Straight from the Crooked Road

Those who joined us this past Saturday night at the Virginia Historical Society for warm and wonderful performances by  Wayne Henderson & Helen White along with the Dixie Bee-Liners may still be sporting indelible smiles thanks to witnessing Wayne's mastery up close and hearing (maybe again) his delightful story of the day Billy Graham drove a limousine.  Or sharing in mom Melinda's pride as 15-year-old Danielle Sargent confidently filled Casey Henry's banjo slot with the Bee-Liners after only a brief green room rehearsal.  Here she is taking her victory bow with co-founder Buddy Woodward.  Thanks to Jennifer Guild and all the VHS crew for sharing their elegant space with us.  We hope to do more music there down the road.  Thanks to Bob Brown and Page Dowdy for the above photos.

You may have enjoyed Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at FloydFest this past summer...if you were left hungry for more, she graces the National this Thursday night.  She's a powerhouse.

 

The IBMA Awards handed out earlier this month saw last year's sweepers Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent take Vocal Group and the big one...Entertainer of the Year once again.   And I hear they blew the lid off the Ryman at the award show with their a cappella rendering of "Don't You Want To Go To Heaven."  If you've never supped from this duo's cup of soaring gospel harmony, your most pressing opportunity is this Friday as they make a return trip to Richmond's West End Assembly of God on Parham Road...thrills and chills guaranteed.

Our next JAMinc/In Your Ear Studio Concert promises to be another gem, as past MerleFest/Chris Austin songwriter winner Wil Maring and her duo partner Robert Bowlin join us on the eve of Halloween, Friday, October 30th.  They've toured Europe extensively and played the Opry.  Reservations only $15 in advance (no surcharges) and $20 at the door.   And we're happy to have our talented young friend Harper Speagle-Price, accompanied by her dad Terry and Barry Lawson on bass as musical appetizers. Harper's the former Mary Munford mandolin student who's now at Lucille Brown Middle School.  Come hear how far she's come.  Better not procrastinate on this one.

Lots more to come this fall...an embarrassment of riches, as they say.  Do pace yourself but catch as much as you can...the music matters.

(Bowlin & Maring photo from her Website)

TT

Don't Need No Ticket...

After Maggie Ingram's daughter completed her stirring monologue about simpler times and blessings to be counted, the throngs gathered under and around the Virginia Folklife tent were offered a completely heart-rending rendition of "Beulah Land" by Richmond's gospel treasures, the Ingramettes.  And when, right on cue, a CSX coal train lumbered over the riverside trestle and sounded its whistle, I fought back tears, recalling Curtis Mayfield's mid-sixties anthem "People get ready, there's a train a comin'.  You don't need no baggage, you just get on board.  All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'.  You don't need no ticket...you just thank the Lord."  Looking out over the reverent and completely engaged crowd of many colors, we listened to this gifted family sing with such soulful intensity, they dissolved the invisible walls that divide us and delivered hope for a brighter day.  I learned a lot that Saturday at the 2nd Richmond Folk Festival...that Maggie had moved to our city from Georgia in 1961 and found employment in the home of attorney and civil rights icon Oliver W. Hill, Sr.  And she often appeared with the Silver Star Quartet, forty-year Sunday morning fixtures on WRVA Radio.  This elegant matriarch and her progeny holding court was the highlight of this year's three-day gathering for me, much as it was two years prior.  Much credit again goes to Virginia's folklorist Jon Lohman who programmed the "Sacred Sounds, Sacred Places" theme for this year's Folklife area and wisely brought back the Ingram family, old time singing Baptist preacher Frank Newsome and Tidewater's powerful a cappella ensemble the Paschall Brothers.  Amen and amen.

 

(panorama by Charlie Reilly)                                           The heavenly Father blessed us with another wonderful weekend of weather despite the light sprinkles of Saturday afternoon.  If the TV weatherfolk hadn't made such a deal of a rainy Saturday forecast, attendance that day would have likely been as strong as Sunday's record-breaking numbers.  This fifth collaboration between our city and the National Council for the Traditional Arts continues to earn the affection and appreciation of an increasingly wide demographic, with respect to both age and ethnicity.  It's apparent that people are learning that folk music in the inclusive sense is less a hootenanny and more a celebration of the world's cultural traditions.  Let's take good care of it. 

Another rewarding experience for me came before the festival even started, as I drove and ran sound for the remarkable Tuvan throat singers, Khogzhumchu.  We took these four gentle souls and their interpreters Elena and Constantine from New York's CEC Artslink, to five public school appearances, where they filled young minds with sounds never before heard...of wind and birds and rushing water in rhythmic songs astonishingly created solely by vox humana.  It was a thrill to see and feel the reception they received. 

(Bora Ju and Min Ji Kim from Korea-Wally Thulin photo)   And I'm proud of our non-profit JAMinc for coordinating transportation and sound reinforcement for six Festival performing groups.  We covered sixteen different schools Thursday and Friday and brought compelling musical experiences to over five thousand young people.  Thanks to TNT Limousine for the vans.  Mission accomplished!

And a serious salute to all my intrepid artist hosts who made sure all the festival performers had a proper good time in our fair city and made it from hotel to stage to CD signing to lunch to the next stage and back to the hotel all weekend long.  You guys are the best ambassadors Richmond could ask for.  My one regret is that it's all over for another year.  I sincerely hope you witnessed at least some of RFF II.  It's  truly Richmond's finest hour.  And you don't need no ticket.

I wimped out and left my camera at home this year so I'm grateful for my visually-gifted pal Charlie Reilly for preserving images and sharing a few with us to your right.

At least there's much more great music in the pipeline starting with tonight (Thursday) at the Capital Ale House downtown as that highly-evolved string band from California makes its way back to town...that's right, the Waybacks return for a couple of wild and witty sets of quality tunes.  Don't miss James, Warren, Chuck and Joe.  We won't.

Saturday, one of the coolest roots combos you could imagine is happening on the Boulevard thanks to JAMinc and the Virginia Historical Society...an evening of "Tunes From The Crooked Road" featuring legendary luthier/guitarist Wayne Henderson and his tuneful pal Helen White along with one of the nation's top contemporary string bands, the Dixie Bee-Liners.  Virginia's Heritage Music Trail winds through the southwest part of the Commonwealth, near places like Rugby, Wayne's hometown,(population: 7) and provides an actual and figurative link to our dearest folk traditions.  The duo's earnest stories and songs will be complemented by the Bee-Liners fresh lyrics, tight harmonies and instrumental prowess.  The Roots Music Association named them Bluegrass Artists of the Year in 2008.  The concert starts at 7:30pm in the luxurious Robins Family Forum auditorium at 428 N. Boulevard.  Tickets are $20 in advance and for VHS members, $25 at the door.  You can buy them online here.

A footnote:  we caught the CD release matinee at Ashland Coffee & Tea a few Sundays back for the rock-solid string swing jazz band, Gypsy Roots.  Richmond should be very proud of Thomas Wakefield's impressive ensemble and how far they've come.  The new album is entitled Chakra Odyssey and it's must listening.  Somewhere Django is smiling.

Live music lives only if we head out to hear it.  Let's go.

TT

(Wayne & Helen photo by Bob Brown at In Your Ear; Dixie Bee-Liners photo from their Website)