What months ago was the temporary home for the on-campus bookstore became a dance floor for Bucky’s Big Barn Dance last week. Participants gathered in the Culp Center Ballroom to enjoy music by the ETSU Old Time Ramblers and the Hogslop String Band.
ETSU Old Time Ramblers consists of Kathleen and Anissa Burnett, sisters who are both part of the Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music major at ETSU.
“They came to old-time country music through the Junior Appalachia Musicians program in North Carolina, where they started playing at the ages of 7 and 9,” Director of ETSU Student Activities and Organizations Carter Warden said as he introduced the pair. “By their teens, they were placing in contests and fiddler’s conventions. They have thrived at ETSU and have earned the respect of both students and faculty as talented, multi-instrumentalists and singers.”
The Burnett sisters had worked with Hogslop before. In April 2019, both groups were part of Bucky’s Big Barn Dance hosted in the quad. They were excited to work alongside them again.
“We heard they were coming back and said, ‘Oh my word,’” Kathleen Burnett said. “Then Roy [Andrade] called us and he was like, ‘Hey, you all want to open for them?’ And we were like, ‘Yeah!’ Of course we want to open for them.”
They started the night off with their 30 minute set playing the fiddle, banjo and guitar. The pair played old-time music mainly from the ’20s and ’30s. Some of their selected repertoire included, “Sales Tax on the Women” by the Dixon Brothers, “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and “Custom Made Woman Blues” by Hazel and Alice.
The event was part of the grand re-opening week of the D.P. Culp Student Center. It was sponsored by Buctainment, each attendee receiving a commemorative Coming Home shirt. The sisters described being part of that week as special, considering their position as students at ETSU.
“We were here before it was renovated,” Kathleen Burnett said. “Seeing the renovations go on, it was like, ‘Is it ever going to open? We are going to graduate by the time it opens.’ To be a part of that is kind of like, ‘Yes, it happened in our time being here. Finally.’ And we get to be a part of that, not everyone gets to do that.”
Hogslop band member Gabriel Kelley called the dances, walking everyone through the steps of each one. The last dance of the night ended with Kelley leading 30 dancers around the Ballroom in a chain dance.
The next ETSU sponsored dance night will be the free square dance on March 24 at the Down Home.
