Date: Saturday, April 21, 2007
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Place: ArtsCenter, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC
Cost: $13 ($11 for ArtsCenter Friends)
Tickets: Available online at The ArtsCenter's website, www.artscenterlive.org, or by phone at (919) 929-2787 x 206.
Contact: http://www.unc.edu/depts/folklore, or call (919) 962-4062.
Email: carolinabreakdown@email.unc.edu
Bluegrass, African American gospel, country, and sacred steel all come together for an exciting celebration of North Carolina’s traditional musics on Saturday, April 21, at 8:30 p.m. at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. Sponsored by UNC’s Curriculum in Folklore and The ArtsCenter, the “Carolina Breakdown” concert features the down-home gospel of the Branchettes, the old-time stylings of Laurelyn Dossett, the exciting sacred steel sounds of The Allen Boys, and the innovative bluegrass of the Tony Williamson Band.
The “Carolina Breakdown” concert will unfold as a live taping for the WXYC radio show and Folklore Curriculum podcast of the same name. In addition to playing music, the featured artists will answer on-stage questions from the concert’s hosts, giving the entire event the flavor of an old-time radio program. Tickets to the concert—part of The ArtsCenter’s American Roots Series—are $13 ($11 for ArtsCenter Friends).
“Carolina Breakdown” highlights the vitality of traditional music in N.C., demonstrating the ongoing strength of music whose roots stretch back for generations. This strength is everywhere apparent in the performance of the four featured ensembles, each of whom takes tradition and exuberantly spins it toward the future, exemplifying the ongoing creativity of these grassroots forms.
At the top of the “Carolina Breakdown” bill are Siler City’s Tony Williamson Band and Mount Airy’s Allen Boys, groups that come from distant ends of the musical spectrum but that share a dedication to eclecticism and impassioned improvisation.
The Tony Williamson Band has long been acclaimed as one of bluegrass music’s most innovative ensembles. Fronted by mandolin virtuoso Tony Williamson, the band freely stretches the boundaries of bluegrass, drawing influences from domains as distant as classical music and free jazz. While Williamson has performed with many of the greatest names in bluegrass—from Ralph Stanley to David Grisman—for his “Carolina Breakdown” performance he has pulled together a quartet of his favorite regional musicians, many of whom recorded with him on the much-praised “McBane Mill Sessions” CD. This all-star ensemble is guaranteed to provide lots of sizzling picking and ear-catching musical inventiveness.
The Allen Boys are North Carolina’s only band in the “sacred steel” tradition, an African- American, church-based style that foregrounds the sliding sounds of the steel guitar. The pedal steel player for The Allen Boys is DaShawn Hickman, whose performances capture all the improvisatory excitement of worship in sanctified churches. In these congregations, instruments often take on the sounds of the human voice, mimicking its sighs, slides, and shouts. This is certainly the case with Hickman’s playing, which masterfully moves from whisper to wail in stunning displays of guitar artistry. Rarely heard in non-church venues, The Allen Boys are a family band who come from Mount Airy, where they grew up playing in the House of God.
Opening the concert is old-time/bluegrass/country songstress Laurelyn Dossett, one of the founders of the celebrated ensemble Polecat Creek. Hailing from Greensboro, Dossett has won widespread acclaim for both her song-writing skills and her exquisite singing. Her songs tell stories in an old-time way, masterfully combining images and melodies in ways that lend them the patina of tradition, making even the newest songs sound as if they came from treasured, scratchy recordings from years past. It was precisely this inspired blending of old and new that won Dossett top honors at the 2004 Merlefest songwriting competition, and that last year earned Polecat Creek the coveted “Best Neo-traditional Band” award at the highly respected Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia.
“Carolina Breakdown’s” fourth group is the Branchettes, whose deeply traditional singing embodies the soul-stirring power of African American gospel. The Branchettes’ two members have spent their lives singing in church; they recently celebrated their 34th anniversary singing together. Sister Lena Mae Perry never fails to stir congregations with her commanding vocals, while Wilbur Tharpe always brings church-goers to their feet with his remarkable displays of keyboard virtuosity. Recipients of the prestigious N.C. Folk Heritage Award (the state’s highest honor for excellence in traditional artistry), the Branchettes are also the featured performers on the first CD produced by UNC’s Curriculum in Folklore.
The April 21 concert will be recorded for re-broadcast in a special two-hour “Carolina Breakdown” radio program later in the spring. The radio show, which airs on alternate weeks on WXYC 98.3 FM, features both performances and conversations with some of the region’s finest roots-based musicians. Podcasts of these programs have become increasingly popular, tallying more than 1000 downloads over the program’s first two seasons.
The ArtsCenter is located at 300-G East Main St. in Carrboro. Tickets for the “Carolina Breakdown” concert are available online at The ArtsCenter’s website, www.artscenterlive.org, or by phone at (919) 929-2787 x 206. For more information on the program, visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/folklore, or call (919) 962-4062.
Tony Williamson |
The Allen Boys |
Laurelynn Dossett |
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