“Our triumphant return to The Ramkat will be an absolute knockout party you won’t want to miss! With it being so late in the touring season, we’re looking at this as our last HURRAH in N.C. before the end of the year, which means that this will be the LAST CHANCE TO SEE US IN N.C. THIS YEAR! We also advise that you get your tickets NOW because all the seating and balcony seating is SOLD OUT! Only GA for the floor and balcony is left, so BE QUICK and we’ll see you there!”
Tickets (what are left anyway) are on sale at TheRamkat.com!
The N.C. State Fair has a tradition of featuring some of the state’s most talented artists and this year is no exception.
For 2022, the N.C. State Fair Folk Festival has moved to Heritage Circle next to the historic church. Talented musicians from across North Carolina feature performances ranging from old-time bluegrass music to folk and Americana.
I am looking forward to hearing some of my personal favorites — Into the Fog, Big Daddy Love, The Barefoot Movement, Violet Bell, Abigail Dowd — as well as being introduced to new talent such as Sweet Potato Pie, Russ Thompson, Jarrett Raymond and Dawn Landes, among others.
HERITAGE CIRCLE STAGE
Thursday, October 13
1 p.m. 3 p.m. 5 p.m. 6:30 p.m.
Sweet Potato Pie All-female bluegrass band blends Americana, country, and gospel into their classic sound
Friday, October 14
10 a.m. 12 p.m.
Russ ThompsonFolk and Americana singer-songwriter out of Greensboro
4 p.m. 6 p.m. 8 p.m.
Big Daddy LoveWinston-Salem’s purveyors of Appalachian rock, bluegrass, and psychedelic jams
Saturday, October 15
10 a.m. 12 p.m.
Jarrett RaymondWilmington-based folk singer-songwriter and 1st Place winner at NC Dogwood Festival
2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m. 8 p.m.
Ages Past“Traditional with a twist” bluegrass from Western NC
Sunday, October 16
10 a.m. 12 p.m.
Chris McGinnisSultry, salty, and deeply rooted folk music out of Morganton, NC
The Shakori Hills Community Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Make a donation to the SHCAC! The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival Organization is also a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. Find out more about the GrassRoots Family.
A friend and fellow musician suggested the band name of “Dawn of the Buffalo,” which was misheard as “Donna the Buffalo.” The name stuck, and a couple years later in 1991, Jeb Puryear started the GrasssRoots Festival along with Donna the Buffalo, his family and everyone else that he knew.
Now almost 30 years later, Donna the Buffalo tours regularly and hosts multiple GrassRoots festivals. Their devoted fans, The Herd, are a self-organized “tribe” of people who met at the group’s shows and travel to see them.
I call it the mini-MerleFest. After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic, I’m excited to announce Carolina in the Fall Music and Food Festival, presented by Window World, is set to return on Sept. 23-24, 2022, to Wilkesboro.
Organizers say significant changes have been made for this year’s festival including a new presenting sponsor, Window World, which also sponsors MerleFest.
“We have been blessed with great local support for the festival from the very beginning and that tradition continues as Window World has taken over the role of the presenting sponsor for Carolina in the Fall”, said Dale Isom, festival organizer, on the event website. “We are very thankful for all of our sponsors over the years and their desire to provide excellent entertainment to our community”.
Additionally, this year’s festival will be held entirely in the Carolina West Wireless Community Commons in Historic Downtown Wilkesboro.
“Probably the biggest change to the festival is that it will be free to those that want to attend free”, Isom added. “We will sell a limited number of Reserved Seats to help fund the festival and the rest is free to the public”.
The goal from the very beginning was to present a free festival, said Jens Kruger, of the festival’s host band, The Kruger Brothers, who call Wilkesboro home. “It just took us a while to figure out how to do it. We are excited to offer an amazing weekend of free music to our community and those that will visit Wilkesboro.”
The festival begins on Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday’s festivities will begin at noon.
“We are very excited about the bands we have lined up for this year’s festival,” said Festival Director Michelle Isom on the website. “We have worked very hard to bring excellent talent to Wilkesboro just as we have in our previous years. As always, we focus on bringing bands from North Carolina as this festival is a celebration of our musical roots. We are thankful to have the Kruger Brothers back as our host band and this year they are bringing a very special surprise for our audiences”.
Famous for an amazing selection of food trucks, Carolina in the Fall will be bringing some of western North Carolina’s best trucks to feed their audiences. The festival will also have a limited number of vendor tents. The festivities will include the Annual Chad Lovette Memorial Run to benefit the American Cancer Society. Festival beer and wine sales will be handled by the Wilkes Heritage Museum with all proceeds going to benefit the museum.
Carolina in the Fall Music and Food Festival is a production of Heart of Folk, LLC along with the Town of Wilkesboro and The Kruger Brothers.
If you are a frequent reader of this blog and/or attend many of the music festivals I write about, you are no stranger to the talents of Old Crow Medicine Show.
On Saturday, Sept. 3, the rest of the nation and beyond will have the chance to experience the unique musical stylings of this alternative Americana group that in the past year has headlined MerleFest, FloydFest, the Grand Old Opry, and others too numerous to mention.
The Grammy-award winning band, which recently released its seventh studio album, is set to perform in the last half of the second hour of CBS Saturday Morning. For Saturday Sessions, the band will perform “Gloryland” and “Paint This Town,” the title of their newest album.
Keeping with a longstanding tradition of MerleFest’s all-hands-on-deck late night jam, MerleFest, presented by Window World, is happy to announce their 2021 installment of the after-hours jamboree: Gulf Breeze: Songs Of The Third Coast. Co-presented by Music City Roots and hosted by the eclectic and enthralling Shinyribs, this year’s late night jam will focus on music from the broadly varied traditions along our countries third coast.
