Are you ready to explore the hidden treasures of North Carolina's Foothills region? Join us as we recap our captivating journey to Happy Valley, where we enjoyed an immersive day of music, art, and local history. We'll share our impressions from the inaugural Coalesce Fest as well as delve into local bands, as we also take you behind the scenes of the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center and Park and historic Fort Defience - all right off of the Upper Yadkin Scenic Byway.
Hot links:
https://www.wncsculpture.org/
https://www.wncsculpture.org/wnc-sculpture-center
https://www.historicfortdefiancenc.org/about-the-fort
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094324192729
https://www.facebook.com/andrew.massey3
This program brought to you by:
The Angler Magazine
Sunrift Adventures
Thank you for listening to this program. Please visit BizRadio.US for hundreds of other great conversational shows and be sure to bookmark Matt & Michele Outdoors on your browser for all sorts of great content.
Are you ready to explore the hidden treasures of North Carolina's Foothills region? Join us as we recap our captivating journey to Happy Valley, where we enjoyed an immersive day of music, art, and local history. We'll share our impressions from the inaugural Coalesce Fest as well as delve into local bands, as we also take you behind the scenes of the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center and Park and historic Fort Defience - all right off of the Upper Yadkin Scenic Byway.
Hot links:
https://www.wncsculpture.org/
https://www.wncsculpture.org/wnc-sculpture-center
https://www.historicfortdefiancenc.org/about-the-fort
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094324192729
https://www.facebook.com/andrew.massey3
This program brought to you by:
The Angler Magazine
Sunrift Adventures
Thank you for listening to this program. Please visit BizRadio.US for hundreds of other great conversational shows and be sure to bookmark Matt & Michele Outdoors on your browser for all sorts of great content.
Good day and welcome to another episode of Matt and Michelle Odyssey. I'm Matt. Matan, I'm Michelle Sheath, and boy did we have a fun day trip that we can't wait to tell you about on this episode.
Michele Scheve:Oh my gosh, it was so good, it was so, so fun.
Matt Mittan:And it could have been a weekend trip. It really but we just really overbooked ourselves and we did.
Michele Scheve:And this was a festival. It was their first time, so it was one of those things of, like, you know, next year we'll know a little bit more about, about what we're doing.
Matt Mittan:And we are talking about the inaugural coalesced fest which was held in Happy Valley, north Carolina, just outside Lenore, north Carolina, in the northwest corner in the foothills in North Carolina. We always seem to overbook ourselves whenever we travel to that part of the Appalachian mountains and foothills.
Michele Scheve:I don't think people realize. I don't think I would realize unless I was actively out there looking at all these festivals. They have in these areas, so many great activities and great stuff to do on regular schedules. It's not even special events.
Matt Mittan:Yes, but we love it and you know, like I think people who listen to us on a regular basis know, wilkesboro is kind of our unofficial adopted second hometown. Yes, and, but we were there for the coalesced fest. But just to give a little bit of information, it was held at the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center and Park, which we'll talk about a little bit more as we go, but it was located on NC 268, which is the scenic byway, part of the Upper Yadkin Scenic Byway, the North Carolina Highway 268, and it was gorgeous.
Michele Scheve:So beautiful, and the day could not have been better.
Matt Mittan:Oh yeah.
Michele Scheve:I can't think of any way it could have been better. Can you think of a way it could have been better?
Matt Mittan:if we had camped overnight, because we could have camped, but we we booked ourselves in multiple times.
Michele Scheve:Oh the weather, yeah, it was too perfect.
Matt Mittan:No, it was.
Michele Scheve:It was what like 65, 70 degrees, there was a breeze, full blue jean weather and, and yeah, gorgeous blue skies.
Matt Mittan:Yeah, it was fantastic and and had such a great time too, because it featured all local music. Yes from Lenore, morganton, hickory, wilkesboro area. Yeah, it was all local artists and Michelle and I we co-founded and co-own a radio station based in Asheville, north Carolina, called Buzz radio, and it features just Original artists of all styles from all across Western North Carolina, and so for us it was kind of like a homecoming Slash meet and greet, because there were so many bands we knew but there were so many that we knew but hadn't met face-to-face.
Michele Scheve:And it just had seen live, hadn't seen live, and that was. That was absolutely One of the most exciting things, if not, it probably was. The most exciting thing about the day is that there were Five I would say five bands, that that we were very I love, but hadn't seen live. That were very familiar with their music, that that we could dance to you and sing along. It was just really Really great In that way, and there there was so many things about the day that that was really fun, really enjoyable.
Matt Mittan:And it was a great chance to be introduced to the Western North Carolina sculpture center in park which we had never, been to, and but you went to art school not far from there.
