The Front Porch teams with Appalachian State University professor and folklorist Cece Conway to explore West African influences and instruments through the folk akonting and the griot ngoni, which can be traced to the modern banjo. The Black and Global Roots Music Project will also feature Piedmont blues performed by Jeffrey Scott, whose mastery is carried forward from his legendary uncle, John Jackson, who handed over the torch before his death. “He said I’ve got to take the blues,” Scott told the Washington Times. “He said that it was just like being in a relay race. You have to take the blues and pass it on to someone else before you go.” Duos Seth Swingle and Fiona Balestrieri as well as Jake Blount and Tatiana Hargreaves will also perform.
Related stories
Rooted in the past
By Thomas Crone Willi Carlisle has a healthy respect for the past, modeling his career, in part, on the folksingers of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s—people who traveled a self-made circuit of coffeehouses, clubs, and theaters that catered to a hip set. Pete Seeger, in particular, is someone who Carlisle feels kinship toward, though he […]
Set in stone
By Stephen Barling Crouched in the back of his battered Ford pickup truck at Ix Art Park, Toru Oba is wrestling a worn yellow strap around a 5-foot-long, 400-pound hunk of raw sandstone. “I used to move these by myself,” he says, “but now I need help.” The 79-year-old Japanese stonemason and sculptor can be […]
Charlottesville Ballet presents ‘Snow White’
Magically merging the elements of orchestral arrangement, incredible costuming and stagecraft, and an ensemble of unforgettable characters, Charlottesville Ballet presents Snow White. This Family Series ballet, based on the beloved Grimms’ fairy tale, brings youth and adult dancers together to tell the classic story of jealousy, love, and friendship. Witness a beautiful princess strike up […]
