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If you visit Landrum’s Farmers Market and hear some background music floating through the air, you will discover that the source of the melody is Doug Hurlbert, who is playing what appears to be a small accordion. It’s actually a concertina, a small bellows-type instrument that, although it resembles an accordion, actually is quite different in the way it produces sound. While it does have bellows, it has buttons on both sides instead of keys.  

The Landrum Market first enjoyed Doug’s musical talents when the market was held on Trade Street in Landrum. He would show up by the railroad tracks and begin to serenade the vendors and visitors. 

“I lived in Minnesota when I was young and took accordion lessons at age 7,” Doug explains. “When I was 14, my Dad gave me a Hohner Concertina that I still play today, and I’m now 67.” 

Hohners are known to make harmonicas, and the concertina can be described as a harmonica in a box. 

“I went to college in Raleigh at NC State and played at weddings, bars, and chancellor receptions,” Doug shared. 

Doug can read music but doesn’t read music to play. 

“I prefer to play by ear. If I hear a song, I can play it. Once, I met a Frenchman who wanted me to play an Alsatian song. I didn’t know the song, but we found it on YouTube. After I listened a few times, I was able to play it for him,” he smiles. “There’s no batteries or power, just the pushing and pulling produces the sound. If you heard the music in ‘How The West Was Won,’ that was a concertina. Concertinas were also featured in ‘Mary Poppins’ and ‘Around The World In Eighty Days’.  

Over the many years of playing, Doug has learned the history of concertinas and discovered there are different types of this interesting, six-sided instrument. They were first used as a folk instrument and became more formal in the 1820s. Depending on the country where it’s played, Russia, Argentina, Irish, or Austria, for example, the sound can vary. Austrian is heavy on bass, Irish relates to folk music, and English is more formal. 

One type, the Duet, is very rare. Only one manufacturer in Washington state, Wim Walker, is still making these. Walker created a Duet concertina for Doug. Duets can play a melody on the right side and bass accompaniment on the left, which the other concertinas can’t do.

Doug gets a little misty when he confides, “It’s the joy of my life. When I was young, around 8 or 12, I was always glad when my accordion practice hour was up. Lawrence Welk played the accordion, and countless American children took lessons on these instruments, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s – myself included. But now I love to play for hours.” 

His image playing has been created by four different artists.

 “Once, a Greenville customer excitedly told me he had just viewed a painting of me in a gallery down the street. I had no idea it was there,” he chuckles. “One day, my daughter phoned me and related that I had won a Blue Ribbon at the Tennessee State Fair. I couldn’t imagine what she was talking about. I’d never been to the Tennessee State Fair. She surprised me by entering a painting of me, and it won First Prize.” 

Alice Jackson’s painting of Doug hangs in the market along with her other wonderful watercolors of longtime vendors, including Joe Cunningham, whose dream of an official market came true. 

After playing regularly at the Market on Trade St., Doug became acquainted with Joe Cunningham and Joyce. The City of Landrum wanted to relocate the market to a new building. The grass along Trade St. was uneven, and space was becoming crowded. Joe had a vision for a structure that would provide the vendors with cover from the weather, create a smooth walking space, offer public restrooms, and be used for other possible events. 

Doug is an architect and originally specialized in church architecture. When the veterinary office where is wife was practicing needed a new building, they insisted that Doug be the architect. “It was a field I knew nothing about. A veterinary clinic has very specific needs and I had to learn them all.” Doug and his wife are the parents of two grown daughters.

The city had received three proposals when Joe discovered Doug hadn’t submitted one. They needed one more submittal, and he encouraged Doug to be involved. Doug laughs, “I was very busy at the time and wasn’t sure I could develop a complete project. But I had ideas. I envisioned it looking like a peach shed, an agricultural feel because that’s what it’s about. I imagined bringing in the quilt blocks that are scattered around Landrum into the proposal. It would suggest a connection with the downtown area. It was a pretty basic submittal, just an idea really.” 

The city liked what he offered. Instead of being heavy on details, it communicated the proper look and feel they were looking for. 

The city investigated different locations. It was difficult to find land large enough to accommodate a building that could accept the number of vendors and customers they expected to host each week. One plot of land was purchased at the strip mall on Highway 14. As the design became more detailed they realized that side of the parking lot wouldn’t be big enough so the plot on the other side was purchased. The previous lot could serve as occasional extra space for craft vendors. The strip mall offered a large parking area and convenience to downtown. 

The pandemic interfered with construction and it was a year before the structure was completed. Trusses had been installed and photographed for approval when a microburst came through the area on Thanksgiving and completely collapsed it all. The building finally became a reality for the opening of the 2022 market season. 

Doug’s extraordinary design, featuring colorful quilt blocks on the garage style doors, has contributed to the overwhelming success of the Joe Cunningham Market Pavilion. It’s featured on t-shirts and other useable items at the market and is often used as a logo representing Landrum.

Doug’s concertina still provides background music for the market and has evolved into a larger presentation. Frequently, students from Bob and Amy Buckingham’s Tryon PacJam group, plus other musicians, drop in creating a group of ten to twelve players who enjoy playing old time music. Young children and a few smiling dogs can often be seen watching and listening in awe of the sounds and frequently dancing to the rhythms.

The Landrum Farmers Market is located on Highway 14, just across the railroad tracks that run along Highway 176. It’s open Saturday mornings from 8 am to noon, April through October, with a winter market in November and December. 

If you’re wandering the market and hear strains of what sounds like a harmonica, follow the notes. You’ll enjoy meeting Doug and his drop-in band while enjoying the market and the music.