Contact: Tori Talbot toritalbot@virginia.edu
www.virginiafoundation.org
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive Charlottesville, VA
22903-4629
PH: 434-243-5522
FAX: 434-296-4714
For Immediate Release
Contact: Tori Talbot
toritalbot@virginia.edu
www.virginiafoundation.org
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive
Charlottesville, VA
22903-4629
PH: 434-243-5522
FAX: 434-296-4714
For Immediate Release
Virginia Folklife Program Announces Release of 4th CD in Crooked Road Music Series:
The Spencer Family and Friends: Greetings From Whitetop
CD Release Party and Concert at the Prism Coffeehouse, Thursday, April 6 at 8pm
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) announces the release of the fourth CD in the Virginia Folklife Program’s (VFP) Crooked Road Music Series. To celebrate The Spencer Family and Friends new album, Greetings From Whitetop, the VFP will host a CD release party and concert at the Prism Coffeehouse, 214 Rugby Road, on Thursday, April 6 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door.
Among the most important of the many musical families in the rugged mountains of southwestern Virginia is the Spencer family: Thornton Spencer, a fabulous and versatile fiddle and guitar player and brother-in-law of the late Albert Hash, his wife, Emily, a brilliant clawhammer banjo player and vocalist, their son Kilby, a skillful and original fiddle player in his own right, and their daughter Martha, who bowls over audiences everywhere with the joyous intensity of her singing, dancing, and playing on fiddle, banjo, and guitar. Greetings From Whitetop, the fourth release in the Crooked Music Series, was recorded around one microphone, without the use of multi-tracking or heavy editing, usually in one “take” per song. The result sounds close to one of the weekly jam sessions at the Mt. Rogers School, or during an evening of music in the Spencer’s living room, as these multitalented musicians trade instruments back and forth, try out various instrumental combinations, and play and sing a variety of old-time songs. As is true of all their performances, their talent, versatility, and deep love of old-time music shine through every song.
The Spencer Family and Friends’ Greetings From Whitetop joins No Speed Limit’s Bluegrass Lullaby, The Mullins Family Anthology: Let Your Light Shine Out and Montana Young’s Fiddling Up a Storm as part of the Crooked Road Music Series, a collection of CDs celebrating the region that produced the first “country music” recordings while introducing new audiences to a musical tradition and region with a remarkable wealth of talent.
The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Musical Heritage Trail, runs from the Eastern Slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the coalfields of deep Southwest Virginia, passing through many historic sites for the creation and perpetuation of old-time, bluegrass, and mountain gospel music. The musical tradition that started with the first “country music” recording in Bristol, Virginia in 1929 and that was often called “Hillbilly Music” is in no danger of dying out. Thanks to a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission the Virginia Folklife Program is able to make sure these remarkable musicians are heard.
The first CD in the Crooked Road series features No Speed Limit. Virginia Folklife Program director Jon Lohman describes the band as “a hot, young bluegrass band that has quickly become the focus of much attention throughout Southwest Virginia.” From Galax, Virginia the band is an example of how banjo music lives on in this region. A hotbed of musical activity, Galax was home to the Galax Old Fiddlers Convention as well as important performance venues and gathering spaces such as the legendary Rex Theater and Barr’s Fiddle Shop. Lohman describes Steve Barr, the leader of the band and son of the owner of Barr’s Fiddle Shop, as a “stunning banjoist” though it is not just his banjo skills that are highlighted on No Speed Limit’s first CD, Bluegrass Lullaby. Barr proves himself a strong songwriter on the album, penning several numbers including the fast-paced “Grayson County Blues,” “Down by the River” and the CD’s title track, “Bluegrass Lullaby.”
The second CD in the series, The Mullins Family Anthology: Let Your Light Shine Out, is a departure from the fast paced banjo stylings of No Speed Limit’s Steve Barr. The Mullins Family, an a cappella gospel singing group from Clintwood, Virginia, has been singing since the 1940s and now in their third generation the family continues to sing in the style associated with the Church of Brethren (a singing style akin to that of the Primitive Baptists).
For over 60 years, the Mullins Family has sung at local pie suppers, tent revivals, funerals, memorial services, and countless other kinds of community gatherings in Dickenson County (home of the Labor Day Tri-State Gospel Sing). According to Lohman, “despite their prolific presence in the region the Mullins Family and the entire singing style of the Church of Brethren have gone almost completely unheard outside the coalfields.” For this ambitious project the Folklife Program has been working closely with the Mullins Family to digitally remaster over 60 years of material from a variety of formats, which include homemade 78 rpm recordings and 45 rpm recordings that were produced by private record companies or pressed quickly during an appearance on gospel radio station WNVA in Norton, Virginia in the 1940s. Combining these older recordings with new ones produced with the Virginia Folklife Program last winter, the audience will get a sampling of how their sound has grown through the generations.
Following The Mullins Family Anthology the Crooked Road series continues to celebrate the remarkable music of this region with Montana Young of Henry County, Virginia. The third CD in the Crooked Road CD Series is again a departure from what has come before it. While the Mullins Family brings decades of recording experience to their project, young fiddler Montana Young, makes her recording debut on the Crooked Road series. Fiddling Up a Storm showcases the extraordinary talent of 13-year-old fiddler and Bassett native Montana Young. She was first introduced to the Virginia Foundation of the Humanities when she apprenticed with bluegrass fiddle legend and Patrick County native Buddy Pendleton in the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. At ten years old Young was the youngest apprentice ever to participate in the program. Now, at thirteen years old, Lohman describes her as having “developed a level of maturity and intonation that belies her age, making her not just a great ‘kid fiddler’ but a great fiddler.” Pendleton remarks that you are not “going to find a fiddler any better than Montana at her age.”
The Folklife Program plans to produce 10-12 CDs in the Crooked Road series. “There are many other exciting projects on the horizon for the Crooked Road CD Series,” says Lohman. These projects include plans to record Old Time Fiddler Eddie Bond of Fries, Bluegrass banjo legend Sammy Shelor of Patrick County with critically acclaimed vocalist Linda Lay of Bristol, and Flatpicking master Scott Fore of Washington County.
The Crooked Road CD Series is an important initiative of the Virginia Folklife Program. The Virginia Folklife Program documents, presents, and supports Virginia’s living cultures, traditions, and folkways. The VFP is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, a statewide organization created in 1974 to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth by creating learning opportunities for all Virginians.
The purpose of the VFH is to bring the humanities fully into Virginia's public life, assisting individuals and communities in their efforts to understand the past, confront important issues in the present, and shape a desirable future based on conscious choice. For more on the Foundation visit www.virginiafoundation.org.
For more information, please call the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at 434-924-3296 or visit www.virginiafolklife.org.
###