Via BooneWeb.com, where I always find something cool, I saw that the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame inducted its charter members earlier this week. How cool is that? Sounds like it was big doins. The Winston-Salem Journal had the story June 13:
The Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame will induct its charter members tonight during a celebration and concert at the Walker Center at Wilkes Community College.
For folks suffering from musical withdrawal after MerleFest, the concert will offer picking, fiddling and singing at MerleFest’s home grounds.
But the bigger message that organizers hope to make is that the music keeps going year-round in Wilkes County and the region.
In Wilkes, there’s the weekly Hometown Opry, along with ChickenFest, Singing in the Foothills, Carolina in the Fall and other musical gatherings. July offers MusicFest ‘n Sugar Grove in Watauga County, and August features the Ola Belle Reed Homecoming Festival in Ashe County.
Acoustic music rings up and down the mountains, in informal settings and, like tonight, in concert halls.Mike Cross will be the emcee of tonight’s concert, which will start at 8. More than 500 tickets have already been sold. Tickets will be available at the door for $25.
Tonight’s living inductees are:
□ Doc Watson, the musician from nearby Deep Gap, whose family has been at the heart and soul of the region’s musical heritage.
□ Country-music star Dolly Parton.
□ Wayne Henderson, a well-known guitar-maker from Rugby, Va.
□ David Johnson, a studio musician and performer from Wilkes County.
□ Earl Scruggs, the famous banjo player whose picking is synonymous with bluegrass music.
Henderson and Johnson are attending. Watson may attend, if his health permits.Deceased inductees are:
□ The Carter Family, whose recordings in the 1920s and ’30s include many country-music standards.
□ Ralph Epperson, the founder of radio station WPAQ in Mount Airy.
□ Tommy Jarrell, an influential banjo player and fiddler from Surry County.
□ Folklorist Ralph Rinzler of the Smithsonian Institution.
□ Sam Love Queen Sr., known as the Square Dance King of Western North Carolina.The hall of fame is on the second floor of the 1902 landmark white courthouse in Wilkesboro, which is operated by Old Wilkes as the Wilkes Heritage Museum.
The hall-of-fame exhibit opened May 29, and includes instruments, biographies and recorded music. Earlier this week, the museum got a $25,000 check from American Express to pay for an audiovisual kiosk that will be added to the hall.
The hall meant to include both famous people and those who worked behind the scenes. It draws from an area stretching from northern Georgia into northern Virginia.