Beans and Banjos with American Roots
Venue: Meadowbrook Center, Shawsville
Directions: Google Map Link
Organizations: American Roots, Fort Vause, LINC Letter
Date: Saturday, October 26, 2019
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Event Types: Music, Food, Family Friendly, Charity
Cost:
$5.00 donation requested

Description:
October’s Beans and Banjos will feature music from the father-and-son duo American Roots on Saturday, October 26, 2019 at Shawsville’s Meadowbrook Community Center.

Fort Vause will open the musical portion of the evening followed by American Roots.

In addition to the music, the evening will feature beans and cornbread and dessert. We'll also have LINC Letter cookbooks and The Best of Beans and Banjos, vol. 1 CDs you can take home for a small price.

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/

Fort Vause is a collection of musicians based in Montgomery County, VA that performs in a variety of configurations. Depending on how they divide up, the band can play bluegrass, old time, gospel, traditional country and even what some folks call folk music.

Fort Vause features George Smith, who played banjo in the Appalachian Music Masters concert series and on recordings with Jack Hinshelwood and Buddy Pendleton; Jeff Wilcke, a doctor of veterinary medicine and rhythm guitar who also plays mandolin; and the newest member of the band, virtuoso guitarist Steven Paul, who came to Fort Vause from a Gypsy jazz band and is front man for the electric alt-country band Electric Road. Tim Thornton, who slipped onto a Black Twig Pickers recording once, plays bass and sometimes other things.

Links:

• https://myspace.com/fortvause
• https://www.facebook.com/fortvause/

There's no admission fee, but the LINC Letter hopes everybody who attends will chip in at least a $5.00 donation to help the LINC Letter keep publishing on paper and on line.

As always, we operate on granny rules: no drinking, no smoking, no cussing, no spitting on the floor. Y’all come on out for supper. Stay to dance or sing along or just sit there and pat your foot.

LINC Letter is the non-profit community newsletter for Eastern Montgomery, and an affiliate of Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation. The LINC Letter is distributed to residents of Alleghany, Elliston, Ironto, Lafayette and Shawsville, Virginia.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/eastmont.lincletter

The Meadowbrook Community Center is located at 267 Alleghany Spring Road in Shawsville, VA.

For more information, visit: https://shawsvilleruritan.wordpress.com/.

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