Saturday, October 6 will be harvest day at Brinegar Cabin from 10 am to 4 pm. Autumn is the time to finish harvesting the crops and put the garden to bed for the winter. Come enjoy apple butter making and other food preservation skills, a Belgian work horse plowing the garden under, and other activities that the early mountain settlers had to accomplish before the harsh winter weather set in. Brinegar Cabin is located at milepost 238 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, near the Sparta, NC exit.
There will be a Fall Heritage Music Series on three successive Sundays afternoons in October at the Blue Ridge Music Center. On Sunday October 7th, at 2pm the Blue Ridge Music Center will kick off this indoor series with a tribute to the influential husband/wife singing duo, E.C. and Orna Ball.
The Balls never matched groups like the Carter Family in popularity, but nonetheless made a significant, though quieter, contribution to the development of old-time music and gospel. Unlike the Carters, the Balls seldom ventured far from their home of Rugby on the Virginia-North Carolina border where they owned a general store and service station. At age 12, E.C. Ball (1913-1978) learned to play fingerstyle guitar and joined the Rugby Gully Jumpers. Ball met collector/historian, Alan Lomax, at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention which led to a recording session in 1941 and more recordings after that for Rounder Records and others. Steve Gardner wrote in Music Hound Folk that “E.C. & Orna Ball are one of the great singing duos of old-time and traditional music.”
Participating musicians in the E.C. & Orna Ball Tribute will be Wayne Henderson of Rugby, VA, Randy and Deborah-Jean Sheets from Vilas, NC and Mac & Jenny Traynham from Willis, VA. Fine fingerstyle guitar tunes and beautiful duet singing will be heard! Wayne Henderson will also be performing on the late E.C. Ball’s guitar.
The E.C. and Orna Ball Tribute takes place Sunday, October 7th at 2pm, the first of three in a series. These Fall Heritage Series events are held in the Blue Ridge Music Center indoor theater. Since seating is limited, reservations are recommended. For info or to reserve seats please call (276) 236-5309 x112 or www.BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org. The Blue Ridge Music Center, featuring an interactive exhibit, “The Roots of American Music”, hiking trails, gift shop, Parkway maps and guides, is located at milepost 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is open 7 days a week 9am-5pm through October 28th with Mid-Day Mountain Music presentations 12-4pm daily.
The Fall Heritage Series performance-talks are made possible with support from Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The final two in the series:
Sunday, October 14, 2:00 pm:
Event Songs & Ballads: Kinney Rorrer, Darren Moore, Elizabeth LaPrelle, Jim Marshall. Free.
Sunday October 21, 2:00 pm:
Tribute to Galax Fiddler, Emmett Lundy: T.J. Lundy, Richard Smith, Snake Smith, and Kirk Sutphin. Free.
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