Jim Lauderdale, Hogslop String Band, Brittney Spencer, The Cleverlys, Donna the Buffalo, Peter Rowan, Los Texmaniacs, and Cordovas are slated to join Shinyribs for this momentous event. Tickets for the Gulf Breeze: Songs Of The Third Coast are available now at merlefest.org. Tickets are still available for MerleFest 2021 which will take place September 16-19 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina
“The Gulf Coast region is and continues to be a driver of American culture. When one considers the collective musical history measured from the tip of Florida’s Keys to the tip of Texas’ Rio Grande Valley – with Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in between – the very notion fills one with awe,” says Shinyribs’ front-man Kevin Russell. “Jazz, Blues, Rock ‘n Roll, Country, Southern Rock, Soul, R&B, Swamp Pop, Reggae, Tex-Mex, Zydeco, Cajun, Swing, Gospel, Bluegrass, Rap, Hip-Hop, Psychedelia, Conjunto, Tejano, Cumbia, Cuban, Bahamian, and all manner of hybrids made from those sub-tropical, humid, salty elements form an undeniable cultural Fertile Crescent that informs and inspires our American song bag to this day. I’ve long tried to pay tribute to this vast repertoire of Americana. MerleFest’s Late Night Jam is the perfect place to do it. I can hardly wait to experience the pastiche of grooves that will be emanating from MerleFest that night.
With the late night jam as well as the entire festival, MerleFest will continue to prioritize the safety of its artists, attendees, staff, vendors and volunteers. The festival will adhere to safety protocols set by local and state governments for a safe live music environment. Stay tuned to merlefest.org for safety protocol updates.
Despite changes, the 33rd annual MerleFest, which starts this afternoon, promises to be one fun-filled event.
The show must go on, as they say, and so too will MerleFest 2021, taking place Sept. 16–19 this year on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro. Albeit a little different this year (as most things are these days…) the 33rd annual MerleFest will bring the high energy and exciting performances seen in years past—and promises to be worth the 2.5-hour drive from Raleigh.
MerleFest, now synonymous with its mix of traditional roots-oriented music from the Appalachian region, will feature a plethora of world-class bands and artists on its 13 stages, including Sturgill Simpson, Tedeschi Trucks, Melissa Etheridge, Mavis Staples, Margo Price, LeAnn Rimes and so many more.
Not to snub any other acts at this year’s MerleFest but here’s my list of sets not to miss Thursday evening:
Scythian
I often refer to the boys from Front Royal, Virginia, as MerleFest’s unofficial house band whose lively sets are not to be missed. With a new album out and a year of virtual “quarantstreams” under their belts, Scythian is so excited to be back out on the road playing to live audience. The Celtic rock band promises on their social media that “this year’s MerleFest will be one of the best year’s yet!” Of that, I have no doubt. Learn more at https://www.scythianmusic.com/
With roots in Oxford, North Carolina (just north of Raleigh/Durham for the geographically challenged) and a soon-to-be released album, “Pressing Onward,” The Barefoot Movement is poised to move from this year’s Cabin Stage to next year’s main Watson Stage. Their 10 new recordings are all produced by powerhouse industry veterans Chuck Plotkin (Springsteen’s Born in the USA, Bob Dylan’s Shot of Love, etc) and Hank Linderman (The Eagles, Chicago, etc). Their lead single “Someday” also hit digital and streaming retailers on Aug. 20 and was released via Bonfire Music Group. Learn more at http://www.thebarefootmovementofficial.com/
Sturgill Simpson
I’ve been looking forward to hearing Sturgill Simpson, who sounds surprisingly similar to the late, great Waylon Jennings, play live since his first genre-bending album, “METAMODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY MUSIC,” exploded on to the music scene. With his newest double entrendre and double-album, “Cuttin’ Grass” out, I am sure I won’t be disappointed. Learn more at https://www.sturgillsimpson.com/
Dance Tent with Donna the Buffalo
Donna the Buffalo joined forces with legendary Producer & Engineer Rob Fraboni to record their new album, “Dance in the Street,” at Sonic Ranch, the world’s largest residential recording studio built around an 80-year-old hacienda on a 3,300-acre pecan orchard right along the Mexican border, near El Paso, Texas. If you have ever been to their own Shakori Grassroots Festival, you know the Dance Tent will light up under their lively tunes tonight. Read more at https://www.donnathebuffalo.com/
NASHVILLE — The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announced the nominees for this year’s Industry Awards and Momentum Awards, which will be presented during the IBMA Business Conference, as part of the organization’s World of Bluegrass event, brought to you by Chiesi USA, Sept. 24-28 in Raleigh.
The recipients of the 2019 Momentum Awards will be presented with their awards at a conference luncheon on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and the recipients of the 2019 Industry Awards will be presented with their awards at a conference luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 26. Thursday’s Awards Luncheon will also include a segment honoring the recipients of the 2019 Distinguished Achievement Awards.
Registration for the IBMA Business Conference is required to attend; registration, tickets and information for all World of Bluegrass events can be found at https://worldofbluegrass.org
“The virtuosity of bluegrass musicians is recognized worldwide. With the Industry Awards, we recognize that same quality, found in our industry professionals who make vital contributions felt by everyone,” says IBMA’s Executive Director Paul Schiminger. “The Momentum Awards celebrate both the incredible achievements of the rising stars in our music, and the generosity of those who mentor them. Congratulations to each and every nominee for being recognized by your peers!”
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