B Chord Live: Mountain music, craft beer, and fresh local flavor

In a picturesque mountain town in western North Carolina, a new music venue/brewery/restaurant combo is supporting the growth of Americana, bluegrass, and other roots genres. What started as a straight-up brewery in Virginia – B Chord Brewing Company – has now relocated to Granite Falls, North Carolina, outside Hickory. Now called B Chord Live, the new iteration is bigger and better, offering a fresh take on both food and local music.

“We are trying to help build and foster bluegrass music,” explained Marty Dougherty, who co-owns B Chord with his partner, Melanie Bartenstein. “We provide a place for bluegrass musicians to flourish.”

“It’s mostly older people,” he lamented, about bluegrass music. In deciding the goals of the new venue, he asked himself: Why are there not more younger people involved in bluegrass? While the answer isn’t completely clear, Dougherty hit upon an idea he thinks might be part of the equation. He thinks there needs to be more venues that “offer it all,” in a way that appeals to younger folk.

“Young people wanna go to places that are kinda cool,” he explained. B Chord Live strives to do just that, and as of now, Dougherty seems to think it is already working.

“Suddenly, we have a whole new world of bluegrass people,” he said, of young new fans coming onboard due to being exposed to the music at his new venue.

He said the lineup is usually “string band or Americana-type music,” and even in this first year of operation, he’s already seen youth participation at the weekly open jam sessions.

“We have a bluegrass open jam on Tuesday nights,” he said. “We have some seasoned musicians show up to play, but then this kid broke out his guitar and started to play. He’s been there five or six times on Tuesday nights.” He said the older players welcomed him with open arms, something common in bluegrass. At B Chord Live, it’s important to Dougherty and Bartenstein to foster that type of support environment for budding musicians.

Although neither co-owner is a musician, they have been deeply embedded in the bluegrass community for many years. B Chord provides video production services for various festivals and produces music videos for artists.

“We’ve been running the video crew at DelFest for 15 years,” Dougherty said, of one of their more notable yearly events. “We’re very well ingrained in the bluegrass scene.”

On the restaurant side of the property, Dougherty said the offerings are a departure from what most eateries offer in that neck of the woods. Diners will get fresh, locally sourced ingredients.

“There’s a lot of restaurants who just serve frozen or fried,” he explained, “but we wanted to get away from that. The poultry, beef, steaks, vegetables, greens…they’re all fresh, not frozen.”

Currently open Wednesday through Sunday, B Chord offers not only music, food, and of course beers crafted at the brewery, but it also hosts Corn Hole tournaments; has an additional assortment of over 30 choices of beers; offers an array of cocktails; and fosters a vibe that will hopefully lead B Chord Live to becoming a hub for roots music in the quaint mountain town. Expansion plans include opening an additional stage in an adjoining space, and building “a larger stage for national acts, and to host community events.”

Dougherty explained why he loves bluegrass culture so much: He has made it both a business and a labor of love.

“People in bluegrass are very loyal to each other, and to what they do,” he explained. “They’re so much a family.”