Concert: ARTISTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Venue: Memorial Hall on the University of Kentucky campus, Lexington, Kentucky

Time: 8 p.m., Saturday, November 20, 2010

Tickets: General Public $ 12. Students $5. Free Admission under 18. Reserved Seating.

Tickets go on sale October 20th at the UK Student Center Box Office - open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  (859) 257-8427.  
This concert will be interpreted in American Sign Language for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Sponsored by: UK John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), and Sierra Club-Bluegrass Group.
Media Sponsor:  WUKY-FM 91.3

Contact info: Ron Pen, Director, UK Niles Center for American Music 257-8183, ron.pen@uky.edu or Karen and Bev, Reel World String Band (859) 576-6178, reelworldstrings@aol.com

Special guest Wendell Berry will read at a concert that features musicians Carla Gover, Randy Wilson, Kentucky Wild Horse, the Reel World String Band, and storyteller Octavia Sexton. The musicians, along with storyteller Sexton, withdrew from the Alliance Coal sponsored stage at the World Equestrian Games. The performers chose not to participate at the WEG Kentucky Experience Pavilion, refusing to perform beneath a banner promoting “clean coal”. As Karen Jones, the fiddler of Reel World states, “this act of protest is just one event in a long journey shared by hundreds of Kentucky artists and activists who are at the forefront of a movement to fight mountaintop removal coal mining”. Like the recent MusicSavesMountains concert in Nashville, these artists will join together to celebrate the richness of our Appalachian culture while campaigning for energy efficiency and a sustainable future. It will be an Appalachian Stomp, with fiddles, banjos, stories, songs and some great energy.

Wendell Berry “ A Kentucky farmer and writer, and perhaps the great moral essayist of our day."--New York Review of Books. Wendell Berry was born in Henry County in 1934, and now lives with his wife Tanya on a farm in Port Royal, Kentucky. He is the most well-known and respected living writer in Kentucky today and his fame is not limited to Kentucky. As the Christian Science Monitor states: “Berry is the prophetic American voice of our day.” He is the author of more than 40 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry and the recipient of numerous literally awards and honors including an award from the National Institute and Academy of Arts and Letters and the T.S. Eliot Award. He has been a fellow of both the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. His books include most recently, Hannah Coulter, Given: Poems and Whitefoot. Wallace Stegner has written, "It is hard to say whether I like this writer better as a poet, an essayist, or a novelist. He is all three, at a high level." He is also a mentor to all those fighting mountaintop removal coal mining. His essays direct us and his appearances support those of us who are engaged in changing our energy dependence on coal.  

The Reel World String Band from Lexington, Kentucky, just reached their 33^rd anniversary. Revered as a Kentucky historical treasure in Kentucky Women: Two Centuries of Indomitable Spirit and Vision, E. Potter, the five members, Sue Massek, banjo; Karen Jones, fiddle; Bev Futrell, guitar; Sharon Ruble, bass; and Elise Melrood, piano, continue to kick up the dust in their spirited performances. As Lily May Ledford exclaimed, “those girls have got fire…” Their list of accomplishments, forever diverse, includes performances at the Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Folk Festival, a tour with the Osborne Brothers, and a tour through Italy. They support many progressive causes and yearly play at the Kentucky Sierra Club’s annual meeting. Their numerous CDs) include a compilation They’ll Never Keep Us Down: Women’s Coal Mining Songs, Rounder Records. Reel World collaborated with Hazel Dickens and Florence Reece (writer of Which Side Are You On) in this insightful look at the problems and issues of the Appalachian coalfields. Paul Jenkins in his article Getting Wise on Old-Time Music: the Reel World String Band, The Old-Time Herald, 2003, states that “the diverse talents and interest of its members have helped establish the Reel World String Band as one of the top old-time bands in an area of the country already well stocked in that commodity.”

www.reelworldstringband.com

Carla Gover, an east Kentuckian, now living in Lexington, Kentucky, is a singer, award winning songwriter, and dancer. She brings lively energy and a variety of musical styles to the stage. Her original songs range from misty, traditional sounding ballads accompanied by banjo to up-tempo pop-influenced songs with a groove. A first-place winner at MerleFest's Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Award, her songwriting is well-established. Her latest CD release, Gypsy Ways reflects her trio with acoustic bassist Daphne Fields and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Diane Timmons. "There are lots of musicians out there claiming to be 'authentic', but Carla Gover is more than that: she’s the real thang. Born and raised in Eastern Kentucky, she was exposed to all the ingredients that go into making a true Appalachian musician of the first order." Silas House. www.carlagover.com

Kentucky Wild Horse takes its name from an old eastern Kentucky fiddle tune played by Wolfe County fiddler Darley Fulks (1895-1990) who possessed a vast repertoire of pre-Civil War tunes. The band states: “Kentucky music from the 19^th century down to the present, especially its fiddle and banjo traditions, has been our love and our inspiration”. A sense of place forms their music, whether old-time or bluegrass. The band includes multi-instrumentalists John Harrod, Jim Webb, Don Rogers (also of the New Kentucky String Ticklers), Jesse Wells (teacher at Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University and performs with Clack Mountain String Band), bassist Roddy Puckett, and fiddler Paul David Smith (Rounder Records Devil Eat the Groundhog). John Harrod has documented and performed traditional music for decades having co-produced field recordings of Kentucky fiddlers for Rounder Records. In 2004, John was the recipient of the 2004 Folk Heritage Award. The band explains their belief in local music: “The best songs are an expression of the place we live in, the people who are fighting to survive, and those who are working to keep our culture meaningful and strong for the next generation. They’re going to need it”. www.kentuckywildhorse.com

Octavia Sexton is a storyteller from Orlando, Rockcastle County, Kentucky. She grew up in the Appalachian tradition of storytelling and her stories are rooted in the fascinating history of her family. Her Kentucky ancestors migrated from England and Ireland bringing their stories with them and her great grandmothers (maternal and paternal) were Cherokee storytellers from North Carolina. These two distinct cultures meld in Octavia’s storytelling. The legends, tales and superstitions are recorded in her CDs titled Jack Tales, Volumes 1 and 2. She also collaborated with Angelyn Debord in a CD titled Not So Foolish, humorous tales. As author Loyal Jones exclaims: “Appalachian dialect and love for her beloved Kentucky Mountains are the magic that brings her stories to life. She is one of our few, true folk artists and her performances are authentic representations of the tradition from which she comes.” www.octaviasexton.com

Randy Wilson from Big Creek, Kentucky, is a native of the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Grandson of one of the last frontier families, Wilson brings the values of this culturally rich region alive in song, story and dance. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing the Celtic drum, penny whistle, concertina, mountain style banjo, guitar, dulcimer and autoharp. He has recorded several CD’s of original and traditional songs and collaborated with Kentucky poet laureate James Still in an arrangement of song and poetry. As Still pointed out, it’s "hard nowadays to find a genuine Appalachian singer of superior talent untouched, untainted, and unspoiled by media, stage and screen. Randy Wilson is the one." For two decades he has been an artist-in-residence in the schools. Mike Mullins, director of the Hindman Settlement School states that Wilson has an “almost magical ability to get kids involved.” Collaborations with students have included books, recordings, videos, herbal remedies, folk dances, and old mountain recipes. He performs in his native state and at music and storytelling festivals including the Great American Dulcimer Festival, University of Rome in Italy, Kentucky Folklife Festival, and the Smithsonian Appalachian Festival on the mall in Washington, DC.