News Archive

Rich, Old Time, Mountain Music on the Square

JONESBOROUGH – Doug and Telisha Williams and The Whitetop Mountain Band will be playing Music on the Square Friday June 27 at 7 p.m. in downtown Jonesborough.

Telisha Williams' crystal-clear voice floats like a butterfly on a mountain breeze or thunders like a freight train coming down the track. Doug Williams' guitar playing provides a perfect foundation for either. Telisha and Doug met while in their high school marching band and there hasn't been a time since then that they haven't been playing music together. Married and living in southwest Virginia, they tour constantly around the South and up into the North. With their open, inviting personalities and intriguing stage presence, the duo is quickly growing their fan base. First timers at their live shows feel like old friends and part of the family after just a song or two.

The Whitetop Mountain Band is a family-based band from the highest mountains of Whitetop, Virginia, an area rich in the old time, mountain music tradition. Band members are legendary musicians and teachers of the Whitetop region's style of old time fiddling and banjo picking. However, at the same time, Whitetop Mountain Band shows are very versatile and entertaining containing everything from fiddle/banjo instrumentals to powerful solos and harmony vocals on blues, classic country, honky tonk, traditional bluegrass numbers, old timey ballads, originals and four part mountain gospel songs. The band is well known for its high energy and charisma on stage and shows are known to include flat foot dancing. Being one of the most popular dance bands of the Appalachian Mountains, Whitetop Mountain has a great following at square dances all over Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.

The band features Thornton Spencer on fiddle and Emily Spencer on banjo and vocals. Their daughter Martha Spencer, plays with the band as well. She is a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass, vocals) and dancer. She has taken part in many Master flatfoot dancing workshops and performances. Jackson Cunningham plays mandolin, guitar, clawhammer banjo, harmonica and provides vocals. Spencer Pennington plays guitar and sings. Debbie Bramer plays bass and dances in the band. Debbie has been a member of several clogging teams and been active in many dance workshops and competitions.

For more information, call the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 423-753-1010.

Folk-Silly Songs, Storytelling & Old Time Harmony

JONESBOROUGH – Music on the Square features folk-silly singing with Jill Smith, storytelling in song with Joseph Sobel and old time harmony singing with Polecat Creek Friday June 20 at 7 p.m. in downtown Jonesborough.

"Folk-silly" is a term Jill Smith coined back in 2000, which was the first time she sang at Music on the Square. Jill says she uses the term because many of her songs combine the conventional folk style with amusing topics or humorous perspectives. "I usually introduce myself as folk-silly,"she says, "although sometimes I say I am a cross between Joni Mitchell and Phoebe from 'Friends'. I often get identified by others as 'quirky' and that works for me, too." Jill has been singing and playing guitar on and off for years in a variety of venues including coffee houses, retreats and music festivals. She has played at MOTS several times in the past. "The last time I played was on my birthday five years ago," she says. "I jokingly said that I would play again the next time my birthday fell on a Friday night. Steve [MOTS director] remembered and that's why I'm here this year."

Storyteller, musician, folklorist and author, Joseph Sobol, is an artist of wide-ranging accomplishments. An artist-in-residence for many years in North and South Carolina, he received a Masters in Folklore from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. He has toured the country with his award-winning musical theatre piece In the Deep Heart's Core based on the works of Irish poet W. B. Yeats. His book on the American storytelling revival, The Storytellers' Journey, was published in 1999. In addition he has released a cassette and three CDs of music and stories, alone and with his group Kiltartan Road. His most recent recording, Citternalia: Celtic Music for Cittern, was honored with a "Homegrown CD Award" by Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which called the album "a watershed project--dazzling speed and precision." After 11 years in Chicago doing folklore residencies with high school multilingual programs and performing regularly with some of America's top Irish traditional musicians, he is proud to have been named Director of the Graduate Program in Storytelling at East Tennessee State University.

Polecat Creek started small, much like the piedmont North Carolina stream that bears its name. In the mid 1990s Kari Sickenberger and Laurelyn Dossett, both natives of the south, were living in the Greensboro area. Through some mutual friends they ended up in a book club together. A guitar standing in the corner of Kari's apartment led to an evening of harmony singing that has never stopped. The duo started writing their own songs and eventually formed the roots duo known as Polecat Creek.

Polecat Creek has featured many fine musicians over the years. Sugar Hill recording artist and veteran old-time banjo, guitar and fiddle player Riley Baugus joined the group in early 2001 after sitting in at a local gig. He added the distinctive old-time sound which is characteristic of Polecat Creek recordings and he joins the group frequently for concerts. The most recent addition, fiddler Natalya Weinstein, joined after coming south to Asheville and moving in next door to Kari. Natalya adds her heartbreaking fiddle to current shows. Perhaps being best known for harmony singing, this band has played festivals that include Merlefest, Birmingham's City Stages, First Night Raleigh, Floydfest and Shakori Hills.

For more information, call the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 423-753-1010.

Mix of Music on the Square

JONESBOROUGH – Adam Larkey and his bluegrass band Mountain Time and the inspirational MJ BECKS Band will be the featured entertainment during Music on the Square in downtown Jonesborough Friday June 6 at 7 p.m.

At the ripe old age of six, Adam Larkey decided he wanted to play the fiddle. After taking lessons, Adam's dad, Eric Larkey, being a bluegrass musician himself, started letting Adam play a few songs on stage with his band. From there, the young fiddle player took off. Adam has appeared at numerous local venues and on WCYB's Family Focus, CMT, BCMA's Pickin Porch and at the Carter Family Fold. Now at 10-years-old he plays old time and bluegrass fiddle music as someone decades his senior. Adam's band, Mountain Time, includes his dad Eric on doghouse bass and guitar; Joe Honeycutt on mandolin; Jason Duncan on bass and Josh Hamm on banjo.

The MJ BECKS Band is a group of nine Johnson City-based musicians/professionals that formed to offer fun, positive and inspiring dance music primarily from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Highlighting music from the Eagles, Santana, Chicago, The Beatles, Motown, Country and Contemporary Christian music, The BECKS' passion is to move you to your feet and to another place in time.

For more information, call the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 423-753-1010 or click www.musiconthesquare.com.