Upcoming show to highlight mountain ballads, benefit Bobby McMillon

From White Horse Black Mountain:

Ballad Benefit for Bobby McMillon
Sunday, April 17, 7:30 p.m.- WNC Mountain Ballad Benefit for Bobby McMillon, with Shelia Kay Adams, Bobby McMillon, more. Appalachian music. $12 advance/$15 door

One hundred years ago British folksong collector Cecil Sharp and his assistant Maud Karpeles arrived in the mountains of North Carolina. What they found was a treasure trove of songs and ballads still in active oral tradition, woven into the fabric of the lives of the singers, in versions more complete and compelling than their counterparts in the British Isles. Their landmark collection brought Western North Carolina ballads and singers to worldwide attention and helped fuel the folksong revival. Some of the finest living carriers of the ballad tradition will gather at the White Horse Black Mountain on Sunday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. to celebrate the music and to benefit singer and storyteller Bobby McMillon. Joining in the round-robin ballad swap will be McMillon himself, queen of the mountain ballads Sheila Kay Adams, and other singers tied to Madison County’s Sodom Laurel community, including Joe Penland, Donna Ray Norton, Sam Gleaves and Marina Trivett.

Bobby McMillon heard the old ballads and tales from both sides of his family as a child and by age eighteen had become an important collector of regional songs, stories and lore. “Eventually”, he says, “I began to realize that if I didn’t perform the songs I was learning, most of the repertoires of the people I learned from would be lost because they didn’t have family members of their own to hand them down to.” He’s performed throughout the U.S. at local, regional and national events, and sang in the movie “Songcatcher”. In 2000 he became the youngest ever recipient of the North Carolina Heritage Award. McMillon has recently suffered financial setbacks as a result of heart surgery and an automobile accident, and in the mountain tradition of friends helping friends his extended community has responded with the White Horse gathering.

Sheila Kay Adams, one of Western North Carolina’s most respected traditional performers, is the product of seven generations of musicians and storytellers from the Sodom Laurel community of Madison County. She absorbed the ancient mountain ballads and stories and honed her signature clawhammer banjo style, becoming a much-loved ambassador of Appalachian culture. Adams has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship in 2013 from the National Endowment for the Arts. As a performer she has the rare talent of being in total professional command of her art while remaining completely authentic, and her stage presence makes listeners feel more like privileged listeners on a porch than concertgoers.

Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 advance/$15 door.
Advance tickets available online at: whitehorseblackmountain.com
Additional performer information online at:
sheilakayadams.com, blueridgeheritage.com/traditional-artist-directory/bobby-mcmillon