Chestnut bought his first guitar at age 17 from Mac Floyd at the Conway Music Center. "It was an entry-level Kay, big and brown and hard to chord," he recalls. "To me it was a thing of beauty."

In 1965, Chestnut left Conway to manage a North Carolina insurance office. He was gone for 19 years. Along the way, he acquired an unusual hobby – the crafting of fine musical instruments. "My oldest boy got interested in playing a mandolin in the 70s. I didn't have the money to buy him a nice one." Chestnut decided to visit a friend who owned a Gibson F-5.

"I took a piece of white poster board and traced it. Then I went right home and started cutting one out." In the absence of books and blueprints, the pragmatic Chestnut built his own. "I never took woodworking in my life, but my boy wanted to play. You do what you have to."

That first mandolin looked like the devil, but it sounded sweet, so Chestnut crafted another. "Then somebody said, 'Hey, will you build me one'? I built two or three a year for about 20 years."

Chestnut returned to Conway just before Mac Floyd's retirement. He decided to follow in the footsteps of the man who'd sold him his first guitar. He bought some of Floyd's inventory and opened Chestnut Mandolins, a full-service music store, in 1985. A few years later, the shop moved to its current location at 304 Main Street.

Naturally, the Chestnut F-5s were featured in the store. "I never shipped one. I had to know the person who was buying 'em," he said. Starting in 1982, he gave a mandolin to one lucky ticket holder at the annual North Carolina bluegrass festival of famed musician Doyle Lawson. Though Chestnut stopped building his mandolins in 1990, they are still valued by collectors. Ironically, he doesn't own one of his own creations, nor would he be able to play it if he did. He plays banjo and guitar, but he never did learn how to play the mandolin. "Engineers design space shuttles, but they can't fly 'em," he chuckles.

A founding member of the Southeastern NC Bluegrass Association, Chestnut decided a few years ago that Horry County needed a local club of its own. In 1996, he founded the Rivertown Bluegrass Music Society, serving as president during the group's first year. Now with an estimated 125 members, the Society meets at Coastal Carolina University's Wall Auditorium on the third Saturday of each month.

One of Chestnut Mandolin's occasional visitors was an older gentleman who built dulcimers in East Tennessee. When the man died, his son-in-law befriended Chestnut and spoke fondly of family-oriented bluegrass festivals he'd attended in Tennessee. "He said, 'If I could help you raise some money, would you put on a show like that here in Conway?'" recalls Chestnut.

The first Bluegrass on the Waccamaw, held in 1997, was family-oriented and offered a full day of world-class traditional bluegrass music with eight bands. And it was free to the public.

These traditions will continue at next May's show, promises Chestnut. After raising five children with his wife Willi, Chestnut is sympathetic with the financial challenges faced by large families, and aware that many audience members have fixed incomes. Support comes in various forms: financial assistance from anonymous donors; services provided by the city of Conway; support from sponsors Met Life, HTC, Lucky Dog Television Productions, Park Smith Boutique, and others; and a number of volunteers.

Bands vie for the privilege of performing, mostly because of the extraordinary hospitality room organized each year by his wife, says Chestnut, only half-joking. Guests have included the Country Gentlemen, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Lou Reid and Carolina, the Chapmans, Carolina Sonshine, and IIIrd Tyme Out, an award-winning act invited back every year.

The Chestnuts have a growing collection of letters raving about the event. They say their biggest reward is the feedback from bands, locals, and tourists. "Every year, people come to me with handshakes big as a catcher's mitt," says Chestnut. "They say, 'If that's bluegrass, we want to be part of it.'"

For more information about Bluegrass on the Waccamaw, visit http://web.infoave.net/~chmandos/ or call 248-5399.

Click here to read my Bluegrass Unlimited story about Jennings!