| Date: | May 13, 2016 |
| Time: | 6:00 - 8:00 PM |
| Venue: | Hethwood Market |
| Organizations: | American Roots |
| Description: |
Hethwood Market presents their 2016 Music at Hethwood Market Summer Series featuring American Roots on Friday, May 13, 2016 from 6-8 pm. American Roots is a Blacksburg-based acoustic guitar and vocal harmony duo performing roots and Americana music penned between about 1900 and 1950. Fred and Jon Benfield took the name “American Roots” because it describes the music they have enjoyed performing together in the five-county area over the last 30 or so years. The father and son guitar duo's musical influences are many and varied as are their shows which could be characterized as Americana Music: “Carter Family to Gershwin”. They are "Crooked Road Artists” interested in preserving the music of the southern Appalachians, but also enjoy performing tunes from other genres. Fred and Jon have spent most of their lives in and around the southern Appalachians and have developed an affection for the broad scope of music appreciated by folks in the region. Their performance may include traditional ballads, Appalachian blues, Piedmont blues, trad-country, trad-jazz, western swing, early country, tin-pan alley toe tappers, swing tunes, hot fiddle tunes (on guitar), and “folkgrass”. They’ve performed at venues all around the region including the Floyd Country Store, Blacksburg’s Steppin’ Out festival and Shawsville's Beans and Banjos. An retired ecology professor at Virginia Tech, Fred Benfield told a writer for Virginia Tech’s website, “My favorite part of performing is the communication that occurs between us during gigs. We’ve played together for so long that we just somehow know where the other is going on tunes without saying anything or even looking at each other.” Link: https://www.facebook.com/American-Roots-260081600850582/ Admission is free. Hethwood Market is located at 820 Heather Drive in Blacksburg, VA. For more information, visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hethwood-Market/162169960817 or call: 540-951-0990. |