Special Thursday Night Concert.

Join us for our annual Junior Appalachian Music Program student showcase.

Folk School JAM is an after-school program for high school age children that introduces music through small group instruction on instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as fiddle, banjo and guitar.

Folk School JAM is offered, free of charge, to students in both Cherokee & Clay Counties and it's current instructors are:

Peggy Patrick, Banjo
Wyatt Espalin, Fiddle
Zac Kilmer, Guitar
Geraud Barralon, Guitar, Fiddle, Upright Bass, String Band and is the program director

https://jamkids.org/folkschool

The Moon and You is a folk/soul band based in Asheville, NC that tours the Eastern US and Western Europe. At its core are married songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Ryan Furstenberg (banjo, guitar) and Melissa Hyman (cello). The band released its debut album A White Light That Sings in June 2016, to critical acclaim. They celebrated their second full-length release, Endless Maria on March 19, 2017 with a live string quartet and rock rhythm section bringing the album to life onstage.

At once excitingly inventive and cozily familiar, the Moon & You continues to craft a compelling, acoustic Americana sound. The duo's ever-evolving output encompasses a wide range of American roots music, and is flavored by contributions from a rotating cast of super-talented friends. Their onstage synergy and warmth invite audiences in, offering a peek into a strange and joyful universe of their own.

http://www.themoonandyou.com

Lee Knight hails from the Adirondack Mountains of New York and became interested in folk music while in high school. He was introduced to traditional Southern Appalachian music while attending Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC.. As a result, Lee became interested in learning first hand from singers and musicians who carried on the traditons in their families and communities. He has studied folk music in his native Adirondacks, the southern Appalachians, Canada, Russia, Central Asia, Scotland, Colombia and Peru. He performs in community concerts, schools, camps, elderhostels and libraries around the country accompanying himself on dulcimer, guitar and banjo.

http://www.leeknightmusic.com/

Special Thursday Night Concert

Spring is bursting forth all around us in the mountains, and Brasstown Ringers has gathered some of the season's energy and vitality to create a musical Springtime Season Concert.

https://www.facebook.com/brasstownringers/

Emily has been playing and teaching music for nearly her whole life. With a background in classical music and public-school music education, she first came to North Carolina to learn from well-known fiddle masters and to earn an MA in Appalachian studies. She is known for a complex and powerful fiddling style, and has taken first place in numerous stringband and fiddle contests, including the Appalachian Stringband Festival in Clifftop, WV. Emily currently performs with old-time stringband Old Buck, conducts youth orchestras in North and South Carolina, teaches fiddle and violin, and is working toward a doctorate in music education.

Sara grew up in rural New Hampshire and has lived in Scotland for the past 40 years. With her powerful voice and skillful banjo accompaniment, she has sung, taught, and played her way throughout North America, Europe, Britain, Ireland, and Australia. Sara has made numerous recordings in the U.S. and Britain, starting with critically acclaimed albums for Folk Legacy in the 1970s. She has an immense repertoire of traditional British and American songs and ballads that she loves to share.

http://www.saragrey.net

Boomchuck Swing Time is a combo hailing from both Asheville, NC and Brasstown, NC. They are most known as a hot band on the scene for regional contra dances, but concerts are their forte as well.

Multi-talented Laurie Fisher has been entertaining dancers and inspiring musicians full-time for the past 17 years. She can fiddle, play piano, call dances, teach and enthuse with the best of them. The very thriving Asheville contra dance scene has been passionately influenced by her bands and music over the past 25 years. She is regionally well known as the fiddler for Boomchuck and Bareknuckle Quartet.

Nic Coker plays for various Asheville based bands including The Stuff and Boomchuck. He is able to trade between guitar and fiddle and has a wonderful sense of using rhythm in ways that make folks want to get up and dance.

Geraud Barralon, comes from Ardeche, France and now makes his home in Brasstown. He has a background in Django Reinhardt style, rhythmic swing guitar and has performed for many a swing dance in Lyon with group, Djoukil. He sings original and traditional French song accompanying himself on guitar or octave mandolin publishing his first solo album in 2012 called "Comment faire du feu....avec ce qu'il rest" (How to made a fire with what is left). He joins Laurie and Nic on the stand up bass.

