Friday 2/14, Fry’s Spring Beach Club
Got any clothing in your wardrobe with musical notes on it? How about a handkerchief you like wearing around your neck? A partner who loves to try new things? No plans for Valentine’s Day? If you’ve answered yes to any or all of the above, this event could be your perfect night.
Apparently, a growing interest in country-western two-step dance in central Virginia has served as the impetus for a Valentine’s Day bonanza at Fry’s Spring Beach Club. While most concert calendars in our neck of the woods stay hot for alt-country, jam bands, and retro ’80s parties, this one promises to dip back in romanticization of a time and place long gone: the honky-tonkin’, big hat-wearin’ 1950s community center.
Fry’s Spring Beach Club hosts weekly folk waltz lessons for beginners on Wednesdays, and its spacious, woodsy ballroom is ready for whatever shuffle-induced scuff marks might besmirch its fine floors by both the young and shameless and nostalgic and mature alike.
To help the Valentine’s dancers along, Charlottesville’s Charlie Davis of honky-tonk traditionalists Charlie & the 45s opens the evening with two-step lessons. (One imagines the 30 minutes reserved for public education means that executing the choreography will require less skill than tango or breaking—let’s hope so for the sake of limbs and joints.)
Headlining the dance party is Nashville singer Eliza Thorn, a smoky-voiced, blues-leaning country artist who dropped her debut record Somebody New last September. An acoustic guitar strummer who harkens back to another age—a pre-electronic music one where instrumentation and actual talent mattered a hell of a lot more than they do in the 21st century—Thorn’s well-crafted country tunes may come across as mimicry to those in the business of sniffing out authenticity. But honestly, who couldn’t raise the same questions about classical, punk, or even synth-driven pop that’s newly written and performed in 2025?
Thorn shares the stage with C’ville’s Ramona & the Holy Smokes, another act keeping the past alive with a commitment to musical stylings perfected years ago. You can’t blame the musicians for trying to meet market demands, and you shouldn’t guilt those looking to bust some really unhip moves, so whatever increasing desire for old-school country dancing is out there, this sweetheart of an evening ought to serve up enough serious boot-scootin’ to satisfy the enthusiasts among us.
