By STEVE ODEN
Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative Staff
McCoy’s Vinton One-Stop isn’t your usual country convenience store on Friday and Saturday nights. Instead of shoppers, the store caters to amateur performers who raise the roof with the sounds of bluegrass, country, gospel, and rock in an unrehearsed and often spontaneous music jamboree.
Lauchey and Pauline McCoy, husband-and-wife owners of the business at the junction of St. Rt. 325 and 160, throw open their doors on weekend evenings, allowing dozens of musicians and singers to gather for jam sessions and individual performances.
Aspiring stars and those who just love playing and listening to American roots music come from local communities and across state lines to tune up their instruments, pick, and grin.
The audience includes young and old. They sit at tables – or when the weather allows, outside in lawn chairs – tapping their toes and sometimes joining the singers.
Admission is free, and so is the coffee on Friday evenings. The floor is open to all performers.
Pauline, Lauchey, and their employees keep busy, filling coffee cups and serving meals from the grill and deli. On a typical Saturday night, Lauchey, a mechanic at Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative, greets folks at the door, while Pauline sells grab bags to children at the store’s register.
The Coal Valley Ramblers, a family group including Jesse Dunaway, wife, children, and grandkids, belt out a traditional country song. They sit on chairs, crowded amid amplifiers and microphones. Other performers jump in to play with them.
Gilbert L. Fitzwater, Jr., a baseball cap on his head, takes over the next set, his nimble fingers sliding across the frets of a lead guitar. Later, Marcus Prater joins Fitzwater, backed by the Coal Valley Ramblers’ bass and rhythm guitar players, in a version of the rock-a-billy song “Johnny Be Good.”
Fitzwater’s licks and riffs weave around Prater’s vocal rendition. Finally, Prater hollers, “Let Junior take off!” The electric guitar sings as Fitzwater solos.
During a break, Prater mops his forehead with a handkerchief and recalls, “When they began this little jam session last year, musicians just started coming out of the woodwork.”
Prater, who performs gospel, bluegrass, and “old-time country,” says he was surprised by the level of talent displayed. He points to Joyce Varney, an omnichord player, and Vicki Moore, singer and pianist: “Those gals can really play.”
Outside under the front porch, a small crowd has gathered around four pickers and a harmonica player. Bud Vance sings “Man of Constant Sorrows,” with Alana Lively harmonizing.
“I’ve been here ever since they started,” she says. “It’s a nice place to come and play with other folks. There’s no pressure, and you never know who’s going to show up.”
No alcohol is served at the store, making the musical Friday and Saturday nights appealing to families with children. Shirley “Potsy” Potts is the master of ceremonies. He keeps things organized, helps welcome visitors, and introduces musicians, according to Pauline and Lauchey McCoy.
“We couldn’t do this without all the help we get from folks like Potsy and others in the community,” says Lauchey. “It’s gotten too big.”
There are plans to construct a separate building to house the growing Vinton One-Stop jam sessions.
“This all started with one guy, sitting outside and picking his guitar. He started teaching some local kids to play. Then, another one came to join him. It just grew from there,” recalls Pauline.
Musicians “passed the word” about the store’s weekend musical jamborees “and they came to play,” she adds. “There’s a lot of good talent in this area.”
A typical weekend might bring performers from as far away as Charleston, West Virginia, and spectators from Ironton.
The atmosphere is informal. Anyone can “get up and sing or play,” says Lauchey, even “mouth harp” players.
Ray Ratcliffe probably has the easiest time transporting his instruments. His collection of harmonicas travels in a briefcase-sized valise, where he can reach them easily to join a tune.
He tells a harmonica player joke between songs: “You know why a harmonica player always stays outside the door? He never has the right key and doesn’t know when to come in!”
Everyone laughs, and they cut loose on another tune, a bluegrass version of “Amazing Grace.”
“When things really get going, there are little jam sessions all over the place,” says Lauchey, who has been known to accompany Vance and his brother Larry on a few favorite bluegrass songs.
Other employees of the store perform. Becky Adkins, a waitress, often sings with her sister, omnichord player Joyce Varney, between bussing tables and taking grill orders.
Regulars at the Vinton One-Stop music jamboree also include banjo player John Holcomb; fiddle player Joe Clark; guitarist Jesse Rowland; bass guitarist and harmonica player Justin Kisor; the Creek Road Boys; and South Bound Express.
Musicians start to congregate at the store around 6 p.m., but the jamboree heats up at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Those who plan to attend are advised to bring lawn chairs. The crowd of performers and spectators will steadily grow through the summer months, and the jamboree will soon move outside.
“This is good, clean family entertainment,” says Shirley Potts. “It is people getting together to make music and have a good time.”
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