Michele Scheve:Well, I went to school in Pinland and it's very much if they turned the, if they turned the sculpture park into more of an art school, which there's talk of them doing Kind of on a vibe, where you can have Residencies there, and we were talking to some art students While some local artists in town that you tried to adopt that.
Matt Mittan:I did want to adopt them.
Michele Scheve:They were. They were lovely artists, yes, and and really sweet and fun and but but yeah, so we were getting some, some of the inside information about how they might do a Like a little artists colony type stuff as they build up the, the sculpture park and and that was very similar idea to what Pinland is, which anyone can Google Pinland art schools, well known all over the world, yeah, so and and so it was really cool because it's a working.
Matt Mittan:I guess it used to be an old gymnasium as part of the school campus that's right in that area, yeah, and they've converted it into it's like a forge you know, and, and it was neat seeing the whole big pallets of coal and everything else and blacksmiths and everything.
Matt Mittan:As a matter of fact, I got a list right here. Let me just read. So yeah, it's a 10,000 square foot former gymnasium from the Patterson School Foundation grounds, and so you know, they took over all this land and the building and everything, but inside there they have a foundry, you know, with iron furnaces, sand mixers, resins, catalysts, ramming tools, all kind of stuff metal fabrication, blacksmithing, woodworking and they've got all of that right there in this space and it's and it's available for people to go in in the sculpture center and do their work and because it's got such high ceilings, they can do big projects.
Matt Mittan:Yeah, and then there's places to display it, and you were mentioning like you can walk around this walking trails and the sculptures everywhere, of every kind you can imagine it on beautiful, just postcard grounds, right, just absolutely wonderful and had such a great time there. And Also, the other thing about the about the programs that they're doing there and things that they're starting to launch out Is they're gonna be doing special programs, like they have military veteran workshops for military veterans.
Michele Scheve:Are you gonna do that?
Matt Mittan:Well, I was, look I'm. That's why I'm bringing it up. You wanna shout out because I might want to follow up and schedule some time to be there on the grounds and attend a Blacksmithing workshop. Right, they have metal forging, blacksmithing, woodworking things and, as you know listeners may not know this, but I do a lot of I used to do a lot of work furniture I built Right contraptions around the house and things like that, but the blacksmithing is fascinating to me.
Matt Mittan:Yeah, you know, I would love to experience that, but they hold events there. They've got volunteer opportunities and everything. It is a. It's a nonprofit organization, but if you're looking to have a day trip and go and check it out, they do have the park grounds which are open to the public. I and it's from dawn till dusk and so people can go and you can walk around.
Michele Scheve:There's a nice little pond with a dock, you know, so there's water features and Although I bet they could do like a corn maze without the maze with all the sculptures there, and like run around at night. Wouldn't that be fun?
Matt Mittan:Oh, that would To do like a Halloween. That could be really scary. Yeah, it could be totally scary.
Michele Scheve:Cause you're out in the middle, you're way out, you're way out.
Matt Mittan:It really is a setup. You're out in rural area.
Michele Scheve:yes, Okay, it is a setup for a horror story. So, but during the day it's quite lovely, I mean, and the Patterson school has a lot of history to it as well.
Matt Mittan:And that's right across the scenic byway from the sculpture center in park, and so there's a lot of history there too, but other than that it's beautiful vistas and farms. There's not really much else out there, but one of the other things that's nearby. I just wanted to shout this out before we got into talking about the bands and the experience.
Matt Mittan:But Fort Defiance, north Carolina, is right near this location as well. As a matter of fact, as you're driving in to the sculpture center, you'll see the signs for the historic Fort Defiance, and I just wanted to read a little bit. You know you never want to read on radio, but I just wanted to go ahead and read this. It says the home was built by William. It's a historic home and it was named well. I'll just read it instead of me trying to summarize it.
Matt Mittan:The home was built by William Lenore, beginning in 1788 and was finished in 1792. Now, if you're paying attention at home and you're checking off the bingo card, the sculpture center is right outside Lenore. Yes, this is the namesake. So the namesake for the town of Lenore, this is the Lenore family homestead that was built in the 1700s. When the house was originally constructed, there were five outbuildings built within a 75-yard radius a smokehouse, a loom house, a dairy, a summer kitchen and corn crib. And today the smokehouse is the only original building still standing. But the Lenore's home was named for the original Fort Defiance, built prior to the American Revolution. By the time construction of the house started, the fort was abandoned and nothing remains of it today. But the home was altered by the family over the years, but in 1972, I think it was 1972 or maybe it was 1961. I don't remember.
