The free summer series Blue Ridge Traditions at the Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center in Old Fort wraps up with outstanding performances on Saturday, July 26, at 7 p.m. at the site’s outdoor amphitheater. Clarence Green and Wayne Martin will give their fiddle, guitar, harmonica and banjo a workout with bluegrass and old-time country music. The internationally known Krüger Brothers will astound you with their technical virtuosity on banjo, guitar and bass. The trio’s musical style defies strict classification, encompassing many genres of music, from classical European to traditional American.
Come early from 2 to 6 p.m. to complete your authentic mountain experience with craft and farming demonstrations and hands-on activities. Watch Floyd Sims demonstrate old-time agricultural techniques with his team of Halflinger horses, and Randy Vess will talk about farm tools and show off his 1915 hit-and-miss engine. Lesa Postell will highlight traditional techniques of food preservation, and Judy LaRoux will describe what life is like as an herbalist and organic farmer in Old Fort.
In addition, wood-carver Donald Duncan, broom makers Alton Blankenship and Gina Wheeler, and the Mountain Glory Quilters Guild will be on-site. Find out how a traditional broom is made, and make a quilt square with the quilting group.
More information about Blue Ridge Traditions is posted on ncarts.org/freeconcerts, or call Mountain Gateway Museum at 828-668-9259 for details.
Overview of July 26 Performers and Craftspeople
Clarence Green with Wayne Martin
Mitchell County native Clarence Green learned his first guitar chords from his father, “Fiddling” Clarence Green, an early pioneer of country music. The elder Green’s commercial recordings — such as “Careless Love,” “On the Banks of the Ohio” and “My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains” — are hailed as classics by devotees of traditional music and constitute some of the earliest documentation of these songs.
The younger Green first performed in public at age 13, when he and his father played a square dance at the Penland School of Crafts. He later joined his father’s band, the Toe River Valley Boys, as a guitar, mandolin, and banjo picker and singer. Green continued to perform with the band after his father’s death and brought an emphasis on bluegrass into the group’s repertoire.
“I play both old-time country music and bluegrass,” he explains. “But I just do it my own way.”
Green will be accompanied by Wayne Martin on fiddle, guitar and harmonica. Martin is senior program director for community arts development at the North Carolina Arts Council. He has produced numerous recordings of traditional North Carolina musicians, including Etta Baker, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and Joe and Odell Thompson. Martin and his wife, Margaret, perform old-time music with other musicians throughout the state.
The Krüger Brothers
Born and raised in Switzerland, banjo player Jens Krüger and guitarist Uwe Krüger have been performing professionally since 1973. After playing for over two decades throughout Europe, they invited bassist Joel Landsberg to join them, and the three musicians formed the acoustic trio known internationally as the Krüger Brothers. The trio’s performances are exciting, entertaining and spontaneous, reflecting their sheer joy of playing music. The Krüger Brothers’ musical style can only be described as new American music.
Floyd Sims – Halflinger Horses
Floyd Sims learned about farming as a child in Rutherford County. After retiring from a four-decade career as a truck driver, Sims returned to the farming practices that have been such an integral part of his life. He not only grows and mows hay on his property in Old Fort, but he demonstrates old-time agricultural techniques with wagons, plows and sleds, and with Jingles, Belles and Ella, his team of Halflinger horses.
“Halflingers are smaller than Belgiums,” Sims explains. “They’re easier to harness, and they’ve got an easier temperament. You can work them and ride them too.”
Randy Vess – Farm Tools and Hit-and-Miss Engine
While working as a factory representative for a small engine company, Old Fort native Randy Vess became interested in hit-and-miss engines and the evolution of farm technology. A demonstration by Vess features handheld corn shellers, a water pump and his 800-pound hit-and-miss engine manufactured by La Compagnie Desjardins in 1915.
“I like to get kids thinking about how much work went into farming. This was why these machines were invented. People often don’t comprehend the awesome amount of labor that goes into something as seemingly simple as shelling an ear of corn.”
Lesa Postell – Food Preservation
For Jackson County resident Lesa Postell, food preservation is a tradition that has been passed down through several generations of her family. “I grew up preserving food,” she states. “I learned it from family members. It was just a way of life.”