Steve Hickman and John Devine are well-known performers from King George, Virginia and Berkely Springs, West Virginia respectively who have served as staff musicians for a number of Folk School music and dance programs over the years. Steve Hickman has toured with numerous bands singing and playing fiddle and harmonica for more than twenty years. He is especially well-known for his mastery of the art of "hambone" or body percussion. John Devine specializes in contemporary folk songs as well as standards from the 1930's and 1940's. Together, Hickman and Devine play a wide variety of country, folk, bluegrass, Irish, swing and traditional old time music.

JUST US is an exciting band from East Tennessee featuring traditional, contemporary and gospel bluegrass music. Although, they are a relatively new group, the members of JUST US have many years of on-stage experience, performing in various bands including Hiwassee Ridge, Roscoe Morgan and Lonely Train,The Lovell Sisters, Blueline and Lost Horizon.

Stacy Wilson - Guitar, Vocals
Teresa Wilson - Electric Bass, Vocals
Blake Atkins - Banjo, vocals
Albert Whiting - Mandolin, Vocals

http://www.justusbluegrass.com/

Contra dance music is a joyful blend of Irish, Scottish and French Canadian jigs reels and hornpipes, Appalachian hoedowns, Scandinavian couple dance tunes and beautiful waltzes. The performers hail from different parts of the country but have performed together at various dance camps and events over the years.

David Kaynor is a fiddler, caller, dance composer, and organizer of the famous Greenfield contra dance in Massachusetts. David has made several influential recordings and has served on the staff of many dance camps and weekends.

Sue Songer is co-author and publisher of the Portland Collection tune books and plays piano on their companion CDs. She organizes and directs the 80-member Portland Megaband, which plays a large annual contra dance in Portland, Oregon.

Peter Siegel plays guitar, banjo, and mandolin with the Greenfield Dance Band and the Berwyck String Band. He also performs extensively as a folksinger/songwriter and has shared the stage with such performers as Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul and Mary), Pete Seeger and Tom Chapin.

Betsy Branch is a contra and English country dance fiddler from Portland, Oregon. She teaches fiddle privately out of her home and is associate music director for the Portland Revels® theater company, where she arranges music for chorus and instruments. She also plays in several contra dance bands, including Wild Hair and Night Owl, and her fiddling can be heard on a number of recordings - most recently "Midnight in Montague," a collection of fiddle duets with David Kaynor.

https://classes.folkschool.org/class_details.aspx?pk=19650

The Kelley Family is a multi-award winning family group of siblings, ages 24 to 10, who blend tight harmony with acoustic instrumentation of the banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bass. They are three time Georgia-Carolina Talent Competition winners, and their 16 year old fiddle player placed 2nd in the Georgia State Fiddle Championship.

Rooted in the deep south of Appling, Georgia, there is a warmth and realness to this family, where hospitality and family is a way of life and evident in the songs they write and play.

https://www.thebandkelley.com

This joint show is a first and is going to be a really great time. The Folk School Cloggers will share the stage with Wyatt Espalin and Friends. A performance not to be missed.

In the summer of 1989, the Folk School director, Ron Hill, had a vision of re-introducing clogging into our mountain area. He hired a Florida instructor, Don Thompkins, to head up the group: the Campbell Folk School Cloggers. The club consisted of mainly children and then evolved to a family group which now includes all ages. The original dancing style was called Carolina High Step precision clogging, but since then it has evolved to include buck steps, flatfooting and some formations rather than strictly lines. The music is a combination of bluegrass, Celtic and country genres. The team meets each Monday afternoon to practice and regularly performs at various community venues. Its performance at the Folk School Festival in October is a major highlight. Beginning classes for interested dancers are always in January and new dancers are welcome.

Entertaining audiences in his hometown of Hiawassee, Georgia as early as age eight, Wyatt’s passion for music was obvious, even from the barn room stage built by his grandfather. He and his brother Matt were known as “The Fiddling Brothers.” While Matt hung up his fiddle and bow after high school, Wyatt was just getting started. Armed with a guitar and a desire to write songs, he paired with friends to perform regionally combining their own twist on traditional bluegrass roots music.

https://www.folkschool.org/index.php?section=articles&article_cat_id=20&article_id=93

Four great performers on mountain and hammered dulcimers (and other instruments!):

Anne Lough has served as artist-in-schools for the North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia Arts Councils and is a regular instructor at the Folk School. She is in constant demand as an instructor and performer at hammered dulcimer and mountain dulcimer events nationwide

Dee Dee Tibbits has been playing, performing, and teaching the hammered dulcimer for over 30 years. She has 47 private students, performs at school assemblies and concerts, and has taught workshops in the U.S. and Canada.

