come."