Swannanoa Gathering concerts held on silver anniversary
The Swannanoa Gathering, a series of week-long workshops in the folk arts, celebrates its 25th anniversary this summer with a series of concerts all summer long.
The program at Warren Wilson College draws students from as far away as Japan, Australia, France and Hong Kong to take classes from fiddle-playing to clogging to storytelling. Some of its programs feature public concerts by staff members in the college’s Kittredge Theatre.
All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 per concert (during Old-Time Week, the ticket price includes dances following concerts). Children's tickets under 12 are $10. Tickets are available in Black Mountain at Song of the Wood and at the Warren Wilson College bookstore. For concert info, call 771-3761; for credit card sales of concert tickets call 771-3024.
Traditional Song Week’s Concert I on Monday, July 4, features Grammy-winning Americana artist Tim O’Brien, Irish singer and guitarist Dáithí Sproule, Scottish balladeer Alan Reid, singer/songwriter David
Roth, noted Madison County musician Josh Goforth, gospel singer Kathy Bullock, week coordinator Julee Glaub Weems and old-time country musician Mark Weems.
Traditional Song Week’s Concert II on Wednesday, July 6, will feature Ranger Doug of the Grammy Award-winning Riders in the Sky; Robin and Linda Williams ("A Prairie Home Companion" regulars); Cathy Jordan, lead singer with the Irish supergroup, Dervish; National Heritage Award-winner Sheila Kay Adams; Irish singer and storyteller Len Graham; folk balladeer Matt Watroba; and Grand Ole Opry stalwart Tim May.
Old-Time Week Concert I, Monday, July 18 is the first of two concerts featuring some of the best old-time
musicians around, many of whom are familiar faces around Western North Carolina. The first concert features the great fiddlers Erynn Marshall and Brad Leftwich, singer-storyteller Sheila Kay Adams, the New Southern Ramblers, legendary singer Alice Gerrard, Carl Jones, Paul Brown, Terri McMurray, dulcimer master Don Pedi, Tom Sauber, John Lilly, Ben Nelson, and clogger Rodney Sutton.
Old-Time Week Concert II, on Wednesday, July 20 will feature fiddlers Bruce Molsky, Earl White
and Eddie Bond; autoharpist John Hollandsworth; banjo player Jared Boyd; dancers Ellie Grace and
Thomas Maupin, accompanied by his grandson Daniel Rockwell; singer Carol Elizabeth Jones; Ron Pen;
Paul Kovac; and The Green Grass Cloggers.
Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert I on Monday, Aug. 1 will feature the wide-ranging music of mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall, banjo legends Tony Trischka and Country Gazette’s Alan Munde, bluegrass-and-more fiddler Alex Hargreaves, eclectic cellist Ben Sollee, classical musician and mandolinist Caterina Lichtenberg, Irish and Brazilian choro musician fiddler Andrew Finn Magill,
eclectic multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven, bluegrass fiddler Matt Combs, and mandolinists John Reischman and Matt Flinner.
The Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert II on Tuesday, Aug. 2 features Beausoleil’s Grammy Award-winning fiddler Michael Doucet, old-time duo Greg and Jere Canote, Duhks banjoist Leonard Podolak,
Québécois fiddler Lisa Ornstein, old-time stalwarts Erynn Marshall and Adam Tanner, Scottish fiddler Laura Risk, bassist Kevin Kehrberg, contradance fiddler Laura Lengnick and Fiddle Week coordinator Julia Weatherford.
The series concludes on Wednesday, Aug. 3, when Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert III will
feature swing fiddle great Matt Glaser, bluegrass mandolinists Alan Bibey and Emory Lester, Irish fiddler Liz Knowles, guitar/mandolin player Robin Bullock, banjo innovator Bill Evans, Swedish fiddler Andrea Hoag, swing greats Don Stiernberg and Greg Ruby, New England fiddler Rodney Miller and bluegrass guitarist Ed Dodson.