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Harrisonburg - Dry Branch Fire Squad comes to Harrisonburg April 3 1998. Dry Branch , one of the most entertaining Bluegrass bands around will be performing at Thomas Harrison Middle School on 33 West of Harrisonburg, Friday April 3 at 8 PM.
Dry Branch Fire Squad is no ordinary name for a bluegrass band, but it’s fitting because very little about Dry Branch could be described as ordinary. Unlike most bluegrass groups, the Dry Branch sells neither itself, its members, nor even particular bluegrass songs. What it markets are the emotions which stimulated the creation of bluegrass and mountain music and fueled the development of each as well as a taste of the development of each as well as a taste of the culture in which these forms evolved. According to Dry Branch’s leader, Ron Thomason, “lonesome” is to bluegrass what “blue” is to the blues. And since the band’s inception in 1976 the Dry Branch Fire Squad has been on an unwavering quest for lonesome.
Not only are Dry Branch’s goals somewhat different, but so are its methods. At a time when many bands are perfecting tight three- and four-part harmoinies and practicing fancy licks, Dry Branch relies on powerful a capella solos, duets in the style of the Blue Sky Boys, penetrating quartets and understated, but carefully crafted, instrumentation.
Dry Branch Fire Squad is a bluegrass band with a clear leanings toward old time music, it delves into one and then revels in the twilight zone between the two. Arching, aching harmonies celebrate the strange beauty of this music born out of adversity and passion, at one minute exquisite and another haunting. Dry Branch treats its material with an honest, relaxed approach and not a speck of crossover yen.
What else makes the Dry Branch extraordinary? The homespun wit and wisdom of Ron Thomason, Ron adds levity to the band’s hard-core material with stories, anecdotes and information that have been described as everything from “hillbilly bull” to “brilliant banter.” His unique form of humor may defy description, but it has earned him a reputation as one of the most entertaining folks on a bluegrass stage.
Harrisonburg - The April FARS concert will feature Michael Mulvaney from Charlottesville. The concert will be given at Sanctuary UCC on Court House Square in Harrisonburg on Saturday April 18th at 8 PM.
Michael Mulvaney is a singer songwriter accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. Mulvaney performs an eclectic collection of Rhythm and Blues, Classic Rock and Chicago Blues touched with Folk and Country influences along with varied original compositions.
Michael Mulvaney has performed from Van Buren, Maine to Key West, Florida and fro the Atlantic coast to the mountains of New England south into Georgia, and west into Ohio, and has participated in concert opening acts for B B King, Willie Dixon, Ko Ko Taylor, John Hammond, David Bromberg, The Sun Rhythm Section, and Brian Bowers.
Michael Mulvaney is based in the Charlottesville, Virginia area and performs in concert series, festivals and special events for arts councils and organizations, parks, municipalities, schools, and coffee houses.
Michael Mulvaney records at Virginia Arts Studio and has released four cassette LPs , two 45s, and one cassingle since 1986.
Michael Mulvaney’s three decades as a professional musician coupled with his strong vocals and imposing stage presence render him an exciting performer capable of riveting an audience in any setting.
With the publication of the newsletter, the torch is passed to a new editor. With the torch, goes the heat. If you have any comments, suggestions, criticisms or ideas then please let me know, please write me care of FARS or email me at captkirk@cheerful.com.
I also want to acknoledge all the hard work that Karen Lee has put into editing the newsletter for the last several years. Pulling together the facts, putting the information into an informative and useful newsletter takes many hours. Karen has done an heroic job and should be congratulated. David Lee Kirk
The FARS members selected two brand new board members to lend their many talents to FARS. Kent Priestly and Louisa Painter, thank you for accepting. Members also selected two past presidents of FARS for an encore performance on the board--welcome back to Bill Harouff and Bill Painter!
Of course, it is sad to see wonderful contributors go off the board. Like Oakley Pearson, who has managed the FARS treasury since 1992. Like Steve Parks, our 1997 vice president and master of booking FARS events since 1992. And like Jim Harrington, yet another fine musician (and noted authority). We offer our thanks, and a wish that you all enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Each year FARS recognizes a person who has made significant contributions to the promotion and understanding of traditional arts in the Shenandoah Valley. Past recipients have included Wilbur "Two Gun" Terry, Margaret and Fletcher Collins, and Joan and Mack Swift.
The 1998 recipient is John L. Heatwole of Bridgewater. The presentation was be made during the annual FARS St. Patrick's Day Ceili, Sunday March 15 at the Dayton Learning Center in Dayton.