Larry Conger has worked with the Tennessee Arts Education Program and the Kentucky Arts Council's Teacher Incentive Program, presenting dulcimer programs in public schools. In 1995, Larry won the Southern Regional Mountain Dulcimer Championship at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. In 1996, he won the Southern Regional Dulcimer Ensemble Championship at the Folk Center. And in 1998, he won the prestigious National Mountain Dulcimer Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.

Karen has been involved with dulcimer since the mid '70s, when she built her first one as a high school project. She had been a pioneer in the promotion of the dulcimer in the U.S., Japan, and more recently in its revival in Belgium. Karen is also a Certified Music Practitioner® (CMP), trained to play healing hammered dulcimer music at the bedside of those who are ill and/or dying.

Belgian-born Paul Oorts performs normally on harp guitar, 10-string cittern, mandolin, and musette accordion most often with his wife, hammered dulcimer player Karen Ashbrook.

https://classes.folkschool.org/class_details.aspx?pk=20759

Special Thursday Night Concert.

Born in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia, Jim Lloyd now makes his home in Rural Retreat, Virginia where he operates Lloyd's Barber Shop, a local gathering spot for collecting and trading tunes, stories, and songs. His musical roots extend back through at least four generations of fiddlers, guitar players, dancers, and singers from the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. Jim is known especially for his skills on guitar and banjo. He has won prizes for many years in both guitar and banjo competitions at notable fiddler's conventions such as Galax and Fiddler's Grove. He has performed at many regional shows, as well as West Virginia's Mountain Stage, Seedtime on the Cumberland (Appalshop), the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance, and the Minnesota Old-Time and Bluegrass Festival. He has two solo recording projects and has performed on numerous recordings by other musicians.

Jim will be joined on stage by Geraud Barralon on the stand up bass.

http://www.blueridgeautoharps.com/jim_lloyd.htm

Blue Eyed Girl is a dynamic group of three young women whose roots are deep in traditional music and dance. Their high-energy dance numbers, sweet Appalachian vocal arrangements, and old-time rhythmic flair draw from the music passed down to them from their families.

Pearl Shirley grew up in Black Mountain, NC, soaking up traditional Appalachian music and dance from her two fiddling parents. She picked up a tiny violin at age 5, and since then has fiddled her way through hundreds of foot-stomping contra dances and folk concerts.

Laurel Willoughby grew up right along side Pearl in Black Mountain, NC with musical parents as well. Laurel and Pearl started singing old-style harmonies together at a very young age which has resulted in a wonderfully seasoned sound now that they are grown. She plays stand-up bass and is known for her versions of old favorites like "Your Cheatin' Heart"

Annie Fain Barralon was raised in Cherokee County, NC, where as a small child she often fell asleep under the piano at the John C. Campbell Folk School while her parents played for square dances. She is the former Music & Dance Coordinator for the Folk School and teaches banjo, book arts, clogging and French Bal Folk Dance workshops.

http://blueeyedgirlnc.wordpress.com/

William Jackson has been at the forefront of Scottish traditional music for nearly 30 years. In addition to his stature as one of the leading harpers and multi-instrumentalists in Scotland, William has gained an international reputation as a composer. His “Land of Light” won the international competition in 1999 as the new song for Scotland, announced on the eve of that Parliament convening for the first time in 300 years.

William was a founding member and creative tour de force of Ossian in 1976, which became one of Scotland’s best-loved traditional bands. The band, whose music influenced a generation of musicians, extensively toured the U.S. and Europe. Besides harp, he also plays tinwhistle bouzouki and piano.

http://www.wjharp.com/

Larry Unger has been a full time musician since 1984, and has presented a diverse range of musical performances at contra dances, Scottish dances, waltzes, dance weekends, dance camps, festivals, and concerts all across the United States and in Canada, France, Scotland, Denmark, and Sweden. He's one of the busiest musicians around, playing for more than 150 dances every year.

He has played guitar, banjo, and bass with many top bands for contra dances including Reckless Abandon, Uncle Gizmo, Big Table, and the Reckless Ramblers. He has also accompanied such fiddlers as Elke Baker, Rodney Miller, Alisdair Fraser, Matt Glaser, Ralph Blizard, and Lissa Schneckenburger to name a few. The bands Larry has been a part of might vary in style from Oldtime to New England to Celtic, but they are all lively groups with exciting rhythms and an emphasis on fun. They might also play some of Larry's many original fiddle tunes.

http://www.larryunger.net/