Schedule set for Asheville's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival

Photo via UNCA's online library/Photo by Bob Lindsay

Via the Hendersonville Times-News:

The 82nd Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, the country's longest running folk festival, has released its performance schedule.

It covers three full evenings, July 30 - Aug. 1, at the Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place in downtown Asheville. Tickets are on sale now.

The long-standing house band, the Stoney Creek Boys, returns to perform each evening of the 2009 Festival. Some other highlights include:

Whitewater Bluegrass Company,

July 30, featuring "Uncle Ted" White on bass, Bill Byerly on guitar, David Pendley on mandolin, Steve Sutton on banjo and Gary Mackey on fiddle.

Hominy Valley Boys, July 31, who enjoys an intimacy on stage apparent in the musicians' energetic and entertaining performances.

The Cockman Family Bluegrass Gospel Group, Aug. 1, is made up of four brothers, a sister and their father who blend unique bluegrass gospel.

The schedule, subject to change:

July 30: Jerry Sutton and Carol Rifkin, Masters of Ceremonies; dance team Little Darlins; The Rhinehart Family; dance team Peg Twisters; Buncombe Turnpike; dance team Appalachian Mountaineers; Adam Masters; Carol, Jamie & Troy; Whitewater Bluegrass Company; dance team Dixie Darlins; George and Brooke Buckner; Don Pedi; AppalachiaSong; UNCA Smooth Dancers; Doug and Darcy Orr; and High Windy.

July 31: Laura Boosinger and Flora McDonald Gammon, Masters of Ceremonies; Elk Mountain Cloggers; Hominey Valley Boys; Laura Boosinger; Bobby Hicks; Green Valley Cloggers; Phil and Gaye Johnson; Tipton Hill Boys; Donna Ray Norton; Cole Mountain Smooth Dancers; Bobby and Blue Ridge Tradition; Flora McDonald Gammon; Bryan McDowell and Arvil Freeman; Cole Mountain Cloggers; Buddy Davis Family and Friends; Joe Penland; and the Bailey Mountain Cloggers.

Aug. 1: Glenn Bannerman and Richard Hurley, Masters of Ceremonies; Fines Creek Flat Footers; Betty Smith; The Griggs; Leonard Hollifield and Friends; Dogwood Mountain; Avery Smooth Dancers; Clearwater Connection; Bryce and Kathryn Parham; The Cockman Family Bluegrass Gospel Group; Stoney Creek Cloggers; dance team The Bannerman Family and Friends; Roger Howell and Friends; Bluegrass Mafia; Mac Snodderly and Flave Hart; dance team Southern Appalachian; and the Dowden Sisters.

Comments

[Jim]

It was at this festival that Pete Seeger discovered the banjo. His father, music professor Charles Seeger just couldn't get the boy interested in any instrument.

"In 1936 he heard the five-string banjo for the first time at the Folk Song and Dance Festival in Asheville, North Carolina, and his life was changed forever. "
http://www.peteseeger.net/biograph.htm

[H Brown]

It's very cool to see my grandfather (Bill McElreath - white shirt in pic) showing up on web pages and event posters decades after his death in 1973.
I remember sitting on the edge of the stage at various venues as a young boy, sipping apple cider, and watching in awe as he played various instruments or buck danced.