Keep on the Grass
Jones House Concerts on the Lawn return June 5
By Frank Ruggiero

Summertime is around the corner, and the Jones House is welcoming it with open doors and a neatly mowed lawn.

The 17th annual Concerts on the Lawn series returns to the Jones House Community Center in downtown Boone on June 5, offering free concerts every Friday throughout the entire summer.

Featuring artists with roots in Watauga and surrounding counties, the series is a staple of summer in Boone, and come 5 p.m. each Friday, music-lovers of all ages fill the Jones House lawn for a couple hours of music at its purest.

This year’s series starts on June 5 with performances by The Lazybirds and Crys Matthews, to conclude Sept. 18 with an evening of barbershop quartets, featuring the Mountain Aires and more.

“We’ve got lots of annual favorites coming back, folks like Amantha Mill, The Lazybirds, Southern Accent, the Sheets Family, Echo Park – some of those groups have been doing this for quite a while,” said Mark Freed, folklorist with the Watauga Arts Council (WAC), “along with several people who’ve never done it before.”

One newcomer is Holly Jones (formerly Furman), a Boone native who now sings out of Nashville, Tenn. Jones will bring her distinctive voice to the Jones House porch with Andy Hackbarth on June 12.

Also joining the fun are Michael Reno Harrell on June 19, local bluegrass outfit Upright & Breathin’ and the Whitetop Mountaineers, a spinoff of the White Top Mountain Band.

The 2009 series also features a couple of themed evenings, the first being Aug. 21, when the Jones House will host an Evening of Watauga Women Songwriters, featuring Crys Matthews, Becca Eggers-Gryder, Deborah Jean Sheets, Monica Woodard, Lisa Baldwin, Ruth Smith, Susan Pepper and Renee Blacken, among others.

“This show will be highlighting some of the outstanding musical women in the High Country,” Freed said.

On Sept. 4, the series presents the Downtown Boone Bluegrass Bonanza, featuring Southern Accent, Sigmon Stringers, Bluegrass 1101, Diana and Sarvis Ridge and Leftover Bluegrass.

Freed hopes downtown Boone’s music venues will also take part, hosting bluegrass bands of their own “for a bluegrass blowout in all in downtown Boone.”

All concerts are sponsored by Mast General Store, the Downtown Boone Development Association and Alpine Storage, though the WAC is offering businesses the opportunity to sponsor individual concerts. The $250 single-concert sponsorship includes WAC publicity, shout-outs from the stage, reserved seats and an information display at the concert.

“Plus, people think it’s fun to pick their favorite bands and sponsor them,” Freed said.

The series started in 1992, when Watauga Arts Council executive director Cherry Johnson first joined the organization. Johnson recalls when she and storyteller Diane Hackworth were admiring the Jones House lawn one afternoon, and thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we put performers on the porch and people could bring their lawn chairs and watch?”

Johnson called some local musicians, all of whom donated their time for the concerts. Interest was sparked, and attendance gradually grew. “We thought it was cool to have 30 people show up,” Johnson said, noting that crowds now number 300.

The next summer, more performers signed up for Concerts on the Lawn, and by the third, Johnson said it was only reasonable that the council start paying the artists. Mast General Store came aboard as the series’ first sponsor.

“Through trial and error, we figured out you don’t do concerts in October and don’t cancel because of rain,” Johnson said.

Johnson and company learned a few other things along the way, too. For instance, she said, rain typically comes from the west; umbrellas fastened to speakers can work; sound can sometimes carry all the way across town past Stadium Drive; and the music is infectious, with folks on King Street taking pause to lean against a windowsill and tap their feet.

And the concerts are for everybody, she said, from old to young, “and they’re so laid back. People can arrive late, leave early, meet their friends for dinner, whatever they please.”

“I think it’s one of the biggest successes we’ve ever done here,” she added.

Concerts start every Friday at 5 p.m. and usually last until 7 p.m. The Jones House Jams will also continue throughout the summer, held every Thursday from 7:30 to 11 p.m.

For more information or to sponsor a concert, call the Watauga Arts Council at (828) 264-1789 or visit www.watauga-arts.org.

Schedule

June 5 – Blues, country, rags and soul with The Lazybirds & Crys Matthews
June 12 – Bluegrass, country and folk duets with The Journeymen & Andy Hackbarth and Holly Jones
June 19 – Evening of songwriters with Michael Reno Harrell & Rod Farthing
June 26 – Blues and electric Americana with King Bees Duo & Possum Jenkins
July 3 – Bluegrass and old-time fiddling with Surefire & Meade Richter
July 10 – Classic and original rock with Echo Park & Melissa Reaves
July 17 – Jazz, country and blues with The Harris Brothers & Swing Guitars
July 24 – Southwestern and local old-time with North Valley Tune Tanglers & The Sheets Family
July 31 – Hammered and mountain dulcimer music with Steve and Ruth & Deeper Roots
Aug. 7 – Bluegrass string bands with Amantha Mill & Upright & Breathin’
Aug. 14 – Bluegrass and folk duets with Lisa Baldwin and Dave Haney & Buck and Nelson
Aug. 21 – Evening of Watauga Women Songwriters with Crys Matthews, Becca Eggers-Gryder, Deborah Jean Sheets, Monica Woodard, Lisa Baldwin, Ruth Smith, Susan Pepper, Renee Blacken and more
Aug. 28 – Bluegrass and old-time string bands with The Dollar Brothers & Elkville String Band
Sept. 4 – Downtown Boone Bluegrass Bonanza with Southern Accent, Sigmon Stringers, Bluegrass 1101, Diana and Sarvis Ridge & Leftover Bluegrass
Sept. 11 – Old-time duet and bluegrass band with Whitetop Mountaineers & Lost Ridge Band
Sept. 18 – An evening of barbershop quartets with Mountain Aires and more

Summer Music Lessons

The Jones House is a musical house. In addition to its Concerts on the Lawn series, the Watauga Arts Council will offer group music lessons in fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, autoharp, dance and singing.

Now in their third year, the lessons feature such respected instructors as multi-instrumentalist Martha Spencer from the Whitetop Mountaineers, fiddler Cecil Gurganus and fiddler John Cockman of The Cockman Family.

Freed said the lessons are ideal for anyone from beginner to intermediate, “and even for those people who’ve played a little but are not comfortable enough to go out and jam. This will be a nice time for them to grow over the summer.”

Two five-week sessions will take place between June and August, with each session costing $50. Instruments can be rented for that time period for $10.

Lessons will be held on Thursdays at the Jones House at 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Both kids and adults are welcome to participate. For more information, visit www.watauga-arts.org or call Mark Freed at (828) 264-1789.