Michele Scheve:Don't tell me there was a fire.
Matt Mittan:No. When the family turned it over to for historic preservation and created a nonprofit, they went ahead and restored the original house. They took off the additions that had been put on and put other parts back on that had been taken off.
Michele Scheve:And when you drive into the sculpture center, is that the original house that we see?
Matt Mittan:No, no this is nearby.
Michele Scheve:Oh, nearby, yeah, it's nearby.
Matt Mittan:But for people that are looking to do a day trip. You can go ahead and hit the sculpture center, you can enjoy the scenic byway which runs I should probably mention this the scenic byway, the Upper Yadkin scenic byway runs from US 321, which anyone who's traveled through that area knows that highway well. It connects from there over to Kerr-Scott Reservoir, which we've also done an episode of MMO at. And so if you want to take that scenic rural drive, it's beautiful.
Matt Mittan:And you can hit Fort Defiance, you can hit the sculpture center and things like that, but during the history of the house parts of it were used as a lumber office. It also was used as a US post office for a time for the community out there, and the family lived in the house from 1792 until 1961. Wow.
Michele Scheve:Isn't that?
Matt Mittan:crazy. Yeah, that's so awesome and anyway. So it's now open, it's available and the nonprofit, the 501C3 nonprofit, fort Defiance Incorporated, oversees the operation of the historic home and grounds and you can check them out online historic Fort Defiance Fort DefianceNCorg. And really beautiful, like colonial style, and it's not a lot of colonial architecture.
Michele Scheve:So did you see it.
Matt Mittan:No, we didn't go to it because we had so many events we just went there, that's right. But that's why we do the show.
Michele Scheve:I didn't know if you would see it before, but we definitely gotta go back. You're a Fort guy.
Matt Mittan:Well, I knew about Fort Defiance from the Revolution of War, and when I saw the sign saying Fort Defiance I was like wait one, I don't know that we're in the right area too. I didn't think it was still around, and so now I know the history.
Michele Scheve:And it was inspired by that.
Matt Mittan:So cool, yeah. So just a cool thing. All right back to Coalesce Fest.
Michele Scheve:Yes.
Matt Mittan:So big shout out to Andrew Massey.
Michele Scheve:Right. So Andrew Massey, from Andrew Massey and the Midnight American.
Matt Mittan:And Sycamore Bones.
Michele Scheve:Sycamore Bones. He has been a figure and he has been someone in the Lenore community that has been bringing the art scene, the music scene, together for many years now, and so to do it on this level is just a beautiful thing, to witness Someone taking it up a notch.
Matt Mittan:It's had two music stages, had all kinds of food trucks there. There were activities for kids. It was like a little carnival, like old school kind of small town carnival type things with the different games and things like that. But then you also had a whole bunch of artisans set up all around the grounds to be able to shop and see their work and many people were out there doing the stuff Right. They're on site. And that's where my blacksmithing conversation.
Matt Mittan:I got into a conversation with the blacksmith and he was like you know, let's come over on the other side of the rope here I'll let you bang out some iron. I'm like oh, I'd love to, but if I start I won't make it to my next thing on time.
Michele Scheve:Yes.
Matt Mittan:But it was really good. But you mentioned, you know, getting to see bands. We got to see so many diverse bands. It's one of the things I want to say about the Lenore, morganton, hickory area, because and this isn't really a commentary as much as it is just an observation the venues in those areas do not support original music.
Matt Mittan:They just don't you know, and so it's like you got to play covers to get a gig, and that's one of the reasons why I think this festival was even organized, because the bands that we're playing were all playing original music Right, which we celebrate. I mean, we go looking for that.
Michele Scheve:You know it's like cover bands.
Matt Mittan:Nothing against you, but we're not gonna spend money to go see a cover band. We wanna go see original music and it speaks to the region and the area where they're at, and some of the standout bands from the area we wanna give shout outs because the music in that area around Lenore is just so outstanding. And yet, you know, other than Buzz Radio in Asheville, there's not really anywhere that a lot of these bands are getting any airtime, and so we wanted to introduce some of them to our audience on MMO.
Michele Scheve:Right, okay, so, like you said, there's the truck stage, which was an actual truck, so quaint.
Matt Mittan:Yeah, flatbed.
Michele Scheve:It was really well done. And then the mural stage, which was right, where there was a mural as well, and so the mural stage, which was smaller, had Jimmy Griffith, Cody Romadette, the Zebra Ninjas which is amazing which was another band of Andrew.
Matt Mittan:Massey, andrew, massey, yep for kids and stuff, yeah so cool.
Michele Scheve:Georgie Harris Squatch, which is one of the bands that we know and love.
