The concert season has returned to The Blue Ridge Music Center and will begin with this week’s annual Friday night concert that is set to welcome The Wayne Henderson Festival to the area. Next week (Saturday night June 23rd) the center welcomes noted Bluegrass-gospel performers Joe Mullins and The Radio Ramblers as well as The Snyder Family.
Hailing from Xenia, Ohio, Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers have an energetic mix of bluegrass, gospel music, a capella quartets and tasteful, down-home humor as well. The group has performed at The Ryman Theater, on Song of the Mountains for PBS and toured across North America (through 20 states) each year. Their newest album, Hymns from the Hills, is #15 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts; but more importantly, this groups sings their bluegrass and gospel songs from the heart.
Opening up the show will be The Snyder Family band from Lexington, NC featuring Samantha Snyder on fiddle, Zeb Snyder on guitar, and father Bud Snyder on bass. Samantha started playing music at three years old and Zeb at seven. Since that time they have recorded CDs and won numerous awards including a fiddle hand crafted by Luthier, Jimmy Edmonds and a guitar made by Wayne Henderson at the 2007 Jimmy Edmonds Homecoming. This year both Samantha (now 13) and Zeb (now 17) won first place ribbons in the 2011 bluegrass fiddle and guitar categories at The Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax.
The concert starts at 7pm, Saturday June 23 with seating opening at 5:30 pm. Tickets are $10 or $8 for students and seniors. Children 12 and under are free. For info call (276) 236-5309 x112. Tickets are available at The Galax Visitor Center, online at www.BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org and at the gate. Come early and enjoy the free new museum, the “Roots of American Music.” (Please bring lawn chairs and a picnic if you would like. Smokehouse BBQ will be available for purchase.) The Blue Ridge Music Center is located at milepost 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The summer-evening concert series occurs every weekend through mid-September in the outdoor amphitheater at the foot of beautiful Fisher Peak (only 10 miles from Galax).
