Today it's all music all the time and for some good causes too: Roseanne Cash is raising funds for the Blue Ridge Music Center. Singer/songwriter Beth McKee is teaming up with the folks at Beta Verde to help stamp out hunger. The Dan River Girls are all set to keep Winston-Salem's downtown area just as hip as it wants to be during Second Sundays on 4th. They're here Live in Studio A with a concert preview. And speaking of Live in Studio A, how about master blues man Big Ron Hunter and award-winning singer/songwriter Laurelyn Dossett together at last! 

Blue Ridge Music Center

Did you know that The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the most biologically diverse places in the world with more species of trees than are found in all of Europe? Or how about the fact that it draws 16-million visitors each year, more than Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon combined. That's right, and nobody knows it better than Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation CEO Carolyn Ward, and Blue Ridge Music Center Manager, fiddle performer, and instructor Erynn Marshall. They're here to remind us just how it came to be that all of the beauty of the Blue Ridge is available to us for free: it gets help from people who take ownership in our national parks. Next Friday, June 14th at 7:00pm you'll have a wonderful opportunity to do just that and in the midst of  musical royalty. The Roseanne Cash Fundraiser Concert for the Blue Ridge Music Center will also feature guitarist John Leventhal and master guitarist and luthier Wayne Henderson. Tickets are just 20 bucks, and a lucky few will be able to attend a pre-concert benefit and reception beginning at 5:00pm. Erynn and Carolyn shared this preview.

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Dan River Girls

Are you ready for a party? Camino Bakery owner Cary Clifford sure is. She, along with a host of downtown Winston-Salem businesses, would like to encourage your family to play in the street during their Second Sundays on Fourth Event Series which runs through October 13th. Second Sundays kick off with 1:00pm screenings of Charlie Chaplin matinees at a/perture followed by a block party in the street at 3:00pm with kids activities and free live music! Next Sunday's event June 9th features The Dan River Girls: 14-year-old mandolinist and cellist Fiona Burdette, and her sisters 12-year-old Ellie on bass, and 9-year-old Jessie on fiddle. They joined David Ford at WFDD along with Camino's Cary Clifford.

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NC Swamp Sistas La La 

People are coming together to celebrate good music and the good food movement in our area. It's the second annual NC Swamp Sistas La La presented by singer/songwriter Beth McKee and Beta Verde. It's coming to Winston-Salem Sunday, June 23rd from 4-8pm on the beautiful grounds of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. With great live music by Beth McKee, The Small Ponds and Kellin Watson and great food by local growers and chefs, this is one La La that you probably do not want to miss. In today's show, we sample from Beth's CD Next to Nowhere. She dropped by along with Beta Verde's Margaret Norfleet Neff. Margaret is also the co-founder along with her daughter Salem, of the Old Salem Cobblestone Farmers Market, ranked #11 as one of America's Best Farmers Markets by US News and World Report.

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Music Academy of the American South

The Piedmont has had and continues to have a huge impact on American music in practically every musical style imaginable, so why not celebrate it?  The University of NC School of the Arts is gearing up to do just that with its second annual Music Academy of the American South from June 14-16th on the UNCSA campus and nearby Old Salem Museums and Gardens in Winston-Salem. 

This year they'll once again feature outstanding folk, bluegrass, Moravian, gospel, country, blues, and Old-Time performances throughout the weekend. And there'll also be master classes, Q&A's and jam sessions with legendary artists. This year's focus will be musical interactions that take place within the world of American roots music highlighted by a performance of “Appalachian Concerto” by the virtuoso bluegrass group, The Kruger Brothers, with string quartet. Following their Saturday morning master class in Performance Place, they'll give the Saturday evening concert there at 7:30pm. Sunday kicks off with 4-time Grammy Award winning Appalachian musician and radio/television host David Holt and a String Band Master Class at 1:30. That'll be followed at 3:00 with a Blues Summit performance by one of the best: Winston-Salem's own blues master Big Ron Hunter and friends. 

Big Ron Hunter and Laurelyn Dossett

The world's happiest bluesman, Big Ron Hunter has performed in Europe, Lincoln Center in New York, and at festivals throughout the United States. Coming up next weekend he'll be part of UNCSA's Music Academy of the American South which runs from June 14-16th on the UNCSA campus and Old Salem Museum and Gardens in Winston-Salem. Blue Summit: Interviews and Performance is Sunday afternoon, June 16th at 3:00pm with Big Ron, Boo Hanks and Logie Meachum. Also on Sunday there'll be jam sessions and picnics with a 7:30pm evening concert by David Holt, legendary gospel performers The Branchettes, and Laurelyn Dossett in the St. Phillips Heritage Center in Old Salem Museum and Gardens. Saturday it's The Kruger Brothers, Molly Andrews, Muscle Shoals, and more. And the Academy begins Friday night, June 14th at Home Moravian Church with a salute to our musical roots and Salem Composers of the 19th Century. Big Ron Hunter and Laurelyn Dossett came to WFDD for a Live in Studio A. 

 

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