The Blue Ridge Music Center is announcing the full lineup of artists appearing on its amphitheater stage this summer as part of the annual Roots of American Music concert series. Taking the stage are fan favorites, including the Steep Canyon Rangers, Watchhouse, Sierra Ferrell, Sam Bush Band, Amythyst Kiah, and more great performers. The Saturday evening series runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The Music Center is located at milepost 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just south of Galax and 30 minutes from Sparta and Mount Airy, N.C.
The roster is strong on bluegrass and old-time music. Running the gamut from traditional to contemporary, these bands include Steep Canyon Rangers, Sam Bush Band, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, The Kody Norris Show, Lonesome River Band, Ashlee & Andrew, Cabin Creek Boys, Crooked Road Ramblers, Slate Mountain Ramblers, and Doc at 100, a special Doc Watson tribute concert.
The lineup also features a variety of younger artists who have been influenced by the traditional music of the Blue Ridge Region but who are adapting the music and carrying forward these living traditions in unique and exciting ways and to younger and more diverse audiences. These artists include: Amythyst Kiah, Sierra Ferrell, Watchhouse, John R. Miller, Rissi Palmer (Color Me Country Radio), Scythian, Larry Bellorin & Joe Troop, and DaShawn & Wendy Hickman.
Performances start at 7 p.m. on Saturdays, with admission gates opening at 5:45 p.m. Ticket prices range from $20 to $40. Tickets, season passes (full, half, and Pick 3), and memberships can be purchased at BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org.
Summer Concert Series Schedule & Profiles
· May 27: Lonesome River Band + Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small
· June 3: Scythian + Cabin Creek Boys
· June 10: Watchhouse
· June 17: Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper + Crooked Road Ramblers
· June 24: Amythyst Kiah + Foreign Landers
· July 1: Sam Bush Band
· July 8: Jeff Little Trio + DaShawn & Wendy Hickman with Sacred Steel
· July 15: Rissi Palmer + The Martha Bassett Band
· July 22: Sierra Ferrell
· July 29: John R. Miller
· Aug. 5: Kody Norris Show + Slate Mountain Ramblers
· Aug. 19: Doc at 100: A Doc Watson Tribute Concert
· Aug. 26: Larry & Joe + Shay Martin Lovette
· Sept. 2: An Evening with Steep Canyon Rangers
Lonesome River Band + Ashlee & Andrew
Saturday, May 27, 7 p.m.
$25 advance, $30 day of show; free for children 12 and younger
The Lonesome River Band is one of the most respected names in bluegrass music. The band seamlessly fuses instrumentals and harmony vocals, traditional and contemporary bluegrass sounds, performing the trademark sound that fans love and embrace.
Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small open the show. Based in mountains of Southwest Virginia, this duo performs traditional and original music in a variety of styles including bluegrass, country, old time, folk, and Americana.
Scythian + Cabin Creek Boys
Saturday, June 3, 7 p.m.
$25 advance, $30 day of show, free for children 12 and younger
Scythian plays “old time, good time” Celtic-influenced music. A tale of the arrival of a roving fiddler and all of the town people gathering in a barn to dance the night away is the spirit that has motivated Scythian from the group’s inception.
Opening the show are the Cabin Creek Boys playing high-energy string band music from the mountains of Southwest Virginia and Northwest North Carolina.
Watchhouse
Saturday, June 10, 7 p.m.
$40 adults, $20 for children 12 and younger
Watchhouse, formerly Mandolin Orange, is an Americana-folk duo featuring Andrew Marlin (vocals, mandolin, guitar, banjo) and Emily Frantz (vocals, violin, guitar). The two weave their Appalachian-steeped folk into their earnest songwriting. Watchhouse’s songs capture audiences through the interplay between storytelling and harmony singing.
The opener for this show is to be announced.
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper + Crooked Road Ramblers
Saturday, June 17
$30 adults, free for children 12 and younger
Michael Cleveland heard old-time and bluegrass music at local jams and festivals, inspiring him to take up the fiddle at age four. With his band Flamekeeper, Cleveland has won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Instrumental Group of the Year award seven times.
The Crooked Road Ramblers, an old-time band from Southwest Virginia, will kick off the evening.
This concert is sponsored by the National Council for Traditional Arts as part of its series National Treasures: A Tour of Culture Bearers in National Parks, showcasing recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts’ prestigious National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor awarded to folk and traditional artists. Cleveland earned this honor in 2022.
Amythyst Kiah + Foreign Landers
Saturday, June 24, 7 p.m.
$20 adults, free for children 12 and younger
Amythyst Kiah is a Tennessee-raised singer, songwriter, and musician who cuts across musical genres with her unforgettable voice and unique sound.Her musical expression and songwriting reflects a raw yet nuanced examination of grief, alienation, and the hard-won triumph of total self-acceptance. Her standout song “Black Myself” earned a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Song and won Song of the Year at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards.
Starting out the evening will be the Foreign Landers, a transatlantic husband and wife folk duo with roots in South Carolina and Northern Ireland. They are known for their authenticity and originality in songwriting.
Sam Bush Band
Saturday, July 1, 7 p.m.
$35 advance, $40 day of show, $15 for children 12 and younger
Sam Bush, aka The Father of Newgrass, is known as one of the liveliest performers around. Bush formed the New Grass Revival in 1972, and over the next 17 years, he and the band revolutionized the music of the hill country, incorporating everything from gospel and reggae to rock and modern jazz into their tradition-rooted sound. Over the past two decades as a solo artist, he’s released seven albums and a live DVD. In 2009, the Americana Music Association awarded Bush the Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist.
The opening artist is to be announced.
Jeff Little Band + DaShawn & Wendy Hickman with Sacred Steel
Saturday, July 8, 7 p.m.
