Inspired by the tunes that they would hear at Galax, Union Grove and other festival spots and emboldened by the music parties held at Bobby and Tommy Thompson’s place off Randolph Road, Bill Hicks, Jim Watson and the latter Thompson formed the Red Clay Ramblers in the fall of 1972. In turn, UNC-Chapel Hill student […]
Rick Cornell
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Soundbite
When discussing the Chapel Hill-based music collective The Old Ceremony, it’s not just a good idea, it’s apparently the law: You have to mention that the group’s name is a nod to the album New Skin for the Old Ceremony by that esteemed drama king Leonard Cohen. And, appropriately enough, there’s a palpable sense of […]
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That old new N.C. Sound
“Bluegrass music’s roots run deep throughout Appalachia and particularly North Carolina.” So writes Mike Bub, until this past summer the longtime bassist in the Del McCoury Band, in the liner notes of the Steep Canyon Rangers’ new One Dime at a Time, a record that Bub produced. The Rangers are certainly, um, well-steeped in North […]
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From Africa to Appalachia
“The banjar arrived here–it was called the banjar and other things–in 1740 in Maryland and Virginia, and later in North Carolina,” says Dr. Cece Conway, a folklorist, author, film maker and professor at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Conway is also the co-producer and co-annotator of the Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and […]
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To catch the music
Picture this: Three young black men, two on banjo and one on fiddle, are playing music at a square dance in Orange County. The music is driving and raw and at the same time melodic, joyful and fervent, inspiring the mix of dancers on the floor, black and white. “Frolics” was the term for these […]
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Travel guide
This is what the best songwriters do: “Aunt Clara kept her Bible right next to the phone in case she needed a quote while she talked to someone/ In my memory she smiles while the blessing is said and visions of freeze tag dance in my head.” That’s how James McMurtry (who’s playing at Raleigh’s […]
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Simply Marvelous
The story behind Marv Fest has all the elements of a Movie of the Week or, in the right hands, a top-notch independent film. But a respectful distillation would yield two things at its core: love and music. And there are three events that frame the festival’s back story–one tragic, one joyous yet bittersweet, and […]
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Playing it forward
It had already been decided that Rhiannon Giddens and Sule Greg Wilson would play music together in a string band. But if it’s possible for a done deal to become even more done, that’s what happened when the former heard the latter take off on “Old Joe Clark” and give it a familiar swing–familiar, at […]
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in moonshine music
It’s fitting that The Pour House, the Triangle’s best bet for twangy, rootsy music courtesy of its wonderful Sunday Night Roots Series and other key bookings, is the scene of the release show for Stillhouse‘s many-years-in-the-fermenting debut on Oct. 12, seeing how the four-piece might could pass for a local Americana-scene supergroup. Dave Wilson and […]
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In Gaelic old times
It’s fitting that the first sponsor listed for Raleigh’s first Gaelic Festival is Guinness, because there are no doubt folks whose connection with Celtic culture begins and ends with a pint of the heady, smoky stout on St. Patrick’s Day. This daylong festival, being held at Moore Square Park on Oct. 1, seems determined to […]
