The Artists . . .

Bobby McMillon

Robert Lynn "Bobby" McMillon, a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award recipient, was heir to numerous strands of Appalachian culture. From his father's family in Cocke County, Tennessee, he learned Primitive Baptist hymns and traditional stories and ballads. From his mother's people in Yancy and Mitchell Counties, North Carolina, he heard "booger tales, haint tales," and legends about the murder of a relative named Charlie Silver. In Caldwell County, he went to school with relatives of Tom Dula, learned their family stories, and heard ballads, gospel songs, and Carter family recordings. "The real storytelling," Bobby says, "was so intertwined that a bear tale or a fish tale or a witch tale or a tale of some history that had really happened—a family tale—they were all equally believable." He was always drawn to old songs and stories, but as a teenager he discovered the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore in the Lenoir Public Library and got a glimpse of the historical background and significance of the things he knew. This inspired an enthusiasm for folklore documentation that has made him an invaluable resource to his community. By the age of seventeen, he had begun taping and interviewing family members, neighbors, and friends who knew old songs and stories. Even before that, he had begun to develop his skills as a performer. He and his cousins "would get together in the evenings" and "just tell everything in the world that we had heard."

Bobby McMillon has performed throughout the state as a singer and storyteller. He has appeared at events such as the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife, the A. P. Carter Memorial Festival, national storytelling conferences, and the Festival for the Eno. For a decade he served public schools as part of the Artist in the Schools and Visiting Artist programs. Filmmaker Tom Davenport produced a film, The Ballad of Frankie Silver, that features Bobby singing the ballad and telling stories passed down in his family and community about the murder. "Eventually, I began to realize," he says "that if I didn't perform the songs I was learning, most of the repertories of the people I learned from would be lost because they didn't have family members of their own to hand them down to." His greatest gift is his rare ability to convey to listeners a feeling for the world from which the stories come.

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Bob Willoughby

Mr. Willoughby, as even close frineds refer to him, is one of the rarest of great musicians. A multi-instrumentalist and masterful singer he is a walking respository of traditional American styles of playing and writing, of great songs and of stories of the woman and men who've made American roots music the most listened to music world-wide. With a gift for finding the soul of a tune or of a song, his performances are easy going and laid back allowing the listener to gather in the pearls of sweet subtle richness.

In Burnsville's "Music In The Mountains" festival this year we've invited Mr. Willoughby to share fiddle tunes and to bring along his guitar as well to swell the heart of all listeners with his infectious love for the weight and joy of the traditions he bears.

Bob Willoughby has been a sideman to some of the truely great musicians of our time. He's toured widely in America and Europe and most of the players who've come to know him over the years allow that his touch, his taste elevated their own playing in uncommonly good ways. Mr. Willoughby plays fiddle, guitar, bass, piano and sings.

Of his recent recording called "Blues, Booze & Oldtimey Soul", Martin DeWolfe wrote,

 

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Ira Bernstein

This man is a great dancer! Pile the traditions up and know that this dance enthusiast of the highest order has done his homework, and lots of it – in every genre of step dance tradition on the planet! Ira is also a great dance teacher, choreographer and a fiddler! His life in the South has hovered around Asheville and the Blue Ridge.

Ira has performed in concerts and at festivals all across the United States, as well as in Japan, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Israel, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Canada.  A few selected performances include the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, England, the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in Scotland, Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France, the Carre Theater in Amsterdam, Holland, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany, the Ataturk Cultural Center in Istanbul, Turkey, the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, the Colorado, Boston, and Portland Jazz Tap Festivals, Town Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City, the Chautauqua Institution in NY, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Ira Bernstein has shared the stage with many of the world's greatest tap and step dancers, including tap dancers Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Charles "Honi" Coles, Chuck Green, Jimmy Slyde, Lon Chaney, Howard "Sandman" Sims, Buster Brown, LaVaughn Robinson and Brenda Bufalino;  Irish step dancers Donny Golden and Jean Butler; Canadian step dancers Benoit Bourque, Normand Legault, Harvey Beaton and John Pellerine; as well as with renowned ensembles such as the American Tap Dance Orchestra, the Jazz Tap Ensemble, Manhattan Tap, Rhythm in Shoes, the Fiddle Puppets and Footworks.  His teachers also include many of the legendary masters of the various forms, including tap dancers Steve Condos and Eddie Brown, as well as Mr. Coles, Mr. Sims, Mr. Robinson, Ms. Bufalino; English cloggers Sam Sherry and Tony Barrand; Irish step dancers Josephine McNamara and Mr. Golden; French-Canadian step dancers Mr. Bourque and Mr. Legault; Cape Breton step dancers Mr. Beaton and Mr. Pellerine; and South African boot dancer Tsepo Mokone.

