NANCI GRIFFITH

NANCI GRIFFITH is an archivist of memories. Her music offers a simple, beautiful grace that has positioned her as one of the world’s most esteemed singer-songwriters. She got an early start on her path to performing and songwriting. At the age of six she began to write songs, thinking of it as “part of the process of learning how to play guitar.” While she doesn’t remember many of her earliest songs, she does recall that “the first original song my mother commented on…was a song about Timothy Leary.” Then at the age of 14, when a campfire turn at the Kerrville Folk Festival caught the ear of singer-songwriter Tom Russell, she was on her way. Having recorded 18 albums and performed concerts all over the world, it’s safe to say that she’s never looked back.

Griffith says that her approach to songwriting hasn’t changed over the years. “I just never know, any given day, what I’m going to wake up to.” Once she’s inspired, “it just all comes at once.” Even when working with collaborators, the idea driving the session has to be very strong. “If we don’t get something in 20 minutes, I’m done. It’s a very unique process and I don’t write with a lot of people. Charley Stefl, I’ve known since I was 16 years old and writing with him is always a joy. Thomm Jutz…is very easy to write with because he’s also my guitar player and he just knows my brain, and knows me musically.”

Her latest album, which skillfully touches on newsworthy issues as well as matters of the heart, proves that such a writing style can capture life at its most complex. The title track sets the tone, telling the true story of how love triumphed over a social injustice that prevailed in the United States until 1967. Mildred and Richard Loving were a mixed-race couple who were put in jail when they married in 1958, but their case eventually reached the Supreme Court, where state laws against interracial marriage were struck down. “I read Mildred Loving’s obituary in The New York Times and it just floored me,” says Griffith. “She never remarried after Richard died and in her last interview before she passed she expressed hope that their case, Loving v. Virginia, would eventually be the open door to same sex marriage.”

WARRIORS OF ANIKITUHWA

The WARRIORS OF ANIKITUHWA are official cultural ambassadors of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and bring to life dances of an ancient culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLUE RIDGE BLUEGRASS ALL-STARS

The BLUE RIDGE BLUEGRASS ALL-STARS is a unique assemblage of highly acclaimed bluegrass musicians coming together on this occasion to honor the Parkway and the region that influenced their musical careers. Master artists include Doyle Lawson, Sammy Shelor, Jim Van Cleve, Bryan Sutton, and Tim Surrett.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doyle Lawson

Born near Kingsport, Tennessee, in 1944, he began his career as a bluegrass musician in 1963. Over the next 15 years, he became increasingly prominent as a powerful, expressive singer and distinctive mandolin stylist while working with the Kentucky Mountain Boys and the Country Gentlemen. Lawson established his own group, Quicksilver, in 1979 and quickly moved to the forefront of the bluegrass scene, releasing a series of acclaimed albums and influencing generations of younger musicians with a sound that blended traditional bluegrass and gospel elements with progressive material and superb execution. While his own devotion to bluegrass stretches back to the genre’s Golden Era of the 1950s, Doyle Lawson has been an artistic leader and innovator almost as long – and a mentor, too, to generations of musicians who have gone through his 30-year-old Quicksilver “school of bluegrass” to emerge as some of the music’s biggest names.

Sammy Shelor

Shelor got an early start with the banjo, when his grandfather fashioned him a banjo from an old pressure cooker lid when Sam was only four years old. His other grandfather then issued a challenge, promising to buy him a real banjo if the young Shelor would learn to play two songs. Sam met that mark in short order and with the help of a family devoted both to him and to bluegrass music, he soon found himself entered in contests at fiddler’s conventions near his home in southwestern Virginia. By age 10, he was performing in local bands and became a full-time professional musician when he graduated from high school. His peers in the International Bluegrass Music Association have voted him Banjo Player of the Year on four separate occasions. Banjo pickers all over the world have studied Sam’s tab books and instructional DVD from AcuTab. Shelor grew up in Meadows of Dan, Virginia, where he still lives today and nurtures his farm that borders the Blue Ridge Parkway boundary.

Says Sammy: “I grew up playing at Rocky Knob campground and Mabry Milll – every weekend and summer days through youth; much of my learning process is based in Blue Ridge Parkway. My first paycheck was from the Parkway.”

