LeMars, Iowa: For 33 years, the National Traditional Country Music Association has been inducting deserving individuals and groups into “America’s Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame.” According to the NTCMA President, Bob Everhart, it all started those 33 years ago in the middle of a cornfield. “We were trying to get a ‘gathering’ together to play old-time music, and the only place we could find to practice was in a friend’s corn field. That has changed of course, we now host a festival that boasts seven days of old-time acoustic music on ten stages with well over 600 performers.” The 33rd National Old Time Country & Bluegrass Music Festival and Contest takes place, August 25-31, at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in LeMars, Iowa. This year’s special guest is bluegrass legend Bill Clifton of Virginia who will be inducted into the OTCMHoF.

Bill Clifton started his career in old-time music by listening to the music as a child. As he grew older, he made the trip to New York City to visit Woody Guthrie. If you have ever attended a bluegrass festival, you can thank Bill Clifton for that. He was the first to present this ‘style’ of music presentation. Clifton’s background was hardly a typical one for bluegrass, although the players who would populate the distinctive Washington DC bluegrass scene often shared Clifton’s professional background. It was on the 4th of July, 1961, that Clifton staged his first outdoor “Bluegrass Day.” Carlton Haney was in attendance, and in 1965 organized a larger event. Both these famous early bluegrass pioneers are expected to attend the festival in LeMars, Iowa. Clifton moved to England in 1963, formed bands there, eventually joined the Peace Corps, started recording for County Records in 1972, with much success, and finally moved to Virgina in 1980. He has since been a world traveler and promoter of America’s rural music.

Clifton will be joined by a number of other deserving individuals in receiving this honor and recognition from what Everhart describes as ‘rural’ America. “We have about 3,500 active participants in our organization, most of them simply farmers, ranchers, down-home folks, small town residents, and middle-class Americans. They have definite ideas about what they like in musical presentations, and their favorite is the early country music sounds that came from rural America. Today’s so-called country music is somewhat removed from that sound. That’s why we have worked so hard to keep our festival authentic and acoustic in nature.”

More information about the festival and the NTCMA can be obtained at their website www.oldtimemusic.tipzu.com or calling 712-762-4363, or e-mailing bobeverhart@yahoo.com