For Michigan-based bluegrass band Full Cord, MerleFest has long been the kickoff of festival season. Guitarist Eric Langejans and bassist Todd Kirchner both attended the festival for years before they knew each other.
Langejans first attended the North Wilkesboro, NC, festival with a friend when he was twenty and has since missed only a few. This year will mark his twenty-first MerleFest. He recalls great memories of getting to meet and talk to Doc Watson, hearing his Docabilly set, and watching him bring in other artists to play with him.
Langejans admits, “For me, it’s felt weird since Doc died; I don’t know how to explain it like, but in my heart, there’s an emptiness.” He added, “I used to go every year and think, ‘Doc’s getting older’; and then I’d listen to his playing, and he’d still knock it out of the park. He always delivered the goods.”
Kirchner was in the Air Force, stationed at Pope Air Force Base just outside of Fort Bragg around 1990. “I was looking for bluegrass festivals and saw MerleFest—and man! That was a game changer. I thought, ‘Holy cow! I’ve found it.’”
For all their years attending the festival, this will be Full Cord’s first time to play. “Since that first year at twenty, my goal has always been to play at MerleFest,” said Langejans, “At first I thought it was a typo, but we are on main stage on Friday.” They will also play a set in the Walker Center later that day.
The band members plan to arrive early in the week and stay through the full weekend, hanging out at the Rivers Edge Campground right on the Yadkin, alongside friends they’ve made over the years.
“Hundreds of friends,” Langejans clarified. “We camp in the same spot every year with the same people. We don’t talk politics. We don’t talk religion. We just have fun.”
Kirchner added, “We have set rules that everybody abides by—it’s just about music and fellowship.” They admit that the food is a draw too. Their fellow campers set up a whole kitchen offering smoked chicken and crawfish boils. Those same friends have recommending that MerleFest book Full Cord for a while now.
The members of Full Cord also look forward to catching sets by other favorite performers. Kirchner said, “Sam [Bush] is always great, and East Nash Grass is going to be there this year.
“I’m going out of the Bluegrass realm,” said Langejans, “and I’m going with Bonnie Raitt. I love her style; she’s a killer slide player and I’m pumped to see her.”
Full Cord, which also includes mandolinist Brian Oberlin and fiddler Grant Flick, comes to the MerleFest stage on the heels of their 2023 album Cambium, fresh bluegrass with a touch of Western swing and a Carter Family influence. They also added a lively bluegrass cover of “Reelin’ in the Years.”
The band is currently working on their next album release, expected later in the year. Their first single release from the project “Annie Moved On” was written by Luke Gitchel, who has songs on their last three albums. They say the next album will also have a Western swing tune, but they believe a couple of tunes will surprise people. Langejans says that while they have always been out of the box, this new project “is going to be a little further out of the box.”
Kirchner also says to expect a little bit of John Hartford and Andy Statman influence, while Langejans says one song has “some pretty solid metal rock and definitely some Grateful Dead influence.”
MerleFest audiences seeing a Full Cord performance for the first time at this year’s festival will see why the band won the prestigious 2022 Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition and was named the International Bluegrass Association’s “Momentum Award Band of the Year.” Full Cord is sure to be a crowd pleaser, adding to their fan base that already includes all the Rivers Edge campers and pickers.