John merits recognition for his efforts both as a master craftsman and as a scholar and teacher of Shenandoah Valley history and culture. He is a nationally recognized wood sculptor who hails from a long line of Valley craftspeople.
For twenty-five years John's research and public presentations have done much to make the public aware of our rich cultural heritage. Recently John has become known for his work in collecting and publishing oral history of the Valley. He has been collecting stories and recollections from older Valley residents for many years, and in 1995 he published some of his collection in the book Shenandoah Voices: Folklore, Legends and Traditions of the Valley. He has followed that with a series of softback books, each focused on a specific area of cultural interest. His book on Valley Civil War history is due out this year, and a sequel to Shenandoah Voices is nearing publication. John delights in recounting the stories he has collected and is in great demand as a public speaker.
It is to recognize John's accomplishments as a craftsman, scholar, teacher, and yarn spinner that he has been selected to receive this year's award.
This year’s award was crafted and generously donated by Jim Hanger of Naked Creek Studios in Staunton. The award represented the FARS frog seated on a pedestal and is another fine example of valley folk arts.
In the 1730's the first Irishmen came to this Valley of Virginia and they were soon joined by additional peoples - Scots, many from Ayeshire in Scotland by way of Ulster in Ireland. The first settlers named a small but imposing hill, not too far from Beverly's Mill Place on Lewis Creek, "The Deacon" - or, "The Mountain of the Elder" - spelled "Sliabh-truim" and pronounced however you care to try it.
I have long been grateful to the second wave of settlers for changing the name to "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray".
The newcomers saw two small mountains rising above the Valley floor; visible for many miles around, which reminded them of home - the most recent one in far-away Tyrone County, Ireland and the other in their previous homeland in Scotland near Perth.
Many of them knew an old song and story about those two Scottish hills and the "twa bonnie lasses" for whom they were named. No doubt they sang that ballad as they worked and established themselves here in the Shenandoah Valley and remembered, cherished and sought to sustain the enduring values of their heritage.
Only fragments of the ballad remain for us today, mainly from the first and last verses, but the story remains a compelling one. The story has endured and is firmly fixed.
The year was about 1645 when the terror called The Plague to their neighborhood. To escape the deadly pestilence the two young girls built a primitive bower for themselves on a high hill near Lednoch House and lived there in quarantine for some time. Mary Gray's father was Laird of Lednoch and Bessie Bell's father was Laird of Kinvaid. The two girls had become intimate friends and the plague came upon them while Bessie was visiting Mary at her Lednock home.
Those verses we have today tell how they build their small hut with special care, covering it over neatly with rushes and decorating it with heather.
Much is undecided.
While the plague raged with great fury, a young man who has been said "to have loved them both", brought them supplies of food. His name is lost with the missing verses. With the food he left for them on the mountain trail, he also deposited, unwittingly, the dreaded pestilence. It also came from the "borrough-town" and the two girls died together.
A simple, direct story. Yet, with a number of troublesome questions. The language of the original is replete with problems. I talked with a young Irish girl about eight years ago who knew the story well and she, too, found some of the words of the ballad to be mystifying. She lives within sight of the two hills in County Tyrone near a town called Omaugh.
Numerous attempts have been made to do "versions" and "treatments" of the old ballad. Such efforts, I feel, should earnestly attempt to incorporate as much of the old words as is possible, but some have tried to "modernize" it. Some prefer to fit it all to a sad, dirge-like minor key melody, but I have found a brighter tune more in keeping with the lively spirit of the "twa lassies" of the story. No authentic American melody, it seems, has ever been discovered and recorded. Both the Scot and Irish love to dance and sing. It is difficult to imagine Bessie Bell and Mary Grey apart from good cheer and mirth even in their lonely bower on the hillside above the Laird's estate right up until their tragic end.
Years later the ballad was cataloged "Child #201." We use a harsher sounding "Betsy" now, instead of "Bessie" in the original versions, an abstracted ballad ...a cousin we might say "several times removed", from that of old Scotland and Ireland.
The next time you are in Augusta County and come within sight of those two hills look up at them and listen intently. Imagine a bower of branches, twigs, rushes and heather up near the summit of the taller one and, if you have the slightest tinge of Scottish or Irish blood in your veins, you might hear an echo of Child #201, despite the years, right here in our own back yard.