Ira Bernstein is a former member of the American Tap Dance Orchestra of New York City, the Fiddle Puppets of Annapolis, MD, Marlboro Morris and Sword of Marlboro, VT, and the Mill Creek Cloggers of Philadelphia, PA, and has been a featured, lead soloist in Rhythms of the Celts of Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as with Rhythm in Shoes of Dayton, OH, and the Vanaver Caravan of New Paltz, NY.  He was one of the artistic creators and featured soloists in Mountain Legacy of Asheville, NC, and is the director of the TEN TOE PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE, a collective of internationally acclaimed step dance soloists.   He has also repeatedly won first place in the Mount Airy Fiddler's Convention old-time flatfooting competition and is the originator of the Festival of Percussive Dance, having produced the first full-scale festival concert at Symphony Space in New York City in 1988.

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Bob "Happy Feet" Aldridge

Bob Aldridge is a native of Western North Carolina. He's been a dancer all his life. His family is known for making great dancers. His older brother schooled some of the very best individual step dancers still sharing their talent regionally and nationally.

Elizabeth W. Gibson, a gifted painter who lives and works in Bakersville, has given us permission to use the elegant image of Bob you see to the right. It honors Mr. Aldridge in the spirit of his love of dance, his commitment to share and honors the full circle of how the Toe River Arts Council is committed to sharing resources, inspiration and the joys of creating. The clogging magazine, "Double Toe Times" used Elizabeth's image for the cover of the Oct/Nov 2007 issue.

Denise Cook, Director of TRAC, mentioned that Bob may get up and dance one or two now and again. I was up at the Orchard at Altapass recently and "Happy Feet" didn't miss a dance. He is the absolute consumit dance enthusiast! This year we've invited a number of great dancers (rumor has it that some very notable step dancers may show up!) to sit together and share a bit of their history, their perspectives on the traditional stylings now and those gone by. Bob Aldridge will be joined by Suzannah Park (also a member of The Green Grass Cloggers, one of the best on-going traditional dance troups in America) and Ira Bernstein in the Dance Circle! Not to be missed is the moment when the dancers take turns sharing the steps that move them the most – all with live music!

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ETSU Old Time String Band

The photo to the right was made by Emily Bidgood when the East Tennessee State University's Old Time String Band was invited to represent the US in the Czech Republic this last Summer. (Thanks Emily for letting us use this image!) Many pictured here will be coming over to join in our Music In The Mountains Folk Music Festival. These college students take seriously the persuit of excellance in music from our part of the world. Please read on and know that you'll not be disappointed one bit when you come to understand how they raise the bar on what is possible with traditional musical arts. It's all in the hearing!

The following is a copy of the outline of history of the ETSU Bluegrass and Old Time String Band Music BA program (from the ETSU website) . . .

In 1982 when Jack Tottle initiated Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies at ETSU, no four-year university had ever attempted anything like it. In fact, there were more than a few in the academic community—some highly placed—who were quite dismissive of the notion that these musical styles were appropriate for university level study.

The mission of educating students regarding country and bluegrass music, thus, quickly became a broader effort. A popular “History of Country Music” course was implemented, which allowed students to learn how the country music of the 1940s and 1950s underlay the music that young people were hearing on radio and television. The extent of the existing educational gap was highlighted when one student asked, “Oh, did Hank Williams, Jr.’s daddy play music too?”

Educating university faculty, staff, and the regional community at large became an integral part of the undertaking as well. Before long, ETSU alumni were mentioned in publications as varied as Bluegrass Unlimited, Sing Out, Acoustic Guitar, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the U. S. Congressional Record, and the New York Times.

