Jeff Little, the piano player out of Boone, North Carolinia, who sometimes plays concerts with Wayne Henderson, offered this tribute to the legendary Dave Brubeck and his classic song, “Take Five,” during an appearance with Henderson at the Floyd Country Store recently.

Christine Phillips pitched the win

Floyd County High School‘s girls varsity softball team took the district regular season championship Friday with a 12-7 drubbing of Auburn on a rain-soaked field at home.

Riley Underwood put three runs on the scoreboard with a homer and Aimee Royal drove in two runs as the Lady Buffs now have a 9-1 district record and 17-2 overall heading into the tournament season.

Full story and more photos in next week’s Floyd Press.

Full story and more photos in next week’s Floyd Press.

When guitarist Wayne Henderson from Grayson County, Virginia and Jeff Little from Boone, North Carolina, take the stage you can expect not only traditional Bluegrass favorites but a mix of music that seldom finds it way onto stages around here.

At the Floyd Country Store on Mother’s Day, the guitarist who also makes the instrument for famous players including Eric Clapton in his small shop in Rugby and the piano player from Boone performed a collection of songs that ranged from Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” to Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” to the ballpark classic “Take Me Out to The Ball Game.”

The appreciative audience enjoyed the show.

A new ABC license worked its way through the state bureaucracy and came through this week after weeks of working with officials.

Floyd Mayor Will Griffin says the reopened shop on Locust Street in Floyd will honor the memory of Ryan.  The store is now owned by Ryan’s children and friends.

The Republic of Floyd shop on Locust Street in downtown Floyd.

Mom and her Harley in 1946

My mother died last year after 85 years on this Earth.  She passed quietly in her sleep at an assisted living facility where she had lived for the final years of a her life.

Amy and I spent Mother’s Day at her apartment with a dinner we prepared at home and brought.  Sbe opened her gifts slowly and her mind, as it did often in those final days, wandered off. I remember thinking this could be her last Mother’s Day.

Those who knew Ethel McPeak Thompson Bolt recognized she had a varied, interesting and often exciting life. After graduation from Willis High School she and her best friend Gaynor traveled the country to places both had read about in school.  Ironically, one of the places they visited was a Mississippi River town in Illinois — Alton, where she and Gaynor spent the night at the Mineral Springs Hotel.  Many years later, I would take a job as a reporter for the newspaper there.  The Mineral Springs had closed but later reopened as an antique mall.

Mom moved to Norfolk to work for the Navy Yard during World War II.  She was in charge of the gas rationing office there, handing out coupons and deciding on those who needed more than their normal allotment.  One of those who asked was a young sailor who wanted extra gas to ride his motorcycle home to Tampa, Florida, to visit his parents after his ship put into the yard for repairs.

Mom also rode a Harley Davidson and granted him the extra coupons.  When he returned, they started dating and, after the war’s end, decided to get married.  Before dating my dad, mom dated Norfolk native Joe Weatherly, who later became one of the early stars of NASCAR and who later died in a crash at Riverside, California.

Her parents were shocked when their daughter, dressed head to toe in motorcycle leathers, rode home with her husband to be — each on a bike.  They hadn’t known about her riding exploits.

Then she climbed aboard that bike and rode, by herself, from Meadows of Dan to Tampa to meet her future in-laws.  They rode together after their marriage and performed in motorcycle thrill shows.  She continued to ride after my dad died in an industrial accident in 1949. After she died last year, I had planned to take her ashes on my bike, along the same route, to be with my dad in Tampa.

But an accident of my own — an encounter on my motorcycle with a cow on U.S. 221 at the bottom of Bent Mountain — delayed that trip.  It will have to wait until I am fully recovered and cleared to ride.

But we will make the trip, mom and I, sometime in the near future.  It will be her last ride home to be with my dad.

Happy Mother’s Day mom.  You are missed.

Mom with my bike at her birthday at her assisted living apartment in 2009.

Wayne Henderson in 2008 concert in Floyd

Floyd will get a double dose of popular guitarist and instrument maker Wayne Henderson from Mouth of Wilson this weekend with appearances at the season closing episode of the Floyd Radio Show tonight at the Floyd Country Show and a Mother’s Day concert Sunday with guitarist Jeff Little.

Henderson is well known for the guitars he has made for prominent musicians, including Eric Clapton, and is a frequent performer in the Floyd area.

A popular series of free Thursday night concerts for residents of and visitors to Floyd appears in jeopardy this year.

The series, sponsored by Hotel Floyd, is not scheduled for the Floyd Country Store, which hosted the events last year during construction of an addition to the hotel.

Construction continues this year and is not slated for completion until next year and the hotel has not announced any plans for a 2013 season.

Last year, the season began in early May and ran through October.  This year, the Hotel Floyd web site does not list any information about a 2013 season.  We will check on this and report back.

The video above is a short collection of some of the acts from last year, including Apple Jack, The Grace Sisters, Scott Perry and his students, Windfall and Abe Goorskey and Scott Patrick.  The photo below is from a previous year when the concerts were held in the pavilion on the hotel grounds.

It would be a shame to see this series fall by the wayside.

If Spring is actually, finally, ,here, maybe we can spend more time on the Parkway photographing and filming the beauty of the mountains and the area.

At least we hope so.