Roots of American Music (how hillbillies helped invent it) is a musical tour with a cast of 12 well known musicians that will visit 12 Crooked Road towns during May 10-22.

Performances will be held: May 10, Pulaski Theater, Pulaski; May 11, Rex Theater, Galax; May 12, Natural Tunnel State Park Amphitheater, Duffield: May 13, Paramount Center for the Arts, Bristol; May 14, Jettie Baker Center, Clintwood; May 15, Historic Star Theatre, Stuart; May 17, Roanoke Main Library; May 18, Southwest Virginia Community College—King Community Center, Claypool Hill; May 19, Lincoln Theatre, Marion; May 20, Mountain Empire Community College—Goodloe Center, Big Stone Gap; May 21, Floyd Country Store, Floyd; May 22, Franklin County High School Auditorium, Rocky Mount;
The show tells that Southwestern Virginia was a mixing bowl where an American music was created from ingredients brought there from many places after 1720, but primarily from Ulster in Ireland, the Rhine Valley of Germany, and was mixed with English and African sounds brought to the mountains by settlers who came westward from the Tidewater.

While the music performed on the tour will be largely American, some of the musicians are not. Cheick Hamala Diabete is a griot, a hereditary musician and historian, from Mali in West Africa. He plays an instrument that developed into the American banjo.

Dr. Michael “Mick” Moloney is the Irish musician and musicologist who created the famed Greenfields of America shows that set off the international revival of Irish music and dance.
Joey Abarta is a brilliant young Irish musician who recently stood the world of Irish music on its head by winning the challenging world championship of uilleann bagpiping at the tender age of 22.

Nine of the most respected musicians from Southwest Virginia will show how historic music from The Crooked Road reaches around the world.

Dale Jett is a powerful singer from Scott County, and a third generation member of the famous Carter Family.

Wayne Henderson is a guitarist from tiny Rugby in Grayson County who tours internationally, and is the most respected acoustic guitar maker on earth.

Sammy Shelor is a nationally respected bandleader, singer, and banjoist from the Meadows of Dan in Patrick County.

Molly Slemp is a teenaged singing Phnom, a keeper of ancient ballads reared in the coalfields of Wise County.

Kirk Sutphin is a brilliant fiddler, old-time banjoist, and keeper of the Round Peak string band style that in recent decades has spread to the world from the Virginia-North Carolina border.
Burl Rhea is an underground coal miner from Russell County, a drop-thumb banjoist and singer in the take-no-prisoners Cumberland Mountain style.

Linda Lay is a singer who lifts audiences out of their seats with a spellbinding emotional depth. A bassist with the precision of an atomic clock, she is Bristol-born, and a nationally respected performer.

Eddie Bond lives in the tiny New River village of Fries, but his mastery of the rich Round Peak string band style has created an audience for his music that stretches from New Zealand to the moors of Scotland.

Leigh Beamer has a way with instruments and a big voice. She recently celebrated her fifteenth birthday by learning two great old songs from her native Wythe County.

The tour is an outgrowth of the permanent exhibit, Roots of American Music, opening at the Blue Ridge Music Center, Milepost 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Galax, Virginia, on May 27. The exhibit was created by historians and musicologists guided by the National Council for the Traditional Arts and Blue Ridge Traditional Arts of Galax.

In development for four years, Ralph Applebaum Associates of New York, designers of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., designed the exhibit. The Blue Ridge Music Center complex is the largest physical expansion of the Parkway in 76 years.

The tour is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Heartwood, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, and The Crooked Road.

For more information:
RootsOfAmericanMusic@gmail.com

For information on Roots of American Music performance in Bristol:
Leah Ross 
Executive Director 

Bristol's Rhythm and Roots Reunion
Office 423-573-4898

Celebration of Song & Service will be held May 6 & 7, 2011 at Felts Park in Galax, Virginia. This event will feature 45 top bluegrass, old-time, and country performers on 3 stages. In addition, a special area entitled Camp Houston will be dedicated to youth music, workshops and jam sessions. Panel discussions will feature highly respected scholars in the music field and regional artisans will display and demonstrate their craft. HoustonFest is dedicated to the musical and service legacy of Houston Caldwell who tragically died in a motorcycle accident April 30, 2010. At the young age of 18 Houston was an accomplished banjo player, volunteer fireman, member of the United States Army Reserve, and highly respected in both the music world and the community. Advance Tickets Available: $15.00 per day (children 12 & under admitted Free) $25.00 for 2 day ticket From 5/6/2011 through 5/7/2011 Performers = 45 bands including 9 Headliners:Blue Highway, Cherryholmes, Darrell Webb Band, Mountain Heart, Sierra Hull & Hwy. 111, Ron Block, Wayne Henderson, John Berry, Larry Cordle & LST, Big Country Bluegrass Other Events = Regional Arts & Crafts, Instrument Making Demos, Workshops, Camp Houston(Youth Performances and Activities,Dancing, Food - For more information please visit the Houston Fest Web site. Houston Fest will be Held at Felts Park in Galax, VA http://houstonfestgalax.com/ Email for information For More Information Call: 276-236-9908

The 73rd Annual Old Fiddler's Convention is set for August 4 - 9, 2008.

Before the second weekend in August each year, lovers of country and mountain music leave their homes in time to be in Galax, VA for the Annual Old Fiddler's Convention. For some this means hundreds of miles of travel, while for others it will be a short trip from their nearby homes. Most of these people don't play music, and come just for the listening and renewing old acquaintances.

However, a few hundred come with their instruments to show their skill, and compete for the cash prizes which total thousands of dollars. But most of them would come without the prizes being offered. They want to see and be seen, and hear and be heard. The instruments vary from mouth harps in pockets to bull fiddles strapped on top of cars. Many of these musicians have played in most of the conventions since 1935, but this group is growing smaller by the year.

For details see Old Fiddler's Convention website

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