Barbecue, Berries, and Bands, oh my!
BBQ Fest on the Neuse 2023
+ May 2025 fest date
It is a truth universally acknowledged (and by that, I mean in eastern North Carolina): barbecue wants its vinegar based sauce and pretty girls never travel in pairs. The former is self-evident if you were raised in these parts, and the latter requires no explanation if you are a Super Grit Cowboy Band fan. And in a convergence of riches, both band and barbecue will be available at the BBQ Fest on the Neuse in Kinston next Saturday, advertised as “the largest whole hog cookoff in the world.”
Prepping the Q, Kinstonm 2021.
The whole hog, smoked-until-the-meat-falls-off-the-bones goodness is the Fred Astaire to coleslaw’s Ginger Rogers and has a reputation for having “everything but the squeal.” That’s reserved for the band.
Or bands, as the case may be. Super Grit is one of several bands that will be performing at the BBQ Fest. Others are the Big City Band, Nashville recording artist Easton Corbin, Southern Misfits, and No Quarter Brass Band.
SuperGrit Cowboy Band photo by Tom Whelan
But longtime followers are especially looking forward to some southern Grits with their barbecue…the Super kind. It’s going to be a family reunion of sorts, with musicians who played over the history of the band’s 40+ year run rotating in.
“So far on the May 6 show, we have Super Grit alumni Don Cox, Curtis Wright, Alan Hicks, Jason Smith, Cliff Swanhart and Tony Davis,” Clyde Mattocks said. “We’re going to have a lot of the old players on stage at the same time. We’re going to switch off during the songs to make it more visual. Like we may have three to four different drummers and have them keep the song going while one’s moving off and the other’s moving on. Same thing with guitar players and bass players.”
Of course that’s in addition to the current members, which are Mike Kinzie, Carroll Wade, Dexter Horton, Mark Golladay, and Clyde Mattocks. Dox Cox will be sitting in on piano. “Don is a former member,” Mattocks said, “He was with us about 10 years. He had a recording contract in Nashville and was an important part of our history.”
“Curtis Wright was lead singer for quite a while and sang our biggest hit ‘She’s a Woman’ that measured up at 34 in the national charts,” Mattocks said. “And Alan Hicks, former bass player, Jason Smith, former bass player. Lizzie Tovell, the 11 year old drummer…she’s become an unofficial member of the band all along. She’s been playing with us any time she can over the past few years.”
Mattocks said that he tried to get some other members who were key to the band’s history, such as Bill Lyerly and Alfred Moore but they had other gigs and couldn’t get away.
Mattocks explained the band’s history. “Super Grit Cowboy Band started in ‘75. We always said we were from Hood Swamp, NC (which is between Snow Hill and Goldsboro)…that’s where our drummer, Danny Vincent, was from, and we practiced over there, and we had a large following in Wayne County from Day One.”
“What is known as country rock started on the west coast and Colorado…Eagles and Poco, Buffalo Springfield, stuff like that. I was listening to that and got up with Bill Lyerly and he was into that stuff. When we first started playing, we were too country for rock clubs, and too rock for country clubs. But in just a few months, that wave caught up with us here, and we were the beneficiary of it. I give Sutter’s Gold Streak a lot of credit for kind of paving the road. They were just a little bit before us and they were beginning to get some real acceptance. So we hit the wave at just the right time.”
The BBQ Fest on the Neuse runs over two days, May 5 and 6, with Super Grit Cowboy Band playing 2:00-4:00pm on May 6. [2025 Fest is May 2-3]
The band plans to cover a lot of their original songs. Mattocks acknowledged that some bands tire of playing the hits that got them attention, such as Wagon Wheel or Achy Breaky Heart, but he doesn’t feel that way.
“I wrote ‘Carolina by the Sea,’ which is one of our most requested songs. I’m always honored if somebody wants to hear it,” he said.
Another one of the songs that seems to stick with fans, “Pretty Girls Never Travel in Pairs.” was also written by Mattocks, and he shared the inspiration behind it.
“True story. Back in our rambling days, if Jerry Dunbar and I would would see two girls in a bar, he would say, ‘Clyde, yours don’t look worth a damn.’”
Look for these ENC festivals in May:
Strawberry Fest rides
Vanceboro Strawberry Festival
Russ Varnell & Too Country
If berries are better than barbecue to you, it will be worth the short drive to Vanceboro for their Strawberry festival on May 6, 10-4, beginning with a parade. Russ Varnell and His Too Country Band will take the stage following the parade. [2025 May 2-3 details]
“Kings of Q” BBQ Festival and Cook-off in Ayden
In case you’re still pining for pork, there’s a Battle of the Barbecue on 5/19 and 20 in Ayden. The Friday night kickoff event features the rock and roll band, The Highway Ramblers. The contest is named in honor of the two local “Kings of Q”: Latham “Bum” Dennis and Pete Jones. [2025 dates TBA]
North Carolina Fossil Festival in Aurora
In addition to a parade, fossil digs, and a road race over the Memorial Day weekend, featured performances by Riggsbee Roads and Alex Williams on Saturday, and the I-42 Band on Sunday will make this festival worth a visit, unless fossils petrify you. [2025 festival 24-25]
The Best NC May Festival Name?
There are more North Carolina festivals in the coming month than streamers on a May pole, but a few deserve a mention just due to their clever names. You can get “Jiggy with the Piggy” in Kannapolis. Or imagine you’re young enough to be called a “Spring Chicken” at the so-named festival in Siler City. You can “Ham and Yam” it up in Smithfield. Face your fears at the WNC Bigfoot Festival. Or attend “The Whole Bloomin Thing” on in Waynesville and call it day. But one festival name does attempt to summarize our pride in pork and yapping over yams, and it’s held in Raleigh: “Got to Be NC.”
Originally published in the Daily Reflector
