As the last notes of music rang out over the hillside and crews began dismantling stages, preliminary estimates showed that over the festival's four days more than 70,000 music fans filled the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro for MerleFest 2009, presented by Lowe's.  The weather in western North Carolina felt more like summer than spring, with sunny days and high temperatures in the '80s.  One storm blew through on Friday evening, delaying some of the performances for just a few minutes.

The clock is ticking down the hours and minutes to MerleFest 2009, presented by Lowe's, which will begin its 22nd year of "Music, Moments and Memories" next Thursday, April 23, and wind up on Sunday, April 26, on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

I arrived in the small town of Wilkesboro, North Carolina on Saturday morning.  Wilkesboro is not the type of town you really notice or generally have any cause to stop in.  In some many ways the town's 10,000 or so residents probably prefer it that way, you don't live in this kind of town if you like hearing your neighbor's TV at night.  But last weekend was a weekend that you did want to pull off the highway, because just a few miles off the highway the country's top bluegrass and folk talents gathered to an adoring crowd