One alumna, Jennifer McCarter, caused quite a stir both on campus and in the community when she and her twin sisters were signed by Warner Brothers Records. Their first album featured three different songs which showed up on the national Billboard Country Music charts. Two of the songs reached the #4 and #5 positions respectively. Soon afterward they were seen nationwide on Dolly Parton’s television show, and began touring as the opening act for Kenny Rogers.

ETSU students began performing at a variety of prestigious venues. They played for the academically respected Sonneck Society in Nashville, and subsequently at the Moscow (Russia) Folk Arts Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Folklife Festival (also in Washington), the IBMA awards show in Louisville, Kentucky (with Ricky Skaggs), NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and a variety of venues in Japan, including the United States Embassy in Tokyo.

Orient Express, a video documentary of the ETSU Bluegrass Band’s initial Japan tour is the first commercially available DVD focusing on the bluegrass and country music scene in a foreign country. The U. S. Government’s Voice of America shot footage of the ETSU band’s appearance at the A. P. Carter Family Fold, interviewed the students afterward, and then produced a special which they overdubbed in Mandarin Chinese for distribution in Asia.

These activities, of course, promoted awareness regarding our music’s value outside of our home region. However, just as significantly, newspaper and magazine feature articles—as well as radio and television coverage of these, and other related activities—have resonated powerfully within the Tri-Cities region. A music once regarded exclusively as old-fashioned blue collar entertainment by many came to be seen as a true living art form. The prestige and respect with which the music was regarded far from its original birthplace helped many residents of the region look on bluegrass and country music in a new and more positive light.

Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies at ETSU has clearly played a major role in this renewed excitement about our region’s music. It regularly attracts students from ETSU’s traditional East Tennessee service area, but also from the entire United States (Texas to New England, Florida to Alaska, plus a multitude of points in between) and from foreign countries as well. Its alumni have won Grammy awards, and honors from the IBMA, the Academy of Country Music, and the Country Music Association (CMA).

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Suzannah Park & Nathan Morrison

These two artists have been singing together in various ensembles since they were fourteen, and have been performing and teaching as a duo for the past six years.

They live together in Asheville N.C. where they lead the West Asheville Community Chorus and Nathan bakes and sells fresh sourdough bread under the name Simple Bread.

Suzannah comes from a family of three generations of ballad singers, storytellers, and dancers and has been performing for most of her life. These days she is particularly thrilled to be dancing with the Green Grass Cloggers and when not taping her toes and jumping about in her orange dress, Suzannah’s singing takes her from the mountains of North Carolina to music-filled kitchens and concert halls across the United States and Europe.

Later this year Suzannah is traveling to South Africa teaching and performing unacompanied traditional vocal music with Village Harmony.

Click on either name here for more information about Suzannah Park or Nathan Morrison.

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Southern Road

Southern Road is our hot, local Bluegrass Band of note!

Having a long list of local gigs under their belts, they are indeed the "new kids on the block" but they don't sound like it! They're performing at the Old Timey Days Festival in Burnsville on the weekend prior to our festival. Catch em while they're still around and playing for us local folk!

The band is made up of former Mountain Heritage High School students. They're now off to Mars Hill College, ETSU and Mayland. They plan on staying together as a band for the forseeable future and we're really honored to have them on board this year!

The Band is:

• Coy Tschudy -Guitar
• Dalton Woody - Bass, Vocals
• Taylor Berry - Mandolin, Vocals
• Michael Gunter - Lead Guitar
• Lydon Holloway - Fiddle Vocals
• Josh Black - Banjo, Vocals

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Frederick Park

As the Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Park has come into a circle of friends as a long-time associate of the arts, of dance, traditional music, storytelling and the lore of this place called Appalachia in the high mountain South.

TRAC's "circle of influence" for our festival (Denise Cook, Rob Levin & Bruce Greene) invited Frederick along to MC a few years ago. With long ties to Yancey County, he's come to reside here in recent years and is now a part of this years' committee helping to pull it all together.

Frederick Park is an internationally known historian, collector and teacher of traditional dance from many sources, a master storyteller and a musician.

As well as being a professional photographer in all formats of film and darkroom work, he's followed the digital era's development from it's infancy and has mastered the skills of "color science" impacting the visual realm of fine art reproduction. To know more about this side of his life visit Apalache.

Below is YouTube video of Frederick playing a waltz (My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose) followed by the Bobby Bare ballad of Marie Laveau - with Harmonica!

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