Please remember to join us THIS SATURDAY from 6pm-8pm for our last concert of the summer in the Main Street Nature Park! Bring a picnic, blanket and chairs and enjoy this wonderful family-friendly evening hosted by the Town of Weaverville!
We’re pleased to have Roger Howell and Friends perform for us and know you will have a great time!
Information about our musicians:
Roger Howell (Fiddle and Banjo) – For almost all of his 70 years Roger Howell has resided on Banjo Branch, on the slopes of Bailey Mountain, near Mars Hill in Madison County. It was on Banjo Branch, in early childhood, that he first grew to love the music of his native county. He later picked up his urge to play string music from several neighborhood families who played guitar, banjo and fiddle, and also from the early TV shows of Flatt & Scruggs, Porter Wagoner, and The Stoneman Family. He has since won a great many awards, including first place in fiddle (many times) at such festivals as Fiddlers Grove, the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, and the North Carolina Mountain State Fair, and first place in banjo at the Georgia Mountain Fair. He appears on many recordings, including Blue Ridge Mountain Music, Volume I, which has been sold in gift shops along the Blue Ridge Parkway for nearly three decades, thus dispersing thousands of copies all around the world. Howell has also produced several of his own recordings, including the best-selling Hills & Heroes in 2003, and is highly sought-after in the studio, appearing on over 30 recordings over the years. Howell has played in bands with other great musicians of the North Carolina mountains, as the fiddler for the Carroll Best String Band, and as a founding member of the award-winning Carolina Old-Timers String Band and Bailey Mountain Ramblers. These days he can be found playing with his many friends at area festivals, and at the popular weekly Bluegrass Jam at Zuma Coffee in Marshall with legendary fiddler and friend Bobby Hicks.
Jerry Sutton (Guitar) – Widely respected as a musician, Jerry Sutton is in the middle generation of a multigenerational family of musicians. He is the son of the late fiddler Grover Sutton, and the father of Leesa Sutton Brandon and Grammy Award-winning guitarist Bryan Sutton. Family and friends alike cite him as an important musical mentor. He says, “I learned [back-up guitar playing] from my dad and other local fiddlers at jam sessions,” beginning in the late 1950s. He grew to be an accomplished flatpicker in lead and solo roles as well, and also sings and plays banjo and bass. Among the many awards he has won are first place in guitar at the North Carolina Mountain State Fair, second place in guitar at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, and first place in bass at Fiddler’s Grove. Jerry Sutton can be heard on recordings with his father, Grover Sutton, with the Hominy Valley String Band and the Pisgah Pickers, as well as with his son Bryan on Sugar Hill Records.
Cathy Arrowood (Upright Bass) – From Marshall, Cathy plays with several groups in the Asheville area year round.