Matt Mittan:Got to see live. Finally Got to see live.
Michele Scheve:finally, the Neighbors and Dear Cavalier. So that was on the mural stage, which was the smaller stage, and they all killed it. And then over on the truck stage, it was the Rostakustik, will, willis and Friends and then Truvair that was another one we loved. Truvair yeah, quite an amazing songwriter, so fantastic, so great to see him and his band.
Matt Mittan:And we'd actually seen them live in Asheville.
Michele Scheve:We have seen them at the Gray Eagle in Asheville and then John Boyd in Lefty Sycamore Bones.
Matt Mittan:One of Andrew Massey's bands. They played my favorite song.
Michele Scheve:It made me so happy.
Matt Mittan:Look up Lake Fever.
Michele Scheve:Yeah, lake Fever, such a good song. Phantom X, which, like I'm wearing their t-shirt now I got at the festival.
Matt Mittan:I was drinking out of their Cousi a little bit earlier. Yes, no, in Phantom X too. I mean like all stop I mean just the energy and the attitude and the musicianship and performance. And Abigail, yeah, the lead singer Just coming off that stage, just pushed the trees back another 50 feet, I mean just unbelievable progressive punk metal. I don't know what you categorize them as.
Michele Scheve:It's really hard for me to categorize them, you know, even though I know they're in the progressive punk metal type area, but some of the words to their music, I mean, they're screamed. These words are screaming.
Matt Mittan:But then other melodies are so soothing and beautiful.
Michele Scheve:It's poetry, it really is Such a big fan. And then, of course, john Kirby Jr and the new seniors and Bobby Snakes. And so that's who covered it. That was a great first festival lineup for them.
Matt Mittan:Yeah, and you know, one of the things we love to do with MMO is we say we like to travel. We travel intentionally, unintentionally, you know, intentionally unintentional with our travels. And this was an exception of that. We went very much excited to specifically be able to celebrate this little corner of the Southern.
Matt Mittan:Appalachia foothills and the music and the art and the artisans of that area, and you know so. If you're looking for, people ask us all the time where's a place to go that many people don't know about. There you go. We've just given you one right here.
Matt Mittan:We've ruined so many places, y'all that was actually some of the conversation with people about. Like you know, we want people to know, we want to support the music and the artists, but at the same time, it's like, well, you know, but we don't want you know. Three million people showing up in the valley all of a sudden.
Michele Scheve:Yeah, yeah, I mean honestly. Yeah, we really don't. We really don't, y'all. So go only only if you're really gonna be present there. Also, shout out to the food. There were a couple of food trucks.
Matt Mittan:There were three food trucks. All of them were phenomenal.
Michele Scheve:Yeah, all of them were phenomenal, I think.
Matt Mittan:I should have written down the names of them.
Michele Scheve:Yeah, I feel bad that I don't, you don't have their names, but they are food trucks in the Lenore area and if you go to the, the, the NC sculpture org in find the coalesce fast, I'm sure they're still listed there.
Matt Mittan:So go ahead and set a reminder you know. Go ahead and follow on Facebook or something you know. Look up Andy Andrew Massey. For all the great stuff. He's really an ambassador. Yes for the art and music scene of that area. But you know, if you're looking to do a multi-day trip, you know We've got a few episodes in the Wilkes County area that we've done Leatherwood.
Michele Scheve:Resort. Reservoir Wilkesburg area Phenomenal and.
Matt Mittan:I think we've also done Lake Hickory as an episode as well. I think I'm not sure I know we've been there.
Michele Scheve:You know I was the one where we almost died so much time there that I'm not sure I know we almost got run over by a big yacht in our canoe. Anyway, maybe we didn't do an episode on that one.
Matt Mittan:We should, though, anyway. So check it out. Lenore area local breweries, restaurants. It's really an up-and-coming community, and the creative arts scene in the music scene just hit so far above its weight, and, and every single person right down to you know, from kids to Aged or anything in between everybody was so friendly, so accommodating, so proud of their community and we got walked out of the event by a goose. Oh yeah, we had a Canadian goose walk us out the traffic, walk us out like a traffic calmer.
Matt Mittan:I was like okay, okay, they were just crawling like two miles an hour behind this goose that just walked us out.
Michele Scheve:So check out our social media for pictures, videos, etc.
Matt Mittan:All right. So there's your to-do list for the day trip there. You've got the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center in Park. You've got Fort Defiance. You've also you've got the historic school right the Patterson school is right there and of course, the upper Yadkin scenic byway that can connect you back over to Wilkesboro and Kerscott Reservoir and appreciate y'all tuning in.