Parkinson's disease won't stop this music lover from fulfilling his dreams for a festival

May 27, 2016

Steve Masterson, a music lover and accountant, founded the Acoustic Cafe in 1996 at his home in Hayden. The festival has changed and grown over the years, drawing more fans and moving to Haleyville in 2010. Masterson talked about the festival's 20th anniversary during a May afternoon on site, chatting at the Pond Stage. (Mary Colurso | 

For the next few days, Steve Masterson will be running on three hours of sleep per night, a quart or two of coffee and a bountiful dose of adrenaline.

As founder of the Acoustic Cafe — a music festival that's celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend — Masterson needs all the energy he can muster as he oversees the event in Haleyville. 

About 1,000 festival-goers will be firmly on his radar as they settle into campsites on a 220-acre property in Marion County. They'll spread tarps, pitch tents, cook meals, commune with friends and listen to nine acts perform at three stages, all under his watchful guidance.

Masterson, 61, says he'll be proud and happy to see the Acoustic Cafe take shape in 2016, celebrating a tie-dyed, quick-picking, eco-friendly tradition that started at his home in Hayden in 1996.  

"Twenty years is a big deal," Masterson says. "There's kids now, who are in professional careers, who were little bitty children when we started. ... The first show I did, I figured was the only one. It was going to be Norman Blake in the front yard, a one-time shot. And it was cool." 

So cool, in fact, that 110 folks who attended thanked Masterson profusely and asked for more. He's obliged the fans ever since, watching his crowd grow tenfold in size and expanding his lineup in tandem. 

Over the years, the Acoustic Cafe has presented hundreds of performances at its two locations, by acts ranging from Sam Bush to Doc Watson to the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Inclusion on the lineup depends on one simple factor— Masterson has to really, really enjoy the music — and artists must agree to play for a sum proposed by the frugal accountant, who's now retired. 

"I make sure the business gets tended to, always the business," Masterson says.

On the financial frontier, he estimates this year's budget for the Acoustic Cafe at $50,000, up from about $1,500 in 1996. It's basically a break-even deal, Masterson says, as the festival supports itself and provides a few thousand dollars of profit in its mature form. 

As the festival chief, his job is both cerebral and physical, and that's exactly how Masterson wants it. He's done everything from balancing the books and selling tickets — stuffing envelopes by hand and mailing them in old-school style — to running a bulldozer on the Haleyville site, clearing land and felling trees to create roads and campsites. 

But as this hands-on guy will be the first to admit, his hands haven't been working the way he'd like them to — not since his late 50s, when Masterson began to show the first signs of Parkinson's disease. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in August 2014, after puzzling over his wooden fingers, slurred speech and problems with tasks that required dexterity.  

"I couldn't hold a pen and write very well," Masterson says. "I couldn't type. That's why I left work. I couldn't do detail things, like if there's a stack of paper and you say, 'Get that fourth one out of there,' it's hard. ... Tying my shoes is an effort. My right arm doesn't swing very well. I read a couple of books about Parkinson's and one of them described it perfectly. It said, 'Your arm is like a gunslinger, about to reach for your weapon.'"

Masterson, stunned by the diagnosis, says he visited several doctors initially, hoping one would break the consensus and tell him he suffered from Lyme disease. He also started a regimen of vitamins, minerals and other supplements, to accord with his green lifestyle and nature-loving ways.

Masterson even tried marijuana for symptom relief, but he says smoking pot — now legal for medical and recreational use in some states — made him feel too paranoid.

Nothing helped. His condition progressed. His job as a state tax accountant became increasingly difficult, Masterson says, and he decided to call it quits at the end of 2015.

Although his doctor had prescribed a medication for Parkinson's, Carbidopa-Levodopa, Masterson avoided that, because he was "scared to death" of the potential side effects. Moreover, as he pondered his future with Parkinson's, Masterson struggled to reconcile his illness with the demands of the Acoustic Cafe. 

"I was getting worse and worse," Masterson explains. "I was worried about my speech. I thought I was going to be one of those guys the store clerk can't hear. ... I told people, 'This 20th anniversary show probably will be the last. I just can't do this.'"

