Your AccountBy Wayne Erbsen
Shindig. To people in western North Carolina where I live, “Shindig” is short for Shindig on the Green, which is an outdoor bluegrass music festival held on the courthouse steps in Asheville, North Carolina. The Shindig is a unique summer festival, drawing regional bluegrass and old-time musicians who just want to get together to pick and socialize and strut their musical stuff on stage. For the musicians, it’s not a paid gig, just a big music party with a large audience. Only the house band, The Stoney Creek Boys, get paid.
On Labor Day, I attended the
“minner dipper” is a mandolin, a “scratch box” is a fiddle, and a “starvation box” is a guitar. I’ve learned that a “cathead” is a biscuit, a “ballet” is a ballad and “catawampus” means crosswise. I’ve met fleshy (overweight) people and those who could hide behind a straw (skinny). I’ve seen people who cootered around aimlessly while being bumfusticated, flummoxed, and flustrated. I’ve been told 
One of my favorite gospel songs of all time is I Am a Pilgrim. I first heard it back in the early 60s when I was listening closely to Doc Watson, who sang it and picked it on the guitar. Doc freely admitted that he learned it from the great Merle Travis, so I always assumed Travis composed it. Digging a little deeper, I found that it was recorded by 14 African-American singers before it was even a gleam in Travis’ eye.
