Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Dancers hit the floor during the Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store.

Multimedia

• Check out an audio slideshow

If you ask the Friday Night Jamboree regulars what they think about the Floyd Country Store's grand reopening tonight, Kay Gordon will be the first to tell you that it never actually closed.

"Honey, we were never shut down," she says, tapping her pointy black boots to the beat of a banjo. "There might not have been a store, but we've been here every week dancing. We never left, even when the store did."

The Floyd Country Store's weekly Friday jamboree has made it -- and the town -- a mecca for bluegrass music even though the store's counter closed about 10 years ago. It's a place where you can find people from all over flatfootin' on the hardwood floor, where local musicians own the stage and ad-lib pickin' parties flood the side streets.

And now, thanks to Woody Crenshaw, it's a place where you can buy a pair of overalls and a harmonica starter kit.

"We felt it was important that it become an old country store again," said Crenshaw, 59. "We're gathering products and piecing it back together to how it was. We want it to be interesting and full of surprises, for both the regulars and the visitors."

Crenshaw and his wife, Jackie, bought the store in 2005. The Crenshaws spent the past two years renovating and revamping the old venue into a bona fide country store, from adding an ice cream parlor and 1930's soda machine to stocking the shelves with quirky knickknacks and filling red gingham-lined wood barrels with Fireballs and butterscotch candy. Jackie handles the store side of business, while Woody focuses on the music.

Though the look of the store has changed, the music hasn't.

"When my wife and I took on this project, we felt it was important to maintain the balance of old and new," said Crenshaw, who owns Crenshaw Lighting Corp. in Floyd. "Anything that changes can't stay the same. What we're feeling is that people are willing to give us the benefit of the doubt."

The 200-plus people who come to the Jamboree each Friday will probably benefit the most. The size of the store has nearly doubled, and there's a new and improved acoustic-friendly stage, a cafe and more room for dancing, sitting and standing. Mike Maslaney, chairman of the town's Community Development Block Grant management team, said Crenshaw received a $37,777 federal grant for facade improvements. The grant covered about 10 percent of the total cost of the renovations, Crenshaw said.

The reaction among Jamboree-goers has been positive.

"Mr. Crenshaw and his wife were determined to get this place back to how it used to be," Gordon said. "I'm really pleased with what they've done."

The Floyd Country Store inspired Gordon to move from North Carolina to Floyd a decade ago. She's become one of the regulars, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a Friday night when she's not at the Jamboree soaked in sweat and smiling.

"It's family here," Gordon said. "You can come dance, don't have to worry about anything but having a good time. It's difficult to find a place like this, but we're going to keep this going. We keep coming every week and we love it."

The Floyd Country Store also has become a popular tourist attraction for those traveling The Crooked Road, a winding trail through the Appalachian Mountains that connects Virginia's major old-time music venues.

"We came here last year and enjoyed it so much we decided to come back again," said Vince Wilson, 61, a Richmond native who annually tours the Blue Ridge Parkway on his Harley with friends. "It's so wholesome and nostalgic in a way."

He points to the family band on stage playing "Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms." "They're loving the music, and I'm loving the music" he said.

The Floyd Chamber of Commerce reports that there are more musicians per capita in Floyd than in New York City -- and Woody Crenshaw wants to help keep it that way.

"The promise of the store is that it will be an important piece of the creative economy for musicians in the future," he said. "We want musicians to want to come and play here."

So far, so good. They've got local musicians, bands and even some big names in bluegrass lined up for the summer. Tonight, Wayne Henderson & Friends, Olen Gardner & Friends and The Looping Brothers will take the stage. Saturday, it will be the King Wilkie band.

"I know most of these songs by heart," said Janice McGuire, 28, who has been clacking her tap shoes at the Jamboree since age 5. "I grew up with these people and this music."

McGuire comes to the Jamboree from her Christiansburg home as often as possible. Her grandparents, who introduced her to the store, still leave their house at 3:30 p.m. to get a front-row seat.

Some who didn't grow up with the store have made the Jamboree a tradition of their own.

"I was out exploring, looking for music and I found this place and got hooked," said Todd Fullmer, 40, a firefighter who makes the hour-long pilgrimage from his home in North Carolina to Floyd weekly.

Fullmer had never flatfooted to a quick beat in his life, but taught himself by watching the seasoned dancers. Now, you'll find him on the dance floor, holding the straps of his denim overalls and doing what he calls a combination of clogging, buck dancing and flatfooting.

He comes for the music, but stays for the people.

"I've made friends here I'd never have met elsewhere," Fullmer says. "It's neat to see these people from outside the country in our little country store here. It's like taking a step back in time to the simple life."

Woody Crenshaw intends to keep it that way.

"What's most compelling about it is how unpretentious it is," he said. "We live in a world where everything is overstated. This is understated. People here are refreshed by that."