BROWN PROVIDES A LINK WITH BLUEGRASS HISTORY

GRASSY -- Thirty years ago Don Brown certainly didn't consider himself a champion bluegrass musician or singer.

When Brown traveled to Bean Bloom, Ind., for a national bluegrass contest, winning was the last thing on his mind. That was just what he did, though, and in the three decades since, has helped popularize the music in eastern Missouri.

"I knew it would be very, very tough," Brown recalled recently. "There were 22 contestants. I didn't think I had a chance at all, but I took first place."

That brought the young performer to the attention of the legendary Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass.

"From that point on, wherever I was at one of his performances, he would call me on stage and have me do a song," Brown said. "That was always my biggest thrill. It still raises goose bumps thinking about it. He shaped my life more than my daddy did."

It was the following year that Brown headlined and helped organize the first bluegrass festival at Arrowhead Campground. He continued appearing there through the late 1970s. Last weekend he returned to help the campground's new owners usher in what they hope is a rebirth of Arrowhead's glory days as the region's bluegrass capital.

Brown and members of the Arrowhead Board of Directors agreed that the performances on stage are only a small part of the musical magic of Arrowhead. The numerous "jam sessions' around the park are considered the real highlight by many.

"A big part of the park is the jamming going on after the show or on nights where thee are no shows going on," said Lee Roy Brown, one of the permanent Arrowhead campers who bought and reopened the park this year.

"A lot of your best music takes place in the jams sessions," Don Brown agreed. "I try a lot of stuff in jam sessions that I wouldn't do on stage."

Brown and the long-time campers recall the huge crowds that flocked to hear concerts and jam sessions during the 1970s and 1980s.

"They'd be shoulder-to-shoulder all the way around the stage," Don Brown said. "There was never one time I can recall anyone having to call the law. Everything ran smooth."

Lee Roy Brown and the other directors credit Don Brown with launching the park's grand musical tradition.

"I was just very honored and happy to have been part of it when it started," Brown said. "I'd like to see it get big again. I think tha Lee Roy and the others have done a good job. I think people will come back."