Bluegrass Experience 36th Anniversary plus Tommy Edwards & friends Christmas CD release party

By Molly Matlock
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007

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Pittsboro, NC - Music fans will get a double dose of outstanding live bluegrass and traditional tunes from some of the areas best
practitioners on Friday November 16 at Fearrington Barn. The Bluegrass Experience will reunite with old friends for a rollicking 36th anniversary performance, and Tommy Edwards and Friends will celebrate the release of their new CD, "The Christmas Album." The double-feature concert sponsored by ChathamArts takes place at 7 p.m. in Fearrington Village on U.S. 15-501 midway between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro.

The Bluegrass Experience includes co-founders Tommy Edwards of Siler City (lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter) and innovative bassist "Snuffy" Smith of Pittsboro, as well as "Fiddlin' Al" McCanless of Moore County, whose name speaks for itself.
Joining them are mandolin master Michael "Precious" Aldridge (formerly of The Smokey Ridge Boys and The Bass Mountain Boys), and stellar banjoist Stan Brown, who spent years in Nashville where he performed on The Grand Ole Opry as a member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys and Wilma Lee Cooper's Clinch Mountain Clan. Brown was also a member of the house band at Nashville's most famous bluegrass venue, The Station Inn.

Also on hand will be former Bluegrass Experience members Leroy Savage and Keith Thomas. Savage, a "Newgrass" pioneer who was with the Bluegrass Experience from 1978 to 1981, is known for his amazing tenor voice and his interpretation of Bob Dylan songs. Thomas, who was with the band for 18 years and still appears frequently with them, is adept at guitar, fiddle and mandolin and provides lead and harmony vocals.

The new Christmas CD of original and traditional tunes features Tommy Edwards and Friends, including several who will be on hand for this special concert: bassists LaNelle Davis, Robbie Link and Alice Zincone, and another master mandolin player Tony Williamson.

Get your tickets early; this concert sold out last year. Advance tickets: $13 public, $10 ChathamArts members; at the door: $15 public, $12 CA members. Tickets are available at Bluebirds and Hollyhocks in Fearrington Village; Beggars and Choosers, ChathamArts Gallery, and Red Gate Music, Art and Antiques in Pittsboro, and the N.C. Arts Incubator in Siler City. ChathamArts. www.chathamarts.org 542-0394.

The Bluegrass Experience was born in 1971, when Edwards and his buddies decided to get serious about their music. By 1972, the group won the World's Championship Bluegrass Band prize at the prestigious Union Grove North Carolina Fiddlers Convention. Edwards was twice named the champion bluegrass guitar player at Union Grove.

From then on, the group took off, playing at college campuses and music festivals throughout the southeast. Graying fans fondly recall seeing the band weekly at Cat's Cradle, the legendary Chapel Hill night spot, for nine years straight.

The band's instrumental virtuosity, vocal expertise, good humor, great stories and spirited performances have earned them an appreciation matched by few other string bands. They recently returned from the Appalachian and Bluegrass Festival at Omagh in Northern Ireland.

The Bluegrass Experience can be heard on four band albums as well as three compilations. Their recording "Respect for Tradition" was termed "stone-cold bluegrass" and a "genuine treasure" by the International Bluegrass Music Association newsletter.

Edwards has recorded two solo projects with the help of friends Bobby Hicks, Savage, Williamson and others. "The Christmas Letter" from Edwards' 2002 project "Good Company," was featured on Rebel Records' holiday album "Christmas in the Mountains" along with tunes by Ralph Stanley, Larry Sparks and The Country Gentlemen.

Edwards' "My Tears Spoiled My Aim," was selected for inclusion on the disc that accompanies the inaugural southern music issue of the academic quarterly Southern Cultures. The song was co-written by John Reed, the UNC professor emeritus and noted scholar of southern culture.

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ChathamArts, the nonprofit county arts council, presents and supports the arts in the community and the schools through its gallery in downtown Pittsboro and diverse cultural events throughout the year.

Co-sponsors: Realty World, Carolina Properties, Tyndall Tree Service, Collins and King CPA, Capital Bank, Fearrington Village and WLHC 103.1 FM.