Schedule of concerts held during the Swannanoa Gathering, beginning July 4

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE SWANNANOA GATHERING:

• Traditional Song Week Concert I – Monday, July 4

• Traditional Song Week Concert II – Wednesday, July 6

• Old-Time Week Concert I – Monday, July 18

• Old-Time Week Concert II – Wednesday, July 20

• Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert I – Monday, August 1

• Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert II – Tuesday, August 2

• Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert III – Wednesday, August 3

The campus of Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa serves as the home for the college’s program in continuing education, the Swannanoa Gathering, a series of week-long workshops in the folk arts, celebrating its 25th Anniversary this summer. The program draws students from as far away as Japan, Australia, France and Hong Kong to take classes in everything from fiddle to clogging to storytelling. Some of our programs feature public concerts by staff members in the College’s Kittredge Theatre.

All shows begin at 7:30 pm in the college’s Kittredge Theatre. Tickets are $20 per concert (during Old- Time Week, ticket price includes dances following concerts). Children under 12 are $10. Limited tickets are available in Asheville at Malaprops Bookstore, 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 (college bookstore).

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 Co. 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- winning Riders in the Sky, Robin & 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 NC. The first concert features the great fiddlers Erynn Marshall and Brad Leftwich, singer and 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, August 1 is the first of three concerts combining the staffs of Fiddle Week with Mando & Banjo Week, featuring some of the world’s finest fiddle, mandolin and banjo players covering a variety of ethnic traditions. The first show 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 music from mandolinist Caterina Lichtenberg, Irish and Brazilian choro music from fiddler Andrew Finn Magill, the dazzling and eclectic multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven, bluegrass fiddler Matt Combs, and the innovative music of mandolinists John Reischman and Matt Flinner.

The Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert II on Tuesday, August 2 features Beausoleil’s Grammy- winning fiddler Michael Doucet, old-time duo Greg & 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, August 3, when Fiddle/Mando & Banjo Weeks Concert III will highlight an extraordinary lineup of great players featuring 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.

The Swannanoa Gathering Folk Arts Workshops run from July 3-August 6, 2016, at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, just east of Asheville, NC. Tuition is $525 per week. Housing and meals are available for $415 per week. Registration for each week is limited. For more information on the workshops and a free catalog, call or write: The Swannanoa Gathering, Warren Wilson College, PO Box 9000, Asheville, NC 28815-9000 (828) 298-3434, or 771-3761, or visit the Gathering’s website at www.swangathering.com.