Frederick News Post, June 17, 2010
By Lauren LaRocca
News-Post Staff
Brunswick once boomed as a railroad town, and that remains its claim to fame to this day. Most of the longtime residents are descendants of engineers, conductors and repairmen.
But the railroad that rolled through brought more than coal from West Virginia.
“Music grew out of railroading,” said Hanna Politis, co-owner of Beans in the Belfry and events coordinator for the Brunswick Music Fest.
The town celebrates Railroad Days each fall, and for the first time Saturday will host the Brunswick Music Fest, featuring bluegrass, blues and old-time music, beginning at 11 a.m. at Railroad Square.
Organizers hope it will become an annual event.
“Old-time was discovered and brought back here,” Politis continued. “Appalachian music was played on every porch. … They just played for themselves.”
Similarly, blues originated with black laborers, “talking about the woes of life,” Politis said. “They’d sing their stories and their ballads and their hard times.” Several of them were recruited to work on the railroad.
As a Brunswick Main Street, Inc. event, with support from the City of Brunswick and the Frederick County Tourism Council, festival organizers wanted to include all three genres. Bands performing Saturday include The Martin Family Band, Hardline Drive, Chocolate Thunder, Blue Moon Rising and Kelly Bell Band.
Chocolate Thunder “has a tremendous presence,” Politis said. “Her voice is like Aretha Franklin’s.”
And with Hardline Drive “you get newgrass that doesn’t talk about the farm, let’s say, but modern times,” she said. “They keep bluegrass alive.”
The Polka Dots, a young old-time trio from Loudoun County, will play near the gate, welcoming festival-goers onto the grounds.
Cheryl Mansley, music director and publicist for the festival, booked the acts.
“I’ve always heard how talented” The Martin Family Band is, she said. “I jammed with Lydia, Emily and Claude once, years ago … and was impressed with them then.”
She added that the Kelly Bell Band played Brunswick once before to a great response, so it was a no-brainer to invite them back to town.
Mansley said she discovered Chocolate Thunder via Internet searching. “When I received her CD I was blown away by how good it is.”
The festival will also include food, a beer garden and merchandise vendors.
MCs include Diana Gibson, news anchor of WFRE and WFMD, and singer-songwriter Tomy Wright.
Gary Free, 71, is a guitar legend in Brunswick and will serve as another MC at the festival. Following the festival ethos, he carries on the music of generations before him, having gotten his start in the railroad town in 340 West, the band his father, Woody, headed.