Town Branch Bluegrass Featured At June Pickin In The Park

The Town Branch Bluegrass Band took the stage on Sunday as the featured group for the second leg of the Pickin in the Park competition at the Natural Tunnel State Park. The competition started on the last Sunday of May with Boots On The Ground, and will finish up on July 27th with Sycamore Hollow.

The Town Branch Bluegrass Band hails from the Town Branch area of Jonesville, Va. and with strong vocals from Shirley Smith and Wayne Bonham worked their way through a nice set of good bluegrass cover tunes, as well as, a few of the group's original offerings.

Great solos and backup from Brandon Elkins on the five-string, and Bill Newman on the mandolin rounded out a nice sound that was 100% Bluegrass.

You can find out more about The Town Branch Bluegrass Band by visiting their website at townbranchbluegrass.com/, and like their FaceBook Page.

Natural Tunnel State Park is located on The Crooked Road, 13 miles North of Gate City, Virginia, and you can find out more about this location that has some kind of activity almost every weekend during the summer months. Be sure to check it out at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/natural-tunnel.shtml

Pickin In The Park is sponsored by The Culture Arts Council of Cove Ridge Foundation, HobNob Drive-In, and the Mountain Empire Community College School of Mountain Music.

There will be an Outdoor Theater Night on Sunday July 6th from 7-9:30 PM for The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine Outdoor Drama. Music will be from Poplar Hill Reunion hailing from Big Stone Gap. Jim Gates will emcee the show.

There are many things to do at Natural Tunnel State Park, and best of all, is the Sounds from the Mountains at the parks Ampitheater!.

Mountain Music School:The Hidden Gem on the Crooked Road

Without a doubt, the scenery on the Crooked Road will captivate you, but what makes it special is of course, the music. You can participate in the music at any level that suits your fancy. You can be a spectator, you can dance, or you can pick.

If you want to be more than a spectator, have two left feet like I do, and want to be a picker, you will need some help.

The problem with being a picker is you need to buy an instrument and take lessons for years before you can participate. The other problem is you think you want to pick a guitar, and find out after six months that you want to play a banjo.

Now you have to find a place to sell that guitar, and you need to buy a banjo!

The answer to your dilemma is the Mountain Music School held once a year during the last week of July at the Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Conveniently located on the Crooked Road.

Nowhere else in this country can you show-up empty handed, be handed the instrument you want to learn to play, and get a week of instruction on how to play it.

There's coffee and snacks to get you going in the morning, a catered lunch and a concert by local musician while your lunch digests, and special classes before finishing the afternoon sessions.

When it's over on Friday afternoon, and you get a taste of performing what you've learned during the week on the main stage with your classmates before you give the instrument back.

It's a busy week of living the dream. You cam learn guitar, banjo, autoharp, fiddle or learn to play in a group with a string band.

Most of the teachers at the Mountain Music School are versed in all of the different instruments of the style, and will teach you about the roots of the music and the culture to go along with you instrument instruction.

Already know the basics of your instruments and want some intermediate or advanced training? The Mountain Music School offers that as well, just specify your experience level on the application.

The Mountain Music School takes all comers from 10 years old and up. The level of commitment to making your week an experience you will remember for a lifetime is unparallelled, and if you are anything like me, you will do it all over again next year.

So if you want to graduate from being a spectator to a picker, visit www.mountainmusicschool.org and fill out an application. It's an adventure you will remember for a lifetime and you will have a piece of the Crooked Road in your heart forever.

Life On The Crooked Road

As a lover of music in general, and acoustical music in particular, when I retired in 2009, I needed to find a way to get closer to the music I love. So here I am, in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, living on the Crooked Road.

What's the Crooked Road?

The Crooked Road is Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, a driving route through the Appalachian Mountains from the Blue Ridge to the Coalfields region, following U.S. Route 58. The trail connects major heritage music venues in the region such as the Blue Ridge Music Center, Birthplace of Country Music Alliance, and the Carter Family Fold.

Nowhere else in this country, I've lived on both coasts, and was raised in the center of the country, have I found a part of this great United States that has more of a commitment to the preservation to this style of music than communities on The Crooked Road.

The numbers of jams, festivals, and concerts throughout the year are endless. Almost every week there is something going on, and it involves music.

When I made my first trip to Big Stone Gap in the summer of 2011 to attend the Annual Mountain Music School at the Mountain Empire Community College, I though I was getting knee-deep in Bluegrass, but got a quick education on the difference between Bluegrass, and Old-Time Mountain Music.

I was introduced to the world of the Carter Family, Doc Boggs, and all of the folks that put this great music on records to preserve them for me in the 21st century.

Oh! there's Bluegrass around too. There are jams every night of the week where you can play any type of music you want. You can even find Country Music, Classic Rock and Hip Hop here as well, but people here all know where those influences came from.

That's right, they all have branches that lead back to the roots of the common man's music, back to mountains of Appalachia, and the roots of music that is 100% American.

So, if you love music of all types, and want to experience it in it's native setting, The Crooked Road is the place to start. I guarantee once you start here, you won't want to go anywhere else.

I know I didn't!