Wednesday, July 4
Mainstage Show, 1:30 pm
McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved-Seating Tickets: $16 ($5 for children 18 or under)
• Mac and Jenny Traynham: (Songs and Tunes from the Southern Mountains)
• Nightingale: (New England Contra Dance Music)
• The Carolina Chocolate Drops with Joe Thompson (Southern Stringband)
• April Verch (Canadian Fiddling)

Mac Traynham plays clawhammer banjo. He was particularly influenced by Floyd County legends Denton Wimmer banjo and Ivan Weddle fiddle. Traynham excels on a slew of instruments including banjo, fiddle and guitar, and he often performs in a band with wife, Jenny. His new CD, I’m Going That Way, is on Copper Creek Records.

Guitarist Jenny Traynham’s beautiful singing has brought cheer to countless hearts. Jenny and her husband Mac have become a popular duo, known as the Southern Mountain Melody Makers, and have cut two albums, When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland, and The Sweetest Way Home.

Nightingale
Accordionist and pianist Jeremiah McLane’s second solo recording, Smile When You’re Ready, was nominated by National Public Radio in their “favorite picks” of 1996. His musical contributions can be heard on over thirty-five albums.

Keith Murphy is a native of Newfoundland, a setting which has been the source for many of his songs over the years. He is well known for his Irish style of guitar playing as well as for his expertise on mandolin and piano.

Becky Tracy studied Irish fiddling styles with Brendan Mulvihill and Eugene O’Donnel and French Canadian fiddling with Lisa Ornstein. All these elements combined to give Becky her distinctive clarity of tone.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops
Dom Flemons, who engages audiences from the green Carolinas to the ruddy Southwest, has thoroughly  immersed himself in the traditional sounds of yesteryear. As a part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Flemons uses his harmonicas for additional melody; his jug and guitar root the band in an infectious rhythm.

A product of the Carolina piedmont, Rhiannon Giddens fell into contra dancing and became inspired by the Roundpeak-style Old Time bands she heard at the dances; she worked extra jobs to buy her first banjo and fiddle, and hasn’t looked back since.

Justin Robinson is the fiddler for the Carolina Chocolate Drops. He played classical violin growing up and met the legendary Joe Thompson, as well as the other members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, at the Black Banjo Gathering. He is interested specifically in the Piedmont music of North and South Carolina.

For decades, Joe Thompson has upheld and represented the tradition of African-American country fiddling. Thompson is a dynamic fiddler with a distinctive short bow action that brings to life old square dance tunes. Recently, he has played with and mentored the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the torchbearers for future stringband traditions. 

April Verch is an energetic fiddler with the depth of a repertoire that ranges through material from Americana to simple country songs, and rollicking tunes from her native Ottawa Valley. She released Verchuosity, her first CD, in 2000, and has released several CDs since. She will be accompanied at the Festival by percussionist Marc Bru and guitarist Isaac Callender.

Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 or on our secure online Acteva site.