Andy McCaskey
The quilt artisans in the central Shenandoah Valley have a scope of interest far beyond the homes and businesses their works of beauty decorate. For one thing, many of them gather every third Saturday as the Shenandoah Valley Quilters’ Guild to learn even more about their craft. (See the Calendar of Events page for details to attend.)
For another, they are sponsoring a Bi-Annual Quilt Show. It is well worth the small admission fee to see this show. May 2 and 3, the quilts will be exhibited at Eastern Mennonite University’s new administration building. For more information, contact show organizers Beverly Sensabaugh (540-249-5566) and Marilyn Irvin (540-289-9161).
For yet another outreach, this group creates a quilt for raffle each year. The bulk of proceeds go to charity. Be on the lookout for this year’s quilt—it is a stunning example of applique, where many small shaped pieces of fabric are sewed onto a background. This technique offers a freedom of design beyond the more geometric pieced quilts. The artisan’s investment is many many tiny hand stitches that hold each fabric piece in place.
On top of that, they suggest you take to the road with them! Going places is right! The Shenandoah Valley Quilters Guild is offering a bus trip to the Annual Quilters’ Heritage Celebration in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Every building in sight has a quilt show in it! Call Wilsene Scott at 289-5381 about possible openings on this overnight trip for Wednesday and Thursday April 1-2. $80/person (double occupancy) includes bus fare, motel and lunch at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord.
To the joy of many quilt lovers in the Shenandoah Valley, a traveling exhibit by three fiber artists who are well known in Russia is at the Virginia Quilt Museum, February 7 until May 18. For $4 admission (free if you join), you can enjoy this exhibit and two others at the same time:
The Virginia Quilt Museum is on south Main Street in downtown Harrisonburg. Hours are M,Th-F 10am-4pm and Sun 1-4pm. Contact museum director Joan Knight at 433-3818 for more information.
A Night in the Pub The Museum of American Frontier Culture is offering an opportunity to step back into an English pub of centuries past on Saturday, May 23. The English farm house will be converted into a pub for the night. Pub brews, gaming, and music will be provided. English country dance tunes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and songs and ballads of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries will be provided by "Heartsease," a band composed of Connie Muscenti, Colin Ramirez, Karen Lee, and Mel Lee.
The presentation will be offered twice during the evening, at 6 and 8 pm. Advance tickets are required and are available through the museum at (540) 332-7850.
WMRA’s Andi Arndt called to let FARS know that the radio program “Prairie Home Companion” has selected Alvin Breeden and the Virginia Cutups as one of six finalists in the “Talent From Towns Under 2,000” (TUTT) contest. This bluegrass band includes Jeff Vogelgesang (mandolin) from Heards (pop. 50), and Alvin Breeden (banjo) and Charles Frazier (guitar) from Earlysville (pop. 1000).
The band will be flown to New York to perform on the April 4 broadcast. When all six acts have performed, the theater audience will vote by written ballot. The winner will be announced after Garrison Keillor gives the “News From Lake Woebegon”. The winner of the contest receives the Grand Prize—the coveted Silver Watertower Trophy, a symbol of excellence in small-town America, and a check for $1,000.
To hear this program locally, tune in the first weekend of April to Prairie Home Companion on Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 3pm on WMRA 90.7FM. More information about Prairie Home Companion and its guests, including photos and audio samples can be found online (http://phc.npr.org).
The Shenandoah Valley Banjo & Fiddle Club meets each Friday, 7pm, at the New Market Community Center. It is free and open to the public. The Club hosts a concert every 3rd Saturday of the month, Sept. thru May.
Friday night is jam night at the Center. Blugrass, folk, blues, acoustic country and gospel musicians and singers are all welcome. Valley Mae Stroop, wife of Sydney “ Spike” Stroop, one of the Valley’s premier fiddlers is President of the Club. “ We are all about preserving the bluegrass genre,” says Valley. “We are becoming more inclusive of other styles so long as it’s acoustic. An electric bass is acceptable, as is an amplified string bass. That’s as far as we’ll go. We want to keep it pure!”
There are 160 members at present. A clean, family atmosphere for all ages is provided. Valley smiles fondly when she tells of a retired JMU professor joining the jams playing a washtub bass. Membership fee is $10 per year. Membership benefits include: 2 dinners per year, one a summer picnic, the second a banquet type meal, meat furnished, held between Thanksgiving and Christmas and, a $2 admission ticket to the concerts. ($3 to general public) “No drinking or smoking in the building,” Valley emphatically states. Valley can be reached at 434-5491. Better yet, look her up at the Center when you join the other pickers on Friday nights. The Center is located at the corner of Dixie lane and Rebel park Street at the old New Market High School building.