$20 adults, free for children 12 and younger
Jeff Little is an award-winning musician from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. With few exceptions, the piano does not play a prominent role in Americana or Appalachian music and is rarely the lead instrument. But Jeff’s music is one of those rare exceptions. The pianist has not only been recognized as a critically acclaimed musician but also a true music innovator. Jeff’s trio includes Steve Lewis on guitar and banjo and Luke Little on mandolin.
DaShawn Hickman, from Mount Airy, N.C., opens the show. Hickman is one of today’s foremost players of Sacred Steel, a blues-gospel tradition started in the Pentecostal-Holiness churches of the 1930s. Hickman, along with his vocalist wife, Wendy, and bass player Charlie Hunter have put their own spin on Sacred Steel, and love to share their soulful sound.
Rissi Palmer + Martha Bassett
Saturday, July 15, 7 p.m.
$20 adults, free for children 12 and younger
Rissi Palmer‘s gift lies in reaching across all musical boundaries. While she made her mark in country music, she is equally at home in R&B music, bringing the entire spectrum of popular music to bear on music she calls “Southern Soul.” As a passionate voice for country artists of color and those who have been marginalized in mainstream country music, Palmer has helped shift the musical landscape in a positive direction and has given underrepresented communities a voice with her radio show Color Me Country with Rissi Palmer on Apple Music Country.
Opening the show is Martha Bassett. With her beautiful alto-voice, she performs in a wide array of musical genres, including jazz, folk, and country gospel.
Sierra Ferrell
Saturday, July 22, 7 p.m.
$30 adults in advance, $35 day of show, $15 for children 12 and younger
With her spellbinding voice and time-bending sensibilities, Sierra Ferrell makes music that’s as fantastically vagabond as the artist herself. After growing up in small-town West Virginia, and years of living in her van and busking on the streets of New Orleans and Seattle, she moved to Nashville and landed a deal with Rounder Records on the strength of her magnetic live show. On her recently released and highly anticipated label debut Long Time Coming, Ferrell shares a dozen songs beautifully unbound by genre or era, instantly transporting her audience to an infinitely more enchanted world.
The opening artist is to be announced.
John R. Miller
Saturday, July 29, 7 p.m.
$20 adults, $5 for children 12 and younger
John R. Miller is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose music has the earthy twang of country, the late-night feel of blues, and the road-worn defiance of rock ‘n’ roll. Growing up in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, Miller was fascinated with music from a very early age. He discovered traditional West Virginia fiddle music and took an interest in folk and country singer-songwriters, such as John Prine, Steve Earle, and Townes Van Zandt in college, setting his musical direction today.
The opener for this show is to be announced.
The Kody Norris Show + Slate Mountain Ramblers
Saturday, August 5, 7 p.m.
$20 adults, $5 for children 12 and younger
Kody Norris has crafted a performance that tips a hat to several greats from the early days of bluegrass. The Kody Norris Show’s sound and energy channel the instrumental virtuosity of the legendary Bill Monroe, the showmanship of the “King of Bluegrass” Jimmy Martin, the vocal harmonies of the Stanley Brothers, and a bit of the over the top comedy entertainment of vaudeville performances. Top-notch picking is center stage, but humor and visual flash are part of the entertaining package. Always clad in colorful, rhinestone-studded suits, ties, classic hats, and ornate boots, the band earns its moniker as a “show.”
The Slate Mountain Ramblers old-time band from Mount Airy, N.C., kicks off the evening of high-energy music.
Doc at 100: A Doc Watson Tribute Concert
Saturday, August 19, 7 p.m.
$25 advance, $30 day of show, $10 for children 12 and younger
Hosted by author Ted Olson, Doc at 100 is a concert program celebrating the life and legacy of Doc Watson by artists who performed with him, were profoundly influenced by his music, and called him a friend. This includes T. Michael Coleman and Jack Lawrence, who performed, recorded, and toured with Doc longer than any other musicians he worked with. Joining Coleman and Lawrence are fellow guitarists Wayne Henderson and Jack Hinshelwood, who were both heavily impacted by Doc’s music through his many recordings and performances. The show explores the history and legacy of Watson, who was born in Deep Gap, N.C., in 1923. He went on to become perhaps the most influential acoustic guitarist in the world of folk music. The show will include remembrances of Doc with some special stories, and feature the many powerful songs that he played and recorded during his career.
Larry & Joe + Shay Martin Lovette
Saturday, August 26, 7 p.m.
$20 adults, free for children 12 and younger
Larry & Joe were destined to make music together. As a duo, they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, guitar, maracas, and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. Their program features a distinct blend of musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce. Larry Bellorín grew up in Punta de Mata in the state of Monagas, Venezuela. Playing professionally by the age of 11, he went on to accompany countless Venezuelan musical luminaries. Joe Troop is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter originally hailing from Winston-Salem, N.C. The founder of Grammy-nominated string band Che Apalache, his music is deeply inspired by his decade living in Buenos Aires and traveling throughout Latin America.
Shay Martin Lovette, a singer-songwriter from Boone, N.C., opens the show. After growing up in Wilkes County, he brings his admiration for rich musical traditions of his home region to craft originals like “Parkway Bound.”
An Evening with the Steep Canyon Rangers
Saturday, Sept. 2, 7 p.m.
$40 adults, $20 for children 12 and younger
The Steep Canyon Rangers are Grammy winners, and perennial Billboard chart-toppers. The band formed in college at UNC-Chapel Hill, then dove head first into bluegrass in its most traditional form. Over the years, they have risen to the top of the bluegrass genre headlining top festivals such as MerleFest and Grey Fox Bluegrass. The group’s members are Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals.
