Who/What is James Leva and Purgatory Mountain?

Onstage at the Arts Center at 5:30-6:30; Workshop at Shelby Music Center: 1:30 PM

Old-time music, "it's better than it sounds," goes the old saw. These guys have the chops. James learned all he could in person from Tommy Jarrell in Mount Airy and from other authentic old-time musicians. He's got 8 or 9 CD's out there with a mixture of traditional tunes and his own well-honed songs. Here's an article from Bluegrass Now magazine's Band to Watch column, September, 2007.

Mandolin/guitar player extraordinaire Danny Knicely used to be in McGraw Gap with Larry Keel, and has played with everybody including Tony Rice and Vassar Clements. Check out Danny with James on youtube here or with Kristin Andreassen and Mark Schatz here and here with Casey Driessen and Mark.

Al Tharp is based in Louisiana and plays in the famous Beuasoleil band and they played the Super Bowl. Al plays hot licks on the openback banjo as well as upright and (sometimes) electric bass. Matthew Gordon will be adding precussion, bones, fiddlesticks and traditional Appalachian dance to the mix (flat-foot, buck dancing, that's the idea).

So, when you see James Leva and Purgatory Mountain on the Art of Sound Festival schedule, you know to expect good music and musicianship, some traditional, some current and all a good way to spend an hour. Look for them at 1:30-2:45 at Shelby Music Center for a workshop on Appalachian Music and Dance (Danny's quite a teacher to tie some of the world's traditions and influences together -
...Here are Jame, Danny, Al and Megan Downs (filling in for Matthew Olwell and Matty Gordan) at Art of Sound 2007:

Plenty of amplified and rocking music - take your pick

Tater, Audioform, Dorian Gris, Ned Lucas Band, No Alibi, David Childers and the Modern Don Juans, Dom Casual, The Carpenter Ants, even Calvin Edwards, Robin Rogers (blues), and Two Dollar Pistols (honky-tonk country) will be here for you if you like to hear it turned up a little bit.

Sure, the festival will have its singer songwriter, old-time, bluegrass and "Gypsy jazz" featuring the best acoustic leaning sounds, but we haven't left out rock, jam, jazz or blues, either. So if your tastes turn to the funkier, the louder, the feel-it-in-your-body type grooves, just check us out on October 20th (and 19th) and you'll find something to move to. Whether it's on the uptown outdoor stage or in one of the intimate venues (the largest indoor stage holds 225) there will be a huge variety of sounds and moods.

Just a couple of notes on these bands. Tater has a hot new CD and sound better than ever; Ned Lucas Band features a blues trio sound with Ned back and forth on Hammond Organ and guitars; Calvin Edwards has that urban blues thing going on. All three of these we're proud to say are local, as is Modern Don Juan guitarist Randy Saxon. Childers is from Mount Holly. No Alibi is based over in Boiling Springs.

Two of last year's NC performers honored

Two veteran N.C. artists that performed at last year's festival are being honored at the state and national levels currently. George Shuffler, the guitarist who pioneered the "cross-picking" style with the Stanley brothers in the 50's and 60's will receive the annual Folk Heritage Award from the North Carolina Arts Council on October 25 in Raleigh, NC. This clip on Youtube shows the style with James Alan Shelton, current Ralph Stanley guitarist on their DVD Clinch Mountain Guitar.

Another N.C. Folk Heritage Award recipient who played at Art of Sound last year, African American string band musician Joe Thompson of Mebane, NC is being honored with the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts this week in Washington, D.C. Joe joins Shelby native Earl Scruggs and many others in receiving this national honor. Here's a clip of Joe Thompson with the group he inspires and is a mentor to, the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Ernie Hawkins - Acoustic Blues

Ernie Hawkins will be bringing the blues home in a sense when he plays the this year's Art of Sound. His inspirations for learning to play this music and learning it well enough to be considered one of the most sought after teachers of the style include the great Piedmont blues players from the Carolinas. It was Rev. Gary Davis more than any other who was his teacher and connection to the music. Davis was born in Laurens SC and played on the streets around Durham NC (where he met Blind Boy Fuller) as a singing gospel preacher. He got to New York in about 1940. Check out "In This Land" (Death Don't Have No Mercy) here on youtube or this gospel number on Pete Seeger's television show. Gary Davis influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Jerry Garcia to Peter Paul and Mary and David Bromberg. "In the liner notes to Davis' album Say No to the Devil, critic Larry Cohn compared his instrumental virtuosity in this regard to that of classical guitarist Andres Segovia and banjo player Earl Scruggs." - Paul Andersen Contemporary Musicians, April 1997

Besides Gary Davis, Ernie helps keeps alive the music of several artists from several states including Mance Lipscomb from Texas and Blind Willie McTell of Georgia. Mance Lipscomb from Navasota, Texas was the son of a slave from Alabama and took the name Mance from a friend named Emancipation. His father was a fiddler and his uncle a banjo player, another piece of evidence that blacks played the basically the same old time string band music that whites did. He considered himself a "Songster" because of the diversity of styles he played. His easy loping style can be witnessed in some of the video and other recordings made after he was "discovered" and brought to a wider audience in the 1960's. See and hear "Night Time is the Right Time". Playing the jacknife slide on "Jack of Spades".

Check out this amazing 1927 video of Blind Willie Johnson, another of the great acoustic blues players. Apparently the film is a reenactment or pantomime with the song, but powerful just the same.

Ernie's performance which will probably be a survey of all the great blues players from the tradition and a few of his own, is at 1 PM on Saturday at the Arts Center. His workshop at Shelby Music Center is at 3:00.

Tickets are on sale

Mark your calendar and download a schedule (subject to mostly minor changes and additions).
Two Friday night shows on on the schedule for the first time this year. The Frank Love Orchestra will play for listening and dancing in the First National Bank Hamilton Room and the foot-stompin', good-time string band from Kansas City, The Wilders, will play a show at the Arts Center. Please visit the Art of Sound Website for all the details.

Saturday's lineup looks to be the best yet, with the usual small intimate venues, free outdoor stage, and a couple of first class workshops at Shelby Music Center. Other venues are the Arts Center, The Corner (Royster Building, old "Loy's"), The GSCT Stage (was Kiddo's Korner), the Hamilton Room at First National Bank, Central Methodist Church main sanctuary, and another free venue, the western steps of the 1907 Court House (Middle and High School Chorus groups).