April 11 Valley Country Dancers* - Laura Light and Tom Hines, caller Denise Lair.
April 29 JMU Social Dance - “Dance Through the Centuries Ball”, formal dress, 7-10pm, Godwin 356. Info: call 568-6511.
May 9 Valley Country Dancers* - Buzzard Rock Bayou Boys, caller Beth Malaro.
*All Valley Country Dancers events are held at the Dayton Learning Center, workshop 7:30pm, dance 8-11pm, $5.
Now-May 18 Virginia Quilt Museum - Three Perspectives: Russian Fiber Arts. Also Festival of Flowers quilt show, and Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society exhibit.
Every 3rd Sat SV Quilters’ Guild - speaker or workshop 9:30am Highlands Rm, Sunnyside.
Apr 1-2 SV Quilters’ Guild - trip to Annual Quilters’ Heritage Celebration, Lancaster, Pa. Phone 289-5381.
Apr 3 Assoc of Virginia Artisans*** - Dan Finnegan of Fredericksburg, potter of functional work. Opening 5-7pm.
May 1 Assoc of Virginia Artisans*** - Mary Rouse of Harrisonburg, polymer clay works, primarily jewelry. Opening 5-7pm.
May 2-3 SV Quilters’ Guild - Bi-Annual Quilt Show, EMU new administration building, entrance fee.
June 5 Assoc of Virginia Artisans*** - Chuck Broome of Limeton near Front Royal, potter of functional ware. Opening 5-7pm.
*** The Association of Virginia Artisans spotlights work of a different invited artisan from the membership each month. Openings are the first Friday of the month, 7-9pm, with a short presentation (such as slides) from the artisan. These follow the nearby Shenandoah Valley Art Center opening at 5-7pm. The gallery and openings are open to the public. Location: 327 E. Main St, Waynesboro, VA. Gallery hours are 10am-5pm W,Th,F,Sat. Thanks to our valley representative on the AVA board, Rudy Tucker, for this information.
Every 3rd Sat SV Fiddle & Banjo Club - concert (March: 3 gospel groups and 3 bluegrass groups) (April: 4 groups), New Market Community Center 7pm, $3 adults. Every Fri SV Fiddle & Banjo Club - workshop/jam, New Market Community Center, 7-10pm, free.
April 3 FARS - Dry Branch Fire Squad. Thomas Harrison Middle School on Rt. 33 W on the edge of Harrisonburg, Friday, 8pm, $12/11.
April 4 WMRA 90.7fm - Alvin Breeden & the Virginia Cutups on Prairie Home Companion, 6pm. Re-broadcast Sunday at 3pm.
April 4 Corner Coffeehouse** - Teri Allard goes acoustic with harmonica player Gary Greene
April 11 Corner Coffeehouse** - Earth Songs. Music dedicated to Mother Earth. (If you want to perform, call Vaunda Brown, 289-7050.)
April 16 Queen City Acoustics - John Jackson at McCormick’s Cabaret. $12 advance/$15 door. See flyer or call 540-886-2966.
April 18 FARS - Mike Mulvaney at UCC Sanctuary Church, Court Square, Harrisonburg, 8pm, $6/5.
April 25 WXJM 88.7fm - Cimera, celtic band in a live broadcast concert at JMU at 4pm. Cimera will be at the Washington Irish Folk Festival at Wolf Trap this summer. Contact Roy Ghim, World Music Director at WXJM (ghimrs@jmu.edu) for more info.
April 25 Corner Coffeehouse** - Mark Humphries. West Coast folk sound.
May 2 Corner Coffeehouse** - Songs of the Civil War. Variety of performers. Call Carla Irving 249-4384 if interested in performing.
May 9 Corner Coffeehouse** - Open Mic.
May 14 Queen City Acoustics - Teri Allard Trio at McCormick’s Cabaret. $8 advance/$10 door. See flyer or call 540-886-2966.
May 16 FARS - Concert to be announced. UCC Sanctuary, Court Square, Harrisonburg.
May 23 Museum of American Frontier Culture - 17th-18th Century English Pub Re-Creation, 6pm and 8pm, live music by Heartsease.
June FARS - Weavers Celebration - Time Date and Place to be announced
** Corner Coffeehouse events are at the UCC Sanctuary Church on Court Square in Harrisonburg, 8pm. It pays performers via audience donations.
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