Across the Blue Ridge #130 - Blue Ridge Music Trails concert

This week we hear from singer, banjo player and luthier Rick Ward; old-time musician and songwriter Trevor McKenzie with Terri McMurray and Paul Brown; The Sheets Family Band, and Strictly Strings, a youthful band that's emerged through the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program.  JAM is offered in sixteen North Carolina counties as well as in other states.  Our recordings come from a May 19, 2018 concert at Jones House Community Center in Boone, NC.  The event is part of ATBR's Blue Ridge Music Trails series, spotlighting venues and resources along this North Carolina musical, cultural, education and tourism resource.

Rick Ward is descended from banjo and dulcimer makers, and he continues making the old time mountain banjos well known in western North Carolina.  Continuing the ballad tradition, and passing along songs from his family and his own authorship are also very important to him, and his performance communicates his passion and authenticity.

Trevor McKenzie grew up on a cattle farm near Rural Retreat, Virginia.  Interested in history and looking for opportunities off the farm, he went to college, pursued music, and has become both a performer on multiple instruments and a songwriter.  He is also an archivist at Appalachian State University.

The Sheets Family Band presents a range of old time music with significant influence from the Carter Family and from banjoist, singer and songwriter Ola Belle Reed, who was a relative. Making one's own entertainment is important to both Randy and Deborah Jean (DJ) Sheets and their daughter, Kelly Sheets Snider.

We hear a tune from Strictly Strings ahead of a more in-depth examination of the JAM program.  Three members of this five-person band put across a powerful fiddle tune that reaches to the past as it also gives us an idea of the future of old-time music.

ATBR's Blue Ridge Music Trails series is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, and Blue Ridge Music Trails.

Playlist

1. Rickett's Hornpipe
   Buddy Pendleton &  band
   Larry Richardson & the Blue Ridge Boys
   Old Blue
    
2. Katie Cline
   Paul Brown, Trevor McKenzie, Terri McMurray
   ATBR field recording
    
3. Shoals Mills
   Trevor McKenzie
   ATBR field recording
    
4. World Traveler
   Trevor McKenzie
   ATBR field recording
    
5. Break 1 - Ward's Bugle Calls
   Trevor McKenzie
   Generational Things
   Trevor McKenzie
    
6. John Hardy
   Sheets Family Band
   ATBR field recording
    
7. Tear Down The Fences
   Sheets Family Band
   ATBR field recording
    
8. Batchin' On The Farm
   Rick Ward
   ATBR field recording
    
9. Cousin Sally Brown
   Rick Ward
   ATBR field recording
    
10. Break 2 - Gaither Carlton Medley
    Mac Benford & The Woodshed All-Stars
    Willow
    Rounder
     
11. Muskrat
    Rick Ward
    ATBR field recording
     
12. Jubal Hunter
    Rick Ward
    ATBR field recording
     
13. Georgia Horseshoe
    Strictly Strings
    ATBR field recording
     
14. Cluck Old Hen
    Frank Proffitt
    Frank Proffitt of Reese, NC
    Folk-Legacy