Barney Barnwell passes.

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Upstate legend Barney Barnwell passed yesterday.


A fiddler and a friend, Barney Barnwell passes on | GoUpstate.com



By Dan Armonaitis

While listening to “That's the Way it Is Down South” with his wife, Debbie, by his side and his good friend Bill “The Fiddler” softly playing along on guitar, local bluegrass musician Barney Barnwell died peacefully Tuesday afternoon at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center.

Barnwell, a fiddle player known for hosting two of the area's most popular annual events, was 58 years old.

Throughout the last two decades of his life, Barnwell entertained huge crowds at the Plum Hollow Alternative Bluegrass Festival each May on his 50-acre farm in New Prospect and at the Moonshiner's Reunion and Mountain Music Festival there each October.

Both festivals developed a cult following and drew people from all over the world who were inspired by their laid-back and old-fashioned atmosphere. The Discovery Channel and the History Channel filmed footage at the Moonshiner's event last fall.

“Barney was born with a purpose, and his purpose in life was teaching and entertaining and making other people happy,” Debbie said, adding that the festivals will continue in his absence.

Barnwell was the star attraction at his festivals, jumping all over the stage and dancing while playing high-spirited, rock 'n' roll-infused bluegrass music with his Plum Hollow Band, with whom he had been playing for more than 35 years.

He considered himself more of an “entertainer” than a serious musician.

“I'm real insecure about my fiddle playin', so that's the reason I jump around, dance an' all that stuff — it keeps their mind off that ... fiddle playin' I'm doin',” Barnwell told the Herald-Journal last year.

Even after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in June 2008, Barnwell continued to make music, and the festivals were a constant source of excitement for him.

When a foot injury threatened to keep him from performing at the Moonshiner's Reunion last fall, Debbie told the Herald-Journal, “He'll be on that stage, even if he has to crawl on it.”
Engaging off stage, too

Whether on stage or off, Barnwell — with his infectious grin and trademark scraggly beard — had an engaging personality that instantly drew people to him.

Allen Bowman, a close friend who lives in Inman, remembered an act of kindness Barnwell showed him in 1989.

“When I first moved to Spartanburg, I didn't know anybody,” Bowman said. “I had only been here about five or six months, and I ran into some hard times and was getting evicted out of my apartment. Barney took me in, and I ended up living with him for almost 3½ years.

“That's just the type of person he was. Even though he was something else on stage, his stage presence was nothing compared to how he was in real life and how he helped a lot of people.”

Barnwell was an avid reader whose interests included mycology, biology, astronomy, anthropology, history, philosophy, theology and geology, among other off-beat topics.

“He was the most eclectic, open-minded guy I've ever known,” said Roy Flynn, a close friend who runs a medical supply business in Sumter. “He knew a lot about a lot of different things. ... He was just an interesting guy to sit and do nothing with.”

Barnwell and his wife had been filming episodes for a reality TV show at his home when he became ill and was hospitalized with pneumonia.

The Moonshiner's Reunion and Mountain Music Festival spawned from the fact that, during the economically challenging first half of the 20th century, Barnwell's great-grandparents ran a moonshine still on the property where he lived.

Barnwell was featured in multiple moonshining documentaries, including ones for S.C. Educational Television and public television in Ireland.

His “How to Make Moonshine” video, described as a “docu-comedy,” has received more than a half-million hits since it was posted on YouTube in 2007.

A native of Campobello who was born Dec. 6, 1952, Barnwell formed the Plum Hollow Band in 1975 and started putting out records with such titles as “Campbeller” and “Who in the World Wants to Be a Hippie.” The band went on the road with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and opened for a wide range of acclaimed country, bluegrass and rock 'n' roll artists.

“His songs were his stories, and they were a way for him to tell about the things that had happened to him,” said Barnwell's son-in-law Jared Miller, who played in his band from 1998 to 2005. “... He loved the South so much — and Dixie — and everything to do with it, so that was what he liked to sing about.”








This was his last interview.
In it he talks about the upcoming festival (May 27-28) as well as some of the history. And around 5:30 he gets a little "choked up".



He had been working with A&E and was in the process of writing scripts for a series the network wanted to do about him. Word is that three were completed. I wonder if they will make anything of it, or if it will all be for naught.