Earth Day Concert to Benefit Forest Protection Groups

An Earth Day benefit concert will feature five-time Grammy nominee, folk singer John McCutcheon on Friday, April 22, 7 PM, at the old Ashland Theater, Ashland, VA. Joining him will be rising old-time musicians Campbell & Costa with Jim Lloyd.

McCutcheon travels the world and, according to an Australian paper, is “the most overwhelming folk performer in the English language.” His mastery of American folk music and instruments, complemented by “storytelling that has the richness of fine literature” (Washington Post). McCutcheon's songwriting, rich in detail and broad in scope, have created a catalog of hundreds of songs covered by performers throughout the world.

Campbell & Costa with Jim Lloyd have been featured on Public Radio’s Mountain Stage, at Charlottesville’s Prism Coffee House, the Southern Highlands Festival in Abingdon, and in Richmond’s Roots Concert. Its members teach the old music from Norfolk to Elkins, W.Va. and have produced 5 commercial tapes and CDs.

The concert is sponsored by Virginia Forest Watch, the Virginia Wilderness Committee and Richmond-based Falls of the James Group-Sierra Club. All three groups support better protection of the National Forest and the creation of more designated Wilderness Areas on them.

Virginia Forest Watch and the Sierra Club are also concerned with the pollution of Virginia's streams from bad logging practices on private lands. Virginia law does not require logging permits or that loggers follow environmentally sound logging practices that prevent sedimentation from entering public waterways. They are working with organizations and public officials across the state to enact legislation that will protect Virginia's natural resources.

The Virginia Wilderness Committee is dedicated to the preservation of Virginia's natural heritage through the permanent protection of outstanding wild areas on public land in Virginia.

General admission advance tickets $18 are available at Plan 9 stores and at the Ashland Music Center. Tickets at the door are $20. For more information call 804-798-9365.

Additional information on these groups may be found at: www.virginiaforestwatch.org - www.vawilderness.org - www.virginia.sierraclub.org/foj

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Musicians:


John McCutcheon

John McCutcheon wasn’t supposed to become a folksinger. He was headed for a lucrative career as a social worker in migrant labor camps. But Woody Guthrie got there first. He heard the songs of the Dust Bowl refugees, the Grapes of Wrath stories that crackled on the airwaves of early 1960s radio and knew something else was going on. While still a college student, the oldest of a large Irish Catholic family, John took up the banjo “to help keep myself sane” and went off the deep end. He heard recordings of Roscoe Holcomb and Clarence Ashley, walked out to the end of the college road, stuck out his thumb and never looked back.

He ended up roaming the Appalachians, trading a university classroom for the front porches, picket lines, union halls, churches, and square dance barns of his adopted home. Under the tutelage of some of the greats of traditional Southern music he quickly mastered seven different instruments, became an insightful and powerful singer of traditional songs, and honed an ear for a good story. Songwriting, storytelling, social activism all met and finally made sense.

Critics reserve their most lavish praise for McCutcheon’s mastery of the hammer dulcimer, an instrument on which he is widely recognized as a world master. He has pushed the bounds of the instrument, exposing it to country, rock, and jazz audiences. His recent successes showcasing the dulcimer in symphonic settings have brought this ancient instrument … the inspiration for the invention of the piano … full circle back to classical audiences.

Equally at home in the recording studio, John has produced over twenty-five albums in as many years. He has garnered an amazing five consecutive Grammy nominations, been awarded every imaginable award in the independent record industry, been featured on public radio throughout the world, and brought joy to millions of listeners from Seattle to Sydney. Additionally he has produced documentary and educational recordings, written for numerous publications, authored children’s books, chaired literacy campaigns, championed grassroots organizations throughout the world, promoted international musicians, and is even currently the president of the most innovative and fastest growing local in the musicians union.

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Campbell & Costa with Jim Lloyd

Mark Campbell (b.1953), of Richmond, Va., started to learn the guitar and banjo at the age of 10 while growing up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He soon became fascinated by the frailing style of old-time banjo. While in college in Charlottesville, he picked up the fiddle and has since devoted himself to unraveling the techniques of older regional styles. Mark has won the Virginia State Fair and West Virginia State Folk Festival fiddle titles as well as being a five time finalist and 2001champion at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia.

Jim Costa (b.1949), of Talcott, W.Va., is proficient on most traditional instruments and in southern West Virginia styles, but has become an expert in the free-form knocking and picking styles of Tennessee native Uncle Dave Macon. He has absorbed most of Uncle Dave’s songs as well as his enthusiasm for old and newer forms of music. Jim spends much of his time performing and teaching music, but his main interest is the preservation of eighteenth and nineteenth century forms of West Virginia culture by the collecting of tools, artifacts, construction techniques, and musical instruments.

Jim Lloyd (b.1965), Vice Mayor and barber of Rural Retreat Va., is a fourth generation musician of Southwest Virginia who continues to entertain and teach fans across this nation and abroad. He is one of the most sought after guitar accompanists and has won many awards at festivals on instruments ranging from autoharp to banjo. Jim’s music and storytelling has been documented by the Smithsonian Institution as well as several commercial labels. Lloyd’s Barber Shop has become an institution for swapping tunes, songs and stories which helps keep alive the culture of Virginia’s Southern Appalachian Highlands.


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