Masterson made no secret of his Parkinson's diagnosis, notifying the Acoustic Cafe's faithful via emails and messages to a Facebook group. But he discussed his deepest fears and apprehensions with just a few trusted friends. 

"I had my friend Debbie (Patton) come up and talk to me," Masterson says. "She's got power of attorney with me. If I die now, she's in charge of all my assets. I told her, 'If it gets to where I can't feed myself and poop on my own, let's buy some tickets to Oregon, and get you a round-trip and me a one-way.' And I guess like anybody getting old, you get a little scared about living alone. 'Cause what's going to happen the day where you really can't make coffee, you know?"

Another confidant was Harbert Cook, a key figure in the Acoustic Cafe's move to Marion County in 2010. When the festival outgrew Masterson's 40-acre property in Hayden, Cook offered the use of his rural expanse in Haleyville. He also promised to build the main stage, provide reclaimed materials for crucial projects and help Masterson tailor the property to the festival's needs.

"We were really facing being out of business, not having a place to do it, and we were a pretty big family to be homeless," Masterson says. "Harbert said come look at his place, and I was iffy, until I looked around and he said what he would do. I really had no track record on him — he was a friend and a longtime customer — but he proved right off that he could make it happen. He's done everything he said he'd do. Harbert saved the festival."

Still, Masterson couldn't envision Cook — a master builder and project superintendent for a construction company— taking over his role as the Acoustic Cafe's 24/7 prime mover.  Nor could he quickly groom a successor plucked from the festival's devoted pool of volunteers.

"I'd love it, at 90 years old, to be sitting here watching somebody like me run this thing," Masterson says. "They'd have to have everything I've got, the business know-how and the love of the music. Not that I've got a lot of talents, but they all come to use right here. What I'm capable of doing has all been funneled into the Acoustic Cafe. ... I'd love to have someone succeed me, but I don't know who that would be."

Scenes from the Acoustic Cafe in Alabama. Birmingham musician Rick Carter, left, with founder Steve Masterson. (Philip Eggers photo)

As it turns out, Masterson's worries about the festival have been put on hold — for this year, next year and possibly the coming decade. In October 2015, he finally relented and started taking Carbidopa-Levodopa, a medication that eases Parkinson's symptoms by increasing the level of dopamine in the brain. 

"It improved me greatly," Masterson says. "I'm taking a low dose of it, and it helps."

Following the advice of his medical team, he's also been exercising regularly, joining a swim club over the winter and riding a bicycle on the steep hills near his house. Using that same bike, Masterson plans to tour the Acoustic Cafe site this weekend, checking up on his customers and making sure the event runs smoothly.

Look closely and you'll see that his right hand gets the shakes occasionally, although not enough to prevent him from playing the mandolin and guitar at home. (Masterson says he doesn't perform at the festival, as a rule, because he prefers to listen to professionals.) 

But here's perhaps the greatest proof that Masterson is coping well: He's already thinking about prospective acts for the Acoustic Cafe in 2017. Todd Snider, who headlined the festival in 2013, tops his wish list — "now and forever," Masterson says. He also has his eye on Town Mountain, a North Carolina string band. 

"I am not well, whatsoever," Masterson says, "but I got to feeling so much better that I said, 'No, we can keep going.' I don't know about 20 years, but we'll see if we can go another 10. There's got to be a time when I'm too old to do this, or something happens where we can't do it. And when I can't do it anymore, it'll be hard. I don't know what I'll do. ... We may just pull the plug, and we'll have good memories."

If you go: The Acoustic Cafe is set for May 27-28 at 2904 County Road 59, Haleyville. Tickets are $65 at three ticket outlets in Birmingham and Cullman, $75 at the gate, plus $10 parking fee. For more info and FAQs, visit the festival website. 

A 20th anniversary poster for the Acoustic Cafe has a skeleton theme, reflecting founder Steve Masterson's love of the Grateful Dead. On the back, the poster holds images of other flier designs printed for the festival, 1996-2015. (Photo courtesy of the Acoustic Cafe)

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