Tim Surrett

Tim Surrett was born and raised in Canton, North Carolina. Tim has played on several of the most prestigious stages in the music business, like the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, and the Ryman Auditorium. Tim has also had the honor of playing and recording with some of the most talented people in the music industry such as Tony Rice, Adam Steffey, Ralph Stanley, Larry Sparks, Don Rigsby, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, The Kingsmen Quartet, and more. Tim plays regularly with the Haywood County-based band, Balsam Range. Balsam Range had the number onebluegrass song in the country as of September 2009 with “Last Train to Kittyhawk.”

Says Tim: “The Blue Ridge Parkway has always been a part of my life. It was a personal playground for my family in my childhood and a regular travel route in later years. In the last few years of my dad’s life, anytime I drove him anywhere, he always wanted to take the Parkway. We had some of our last great times on those trips, so I will always have a special place in my heart for the Parkway. One of the favorite spots for my wife and myself is Waterrock Knob.”

Bryan Sutton

Born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1973, Bryan started playing the guitar at the age of eight in the mountain communities of Western North Carolina. Few artists have come so far so fast. As a leading session guitarist, he continues to appear on numerous recordings, from gospel albums to Rhonda Vincent’s Back Home Again to million-sellers, like the Dixie Chicks’ Fly. For several years running, Bryan has been honored by the International Bluegrass Music Association as “Guitar Player of the Year.” Sutton released a brand new record of acoustic virtuosity, classic songs, and stunning originals in July 2009. Almost Live represents a collection of the many esteemed players that Sutton has had the chance to play with live over the years.

Says Bryan: “My childhood was influenced by many picnics and outings on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some of my earliest memories are of camping and listening to my Dad’s band play weekends at Bear Den Campground. The influence of musicians from across the Parkway region is a steady presence in my work as a session musician.”

Jim Van Cleve
Jim Van Cleve is a Grammy Award-winning, top-call session musician; producer; writer; and a founding member of the act that is taking the Americana music scene by storm, “Mountain Heart.” His debut solo project, “No Apologies ” was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Country Instrumental” Category in 2007. The project had an impressive total of three charting singles and was ultimately awarded Album of the Year honors in the Folk Music Category at the Indie Music Awards.

Says Jim: “When I was growing up, we lived just a few miles down the mountain from the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Mt. Pisgah. We were always going up there to camp, hike, raft, and picnic all around the Parkway. Many of my favorite memories either took place right there along the Blue Ridge Parkway or with the beautiful mountains as the backdrop. Now that I’m moved away, I try to get back there to visit whenever possible. I try to take my own family there now as often as possible, to enjoy one of the most breathtaking places in the world. On my debut solo project, No Apologies, I wrote and recorded a song, which was named after a landmark located on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was near my home, and I had hiked there many times as a young man. ‘Devil’s Courthouse’ is the song, and I now perform it every night with my band, Mountain Heart!”

DAVID HOLT

Grammy winner DAVID HOLT, an exceptional entertainer, multi-instrumentalist, songster, storyteller, and radio and television host, will serve as the event’s host.

Four-time Grammy Award winner David Holt is a musician, storyteller, historian, television host, and entertainer, dedicated to performing and preserving traditional American music and stories. Holt plays ten acoustic instruments and has released numerous recordings of traditional mountain music and southern folktales.

Holt is well known for his television and radio series. He is host of public television’s Folkways, a North Carolina program that takes the viewer through the Southern Mountains visiting traditional craftsmen and musicians. He served as host of The Nashville Network’s Fire on the Mountain, Celebration Express, and American Music Shop.

The songs and tales Holt has collected for the past 20years have become a part of the permanent collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. He was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to learn the unique music from the South’s last traditional hammered dulcimer player, Virgil Craven. Says Holt: “Many of the people I learned from saw wagon trains; now they are watching space shuttles. They’re the last of the pioneer generation. Their music and stories still hold a great deal of meaning and pleasure for us today.”

TICKET AVAILABILITY

Concert tickets are available at the Asheville Civic Center Box Office at 87 Haywood Street, Asheville or at Ticketmaster. Two reserved seating ticket options are available:

• General seats are $35
• Patron seats are $75 and offers premium reserved seating and access to the patron reception prior to the event

Ticketmaster and the Civic Center Box Office are the only source for legitimate tickets that will benefit the Parkway’s 75th Anniversary.