Postell’s book Appalachian Traditions: Mountain Ways of Canning, Pickling and Drying, published in 1999, introduced a new generation to the arts of canning, pickling, drying and curing. “That is my contribution to society — my effort to demonstrate how preservation was done in the old days and can still be done today,” she explains.
“There is all this talk now about living green,” she laughs. “But living green is nothing new. It’s actually very old.”
Judy LaRoux – Herbalist and Organic Farmer
Herbalist Judy LaRoux and her husband, Ken, have dedicated their lives to organic, sustainable farming practices on Paradise Acres, their rambling farm in Old Fort. LaRoux says that when she moved to McDowell County from southern California 15 years ago, she dreamed of “having a giant greenhouse, a nice garden and learning to keep bees.”
During the last five years, LaRoux has turned her dream into reality through the production of herbal balms, salves and tinctures; locust and sourwood honeys; and a cornucopia of organic fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. She is currently training as a naturepathic physician through Clayton College in Alabama. She explains, “I have a growing list of people buying my products. Once they try them and see how good they work, they keep coming back.”
Mountain Glory Quilters Guild
This group of enthusiastic quilters celebrates and promotes the quilting traditions of western North Carolina. All quilters are welcome to join, regardless of experience.
Members of the Mountain Glory Quilters Guild are active community members who donate quilts to children’s charities and programs. They view their craft demonstrations during Blue Ridge Traditions as a way to support and promote the rich heritage of hand quilting.
Donald Duncan – Wood-carver
This North Carolina native has been carving wood for more than 40 years. After his retirement, Donald Duncan began carving treenware, which he says comes from the old English word “treown,” which means “made of a tree.” Treenware refers to small utensils and wooden tableware that are functional in nature and most often are hand carved or made on a lathe.
For 18 years, Duncan has demonstrated his craft at the Village of Yesteryear at the N.C. State Fair. He fondly recalls the experience as “10 days of nonstop talking.” A member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, he carves spoons, ladles and letter knives from native wood that he gathers himself. His work is both decorative and functional.
Alton Blankenship – Broom Maker
Born in Rutherford County, Alton Blankenship first came to his craft out of necessity. “My father was a broom maker,” he recalls, “and he didn’t do it for any reason other than he needed something to barter with and something to sweep floors with. I became interested in making brooms out of necessity, and because my father did it.”
Blankenship returned to making brooms after his retirement, when he became inspired by the work of broom maker Ralph Gates. “I mentioned to Ralph that I could make brooms if I had the right supplies,” said Blankenship. “He had one stalk of broomcorn left, and he gave it to me and said, ‘Here’s enough to make a lot of brooms.’ That was more than 20 years ago.”
Asked about the most important aspects of his own brooms — which include whisk brooms, turkey wings, hearth brooms and kitchen brooms — Blankenship explains, “I want a broom to be sturdy and appealing to the eye.”
Gina Wheeler – Broom Maker
Barnardsville resident Gina Wheeler has always been surrounded by traditional crafts. Her mother is a gifted oil painter, and her husband, Michael, hails from a long line of chair makers.
It was during a chair-making demonstration at the Mountain State Fair in Asheville seven years ago that she met traditional broom maker Alton Blankenship. Says Wheeler’s husband, “After she met Alton, I didn’t see her for about a week. She got to watching him and fell in love with what he was making.” Wheeler assists Blankenship during his broom-making demonstrations, and the Wheelers grow their own broomcorn.
Blue Ridge Traditions is sponsored by Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Department of Cultural Resources and the North Carolina Folklife Institute. Additional support is provided by McDowell County Tourism Authority. The media sponsor is WNCW-FM 88.7.
The summer series is presented as part of “Telling Our Stories,” a yearlong celebration showcasing North Carolina’s arts, heritage and cultural life. “Telling Our Stories” is an initiative by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.
To reach Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center at 102 Water Street (the corner of Catawba and Water streets), take exit 73 off I-40, and go north four blocks. The museum is 23 miles east of Asheville and 50 miles west of Hickory.
Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center is part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, an agency of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. The department’s Web site is www.ncculture.com.