The scene at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance this weekend was like Doc Watson's "Deep River Blues."
The second autumn run of the four-day music and arts gathering on a farm in Silk Hope, just south of the Orange-Chatham county line, saw four days of cloudy skies.
But the rain fell to the piercing tones of an African kora or a Cajun accordion as to Watson's signature bluegrass instruments..
On Thursday it poured throughout the evening - indiscriminate of bluegrass or zydeco or reggae.
There were stories of tents transformed into wading pools, and the mud was ankle-deep.
By Friday the biodiesel-fueled truck shuttling festival-goers to the campgrounds was getting stuck periodically, but the driving rain only seemed to encourage the drenched audience at the Mamar Kassey show to dance harder.
In a combination of English and French, the band - a nine-piece group from Niger, in central Africa - thanked the audience for persevering through the rain.
"L'amour - Shakori," said lead singer Yacouba Moumouni.
The rain let up some early Saturday morning - just as Keith Frank and the Soileu Zydeco Band got hot in the dance tent.
