Dean Poling
HAHIRA — The Great Hahira Pick-In was one of those things that, well, you really had to be there to fully understand and you definitely had to be there to appreciate.
This weekend, folks get one more chance to get to know the Pick-In.
Harveys is sponsoring the return of the Great Hahira Pick-In Saturday, a one-day, last-time event, before the supermarket chain begins construction on a new grocery store at the Mountain Stage site in Hahira.
This 2007 Pick-In will present plenty of bluegrass from local and regional musicians and bands. This Pick-In won’t last all weekend, but it will start early Saturday morning and continue late that night.
Wilby Coleman, one of the Pick-In’s founders whose family owned the property purchased by Harveys, said he was surprised and delighted that the supermarket wanted to hold one last Pick-In as a tribute to the site. Coleman’s group, Hahira Bluegrass Band, is one of the bands returning to play the last Pick-In.
The Great Hahira Pick-In was an annual event from 1980 through 1995.
Coleman, members of his family, and others booked bluegrass acts from all over the place as well as performing themselves on the stage set in a clearing in what was then the outskirts of Hahira. Bluegrass performers arrived from many states as did folks who camped on the grounds or stayed in a nearby motel.
The Great Hahira Pick-In highlighted bluegrass during one of the music form’s valleys. Hard-core fans stayed with bluegrass but the Pick-In ran at a time when bluegrass enjoyed few inroads with the mainstream-listening public. Still, the Pick-In always featured great bluegrass music.
But it wasn’t just the music on stage that made the Pick-In magic. It was the pickin’ and grinnin’ late into the night in the campsites, around campfires, and in the field behind the mountain stage.
The Pick-In was the legends, such as a couple who met at a Pick-In sitting on an old couch and was later married. Or the man who arrived annually each year, dressed as Elvis, changing costumes throughout the day to reflect various stages in the King’s career, and, though he would take the stage during an abridged performance of “American Trilogy,” he never sung a note.
The Pick-In was the fans who arrived almost a week before the first performance to make camp.
The Pick-In was the steaming ears of corn with the pulled-back shucks serving as handles. It was vendors with leather goods and cowboy hats and funnel cakes and more.
The Pick-In was a bit of magic that, if the moon hit just right and the music sounded just so, it could make one think that hills were rising just past the tree line, a bluegrass-inspired mirage of mountains in the flatlands.
The Pick-Ins finally came to an end in ’95. They drew good crowds, but the event never really recovered from a rainy year that all but washed the people away.
But the Great Hahira Pick-In was indeed something. If you were there, you have plenty memories of your own. If you weren’t, now’s the time to understand.
NOTE: See the November issue of Valdosta Scene magazine for more coverage on the Great Hahira Pick-In.
Showtime
Harveys Supermarket presents the Great Hahira Pick-In Bluegrass Festival, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, Pick-In Park, Hahira. Admission: Free and open to the public.
The scheduled line-up: 10 a.m. welcome and introductions; 10:15 a.m. plaque presentation and groundbreaking ceremony; 10:45 a.m. music starts with Red & Chris Henry; 11:45 a.m. Thin Ice; 12:45 p.m. Cross Creek Cloggers; 1:15 p.m. Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike; 2:15 p.m. Marty Raybon; 3:15 p.m. Volume Five; 4:15 p.m. Hahira Bluegrass Band; 5:15 p.m. Thin Ice; 6:15 p.m. Volume Five; 7:15 p.m. Cross Creek Cloggers; 7:45 p.m. Red & Chris Henry; 8:45 p.m. Marty Raybon; 9:45 p.m. Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike; 10:45 p.m. Hahira Bluegrass Band plays “Will the Circle be Unbroken.”
Camping available, with limited sites, no hook-ups, and by appointment. More information: Contact Avery Walden, Southern Allied Contractors, (229) 794-8588. No alcohol in the stage area.
