This is the 22nd Year of the Annual Music in the Mountains Folk Music Festival, sponsored by the Toe River Arts Council. The Festival’s focus is on preserving the rich cultural heritage evidenced in our mountain musical, storytelling and dance legacies. Numerous ballad singers, old-time string bands, storytellers, clogging and buck dancers have appeared on its stage. This year the Festival takes place on Saturday, October 6 at the Burnsville Town Center at 6 South Main Street, just off Highway 19E and close to the quaint Burnsville Town Square. The program starts at 5:30 pm and last until 10:00 or so in the evening.

The Festival line-up this year includes a wide assortment of music, dance and storytelling.
Fred Park, storyteller and folk dance historian, is the emcee for this year’s Festival. Park has been collecting and sharing traditional dances for more than 35 years and is also an internationally known teacher, dance historian, choreographer, and interpreter of traditional dance, and whose vocal calling style is part Southern preacher, part rapper, part philosopher.

Patrick and Cathy Sky bring over 30 years of performing experience sharing the music of Ireland with reels, jigs, and hornpipes played on the fiddle and the Irish Uilleann pipes. From sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall to hosting the Irish Week Slow Jam at the August Heritage Festival – their performances delight and entertain. New to the area, we are happy to welcome them to the Festival. Read more about them on their website at www.patricksky.com

Frederick Park

Cathy & Patrick Sky

Next door from Madison County, Jake and Sarah Owen perform old time music that’s been “sometimes sweet, sometimes spooky, but all good.” Jake is the son of Malcolm Owen and the nephew of the late Blanton Owen—two important figures in the early days of the old-time music revival in the south in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jake carries on his family tradition, by playing impeccable banjo and guitar and vocals with that old-time sound. Sarah plays the fiddle with a powerful, yet subtle style and her voice “a sweet” sound.

Clarence Green and Odell Miller are an old-time duo who reside in Caldwell County, NC and have been playing together for quite a few years. Greene, a native of Penland in Mitchell County, is the son of the legendary “Fiddlin’ Clarence Greene” who was a professional musician for many years. Clarence was taught the rudiments of guitar at an early age by his father and later added banjo, mandolin, and fiddle. He is also a prolific songwriter. Odell Miller is a talented singer and rhythm guitar who lives in the King’s Creek section of Caldwell. He especially loves to sing gospel material but is equally adept at old-time mountain songs.

The Cole Mountain Cloggers are a group of young dancers from Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Mitchell Counties. Ranging in ages from 5 to 15, these dancers are dedicated to preserving Southern Appalachian Freestyle Clogging while entertaining the audience with advanced footwork, great showmanship, and well-choreographed routines.

The Roan Mountain Moonshiners play the east Tennessee-style old-time mountain music with the fiddle and sometimes with the banjo, cross-tuned. TV Barnett plays lead guitar, banjo and fiddle with Danny Teague on doghouse bass, Mary Mays on guitar, and Rhodyjane Meadows on banjo and autoharp. TV says, “the girls sing pretty, too.”

Maggie Lauterer and Zack Allen join up to sing old-time ballads and mountain tunes. Maggie, otherwise known as Rev. Maggie Lauterer is the minister at the First Presbyterian Church in Burnsville and former anchorwoman for WLOS. Zack and Maggie are married and have a long history of performing mountain folk songs. Zack, “a shaped note wizard,” was the Director of the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville for a number of years, and has performed with the Carroll Best String Band and other well-known groups.

The Wisemans continue the family tradition playing old-time bluegrass music. Kenny Jobe heads up this classic group. Jake Miller, from Green Mountain, will also be performing on fiddle with a few friends including his fiddle instructor Bruce Greene. For sure, it’s a night not to be missed!

Caterers Mike and Carol Hoilman along with the Burnsville Lions Club will be preparing a selection of food from sandwiches to dinner entrees, drinks and desserts. You can also come and go as you like after you’ve paid your ticket, so you can eat at the festival or in town.

Tickets purchased in advance offer a one-dollar discount per ticket and can be purchased at the Burnsville TRAC Gallery at 102 West Main Street (open 10 to 5 Mondays through Saturdays), or at the TRAC Center Gallery, located at 269 Oak Avenue (open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 to 5). Tickets are $10 and $8 for seniors and students at the door.

The Music in the Mountains Folk Festival is made possible in part by a Grassroots Art Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency. For more information contact the Toe River Arts Council at 828-682-7215 or 765-0520, or email us at trac@toeriverarts.org. A complete schedule is posted on our website at www.toeriverarts.org