PRESS RELEASE:
Friday, December 4 – 8:00 p.m.- Sheila Kay Adams and the Scofflaws, Appalachian and Americana, $15 advance/$18 door
North Carolina’s reigning storytelling queen of the banjo, Sheila Kay Adams, joins with Americana songwriter/guitarist Dan Lewis and fiddler Branson Raines as The Scofflaws for an evening of musical mischief at the White Horse Black Mountain on Friday, December 4 at 8:00 p.m. The trio promises a show filled with Appalachian mountain music, ballads, fiddle tunes, stories, lies and “other mysteries of the universe revealed”. The backgrounds of the three musicians span 400 years of tradition, from Elizabethan ballads to honky-tonk, so musical curveballs are a certainty.
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 to become a well-loved ambassador of Appalachian culture. Adams has been the recipient of many awards, including a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship in 2013 from the National Endowment for the Arts.
A 40-year veteran of the music business, Dan Lewis writes songs steeped in the old-time, folk and bluegrass music of his Blue Ridge Mountains upbringing. He was instrumental in organizing early Belle Chere festivals among many other musical events, and operates a studio that specializes in restoring older recordings. His 12 CDs of original music feature everything from acoustic guitar to synthesizers, but his work with The Scofflaws spotlights the down-home Americana side of his musical personality.
Branson Raines picked up the violin in elementary school, but the example of his fiddler grandfather, Ray Barry, inspired him to investigate country and bluegrass fiddle styles. Studying under Madison County fiddle legend Arvil Freeman and playing the fabled sessions at Mrs. Hyatt’s Music House in Asheville, he emerged as a player fluent in many styles, and has added eleven different instruments to his stable. In April of 2014 he began to learn unaccompanied ballads and clawhammer banjo with Sheila Kay Adams, and the circle was complete.
Together, The Scofflaws put on a show that they describe as “So much fun it’s probably illegal!”Show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 advance/$18 door.
Advance tickets available online at
http://www.whitehorseblackmountain.com
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