Will this Uncle Earl reunion bring new songs? “We’ll have rehearsal in Nashville before the tour starts … and it depends on how everyone feels,” fiddle player Rayna Gellert says. “My hope is that we’ll do some new stuff because it would fun for the audience, and fun for us.”
The Okeh Record sessions that took place in Asheville nearly 100 years ago. The New York-based label, in a bid to discover lesser-known Southern musicians, took trips to various locations where, with a portable studio, its engineers pressed wax test records. The Asheville session, held the last week of August in 1925, attracted musicians and vocalists from around the region, their styles ranging from jazz and minstrel offerings to gospel and country. A Friday, Aug. 28 concert and talk commemorates the recordings.
Local singer/songwriter/fiddler Rayna Gellert released a video for her song, “The Stars,” from the album “Old Light: Songs from my Childhood & Other Gone Worlds.”
Local fiddler Rayna Gellert has performed with Uncle Earl, Abigail Washburn and Toubab Krewe; she’s recorded with Sara Watkins, Loudon Wainwright III and John Paul Jones among others. Now she’s set to drop her solo debut album, “Old Light,” with a special pre-release party (including advance copies of the CD) at the Grey Eagle on Sept. 4. Photo by Jon Estes.
