Glenn Bolick Takes To His Front Porch To Entertain Folks Who Visit Bailey’s Camp
BAILEY’S CAMP, N.C. – Making music is fun, Glenn Bolick will say.
And making pottery? Well, that’s a family tradition.
Still, this toe-tapping Tarheel has made a living running a sawmill, powered by a steam engine. Listening to the buzz, still, he’s dreaming about his banjo.
Out on his front porch, where he crafts his own instruments, Bolick tells visitors about the history of banjos – how they came to the United States through slaves.
He shows off a groundhog skin used for a drumhead.
And then he performs – with no frets on his banjo.
And no frets about it.
‘MUSIC IS HIS THING’
Wearing overalls, and smiling, Bolick is clearly an infectious character. You can’t help but be mesmerized as the 70-year-old musician plays both the banjo and harmonica while also using one foot to tap a contraption that makes a wooden man dance.
Just a couple of buildings away, as the musician entertains a Sunday afternoon crowd, Bolick’s wife, Lula Bolick, 65, stands inside a pottery barn.
“He loves music,” she said. “Music is his thing.”
Lula, in turn, is a proud potter. It’s a tradition that’s been in her family for five generations. It’s also one she carried on here, at the Bailey’s Camp community, after moving from Seagrove, N.C., in 1973.
What she makes is not only decorative.
It’s also functional, she promised. “All the pottery is microwave oven and dishwasher safe.”
FACE JUGS
Among the many items that the family makes are face jugs.
These collectibles follow tradition.
In the late 1700s, slaves put ugly faces on milk crocks, thinking the devil caused the milk to sour. In turn, ugly faces were also put on jugs that contained whiskey to keep children away.
Today’s bottles of poison – featuring a skull and crossbones – actually came from the face jugs, also called “Devil Jugs,” “Ugly Jugs” and “Voodoo Jugs.”
It’s all quite simple, Lula promised.
“You just make a jug,” she said. “And then when it gets like leather hard, you put the face on it.”
MORE MUSIC
Outside the pottery barn, Glenn Bolick plays on. With the couple’s grown daughter, Janet, Bolick pours his heart into The Carter Family’s “The Storms Are On the Ocean.”
Bolick has been playing such traditional tunes for years.
Honestly, he said, “I enjoy the music more than the pottery.”
On Sunday evenings, in the summertime, folks simply show up at his home near Boone, N.C., and listen as he performs on a porch. They’ve been doing that for 15 years – as many as 100 people a week.
Still, there’s more than just music to be heard around Bailey’s Camp.
Mention hogs.
And, with the right amount of coaxing, Glenn Bolick launches into one of his signature, contest-winning hog calls.
Years ago, he even made the noise during an appearance on the nationally-syndicated but short-lived “Pat Sajak Show.”
Today, while Bolick says he can’t make the hog calls quite like he used to, he can still sing about being a “Sawmill Man.”
He can also spin through story-songs about “hauling mountain dew” as his front-porch audience smiles.
Bolick’s songs are funny and traditional.
And, in many ways, that’s just the way he is, too.
BRISTOL CONCERT
Glenn Bolick is performing in Bristol, Va., at the Pickin’ Porch of the Bristol Mall on Aug. 20. Show time is 7 p.m. Suggested donation is $4. Call (276) 645-0035.
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