Farewell to Bynum General Store - Can't Make A Livin' Without Swingin' that Door...

Sign by the roadside
Still says "Come On In",
But the bulbs are long-since burnt out,
Not to light up again -- CCL's Route 23

So Jerry finally had to close the Bynum General Store. It was a sad day, but not one we couldn't see coming.

The Bynum General Store has become something of a cultural icon around these parts in the past few years. The mill town of Bynum in Chatham County North Carolina is almost empty, but Jerry Partin and his friends did what they could to keep the tiny town of Bynum alive by having weekly music events at the eensy-teensy general store slash post office slash community center. This too shall pass...

I first set foot in Bynum in January of 2002. January 19th, to be precise. It was cold and rainy, and I got seriously lost on the long drive over. (This was the first and only time I ever saw the top half -- only the top half -- of a deer carcass in someone's front lawn. I'm not kidding.) I got there in time for the show, but not in time for a seat inside. I toughed it out in a parka on the front porch of the tiny building, waiting to hear Tift Merritt inside. It was the first time I'd seen Tift, you see, and I'd driven a long way. I wasn't going to be scared off by a little near-freezing rain. (Especially not after that deer carcass...)

There were some young guys on the front porch before the show, drinking hot coffee from a thermos. One was a crazy lookin' dude with a beard, wild-eyed in a loud knit toboggan. Only later did I realize this was David Wilson, Tift's lead guitarist at the time, and now lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist in Chatham County Line.

I stood freezing on the front porch for a while, listening to a few songs, until they finally took pity on us and let the die-hards in. It was a great show. Tift and the boys, called the Carbines way back when, played their hearts out, and I'm pretty sure the entire town of Bynum came out to bid her welcome.

I ventured out to Bynum later that year, this time in the summer, for the first and only JerryFest. This was when I saw Thad Cockrell's new lineup that included the crazy good Telecaster genius -- John Teer. Teer's hot licks and high tenor really galvanized Thad's heretofore sleepy-weepy country into a serious foot-stomping honky tonk. I'm not kidding -- Thad shows used to put my friends to sleep, but ever since then... damn! Look out, it's Thad! John Teer is also one helluva great mandolin picker and fiddler, and he now plays with the incomparable Chatham County Line.

I haven't been to Bynum much since then, just a couple of times. It was a nice place to get a BBQ sandwich, an IBC rootbeer bottle, and hang out with some serious music-loving and history-minded folks. But it was never crowded, never busy. I'm sad to see it go, like so many of favorite haunts before it -- the Six String Cafe and especially the Pine Hill Farm concerthouse. But these things happen, and sometimes our favorites come back -- they're building a new Six String Cafe in Raleigh.

To commemorate the passing of a wonderfully quaint and much beloved concert venue, I've put together this mix of Tift Merritt and Chatham County Line songs, including Tift's ode to the town of Bynum, Laid A Highway. I hope you enjoy!

* Chatham County Line - Closing Town - "Ain't much work to be had in the rail yard... no wage to be earned on the farm..."
* Tift Merritt - Sunday - I always imagined Tift climbing the hill in Bynum while writing this song. For a long while I thought she had been born and raised in that town.
* Chatham County Line - Speed of the Whippoorwhill - "Know I had to leave you, there's work to be done; I swear when this job is over, it's to you I'm gonna run..."
* Tift Merritt - Juke Joint Girl - This is Tift's quintessential song, a Loretta-esqe honky-tonker, that I remember had an especially good sound in the General Store.
* Chatham County Line - Route 23 - "Daddy said good folks will return to the places that they know..."
* Tift Merritt - Laid A Highway - "Some nights I sit and watch my hometown die..."