A view of Lake Susan at the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina (Photo: Michael Kornfeld)
The official showcases take place Thursday-Saturday evenings from 7:15-10:30 p.m., with each artist/act performing a 15-minute set. In addition, the conference will include late-night guerilla showcases hosted by AcousticMusicScene.com and others from 10:40 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Also on the agenda are daytime informational seminars and workshops, a Wisdom of the Elders session, one-on-one mentoring, The SERFA Awards, two-dozen exhibitors, and plenty of opportunities to learn, share and network.
Conference attendees also can enjoy strolling around the beautiful grounds and hiking along the trails at Montreat. Indeed, Don Baker, president of SERFA’s board of directors expresses hope that attendees “will also get outside to relax and rejuvenate in the bucolic surroundings.” Built-in mid-afternoon breaks in the programming afford conference-goers opportunities to do just that.
SERFA is a regional affiliate of Folk Alliance International (www.folk.org), a nonprofit organization that seeks to nurture, engage and empower the international folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through education, advocacy and performance. SERFA (www.serfa.org) exists to promote, develop and celebrate the diverse heritage of roots and indigenous music, dance, storytelling and related arts in the southeastern United States. Its annual conference is a primary means of doing that. This is the eighth consecutive year that it is being held at the same location — a beautiful and tranquil spot nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This year’s conference opens with a barbecue, followed by a barn dance and an open mic on Wednesday night, and concludes on Sunday morning with a farewell breakfast.
Here’s a link to a short video that provides an introduction to SERFA and its annual conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COOjr5I0TkM“>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COOjr5I0TkM
Jim Rooney to Deliver Keynote Address
Jim Rooney will deliver a keynote on Friday afternoon, May 18. A musician, club and festival presenter, recording producer and engineer, author, music publisher, and songwriter, Rooney traces his love for bluegrass back to Massachusetts in the 1950s – when he heard a band called the Confederate Mountaineers on radio station WCOP. Before long, he was on WCOP himself and hooked on performing. While at Amherst, Rooney met Bill Keith, who would be a friend and musical partner for much of the next 60 years. In 1962, they recorded “Devil’s Dream” and “Sailor’s Hornpipe, the first documentation of Bill’s chromatic style shortly before he joined the Blue Grass Boys. Over the years, Rooney and Keith collaborated frequently – including with the Blue Velvet Band, Mud Acres, and in concert tours with many others. Rooney also helped to bring such bluegrass luminaries as Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs to the attention of northern, urban audiences when he managed the legendary Club 47 in Cambridge. He also helped program the Newport Folk Festival, launched the event that evolved into New Orleans’ Jazz & Heritage Festival, and helped build Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Studio. As an author, Rooney penned the first biography of both Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters (Bossman), the first history of the Boston folk scene (Baby Let Me Follow You down, with Erik von Schmidt), and a memoir (In It For the Long Run: A Musical Odyssey). As a producer and studio engineer, he’s worked on projects with Iris DeMent, Don Edwards, Nanci Griffith, Hal Ketchum, Carl Perkins, Peter Rowan, and Ian Tyson, among others. He also helped to build a successful artist-oriented publishing house (Forerunner) with songwriters like Pat Alger, Shawn Camp, Tim O’Brien, and Barry & Holly Tashian turning out a number of country radio chart-hits. Camp and O’Brien also occasionally perform with Rooney at Nashville’s Station Inn as Rooney’s Irregulars.
Rooney, Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz, and Michael Stock to Receive Awards
An Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award and IBMA Distinguished Service Award recipient, Rooney also will be among the recipients of awards from SERFA in recognition of extraordinary contributions to folk music and the folk music community in the Southeast.
Also being honored are traditional folk artists Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz and longtime folk DJ Michael Stock.
Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz are longtime West Virginia residents who have performed traditional folk music separately and together. Since meeting 30 years ago at Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp in upstate New York, they have wrapped their songs in stories of the people and places of the music – transporting audiences to another time when life was simpler and families were held close. They have appeared in concert and at festivals throughout the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom and also teach southern traditional singing a several music camps during the summer. Hawker & Schwarz have released two albums together. Hawker, who grew up in rural Virginia as part of large extended family of singers and musicians, has recorded six albums — four of them with Kay Justice. Schwarz, who was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey and New England, has more than 30 album credits. A multi-instrumentalist and singer, he was part of the New Lost City Ramblers, a vocal and instrumental folk group that helped popularize traditional string band music and introduce urban audiences to southern rural music during the 1960s and 1970s. Schwarz also joined with bandmate Mike Seeger, Alice Gerrard, Hazel Dickens and Lamar Grier – all of whom had been friends since the mid-1950s — to form the Strange Creek Singers in the late 1960s. Named after Strange Creek, WV, the group performed a mix of traditional and original songs in old-time and bluegrass styles.
Michael Stock, one of the 120 people who gathered in Malibu, California in 1989 to form what would become Folk Alliance International, has produced and hosted “Folk & Acoustic Music” every Sunday afternoon since 1981 on public radio station WLRN 91.3 FM in Miami, Florida. The show features a wide range of folk music — from bluegrass, blues and old-time to contemporary singer-songwriter and Americana — along with local and touring artist interviews and in-studio performances. Videos of more than 500 of these may be found on his YouTube channel. Stock also has been a concert promoter, operated a folk nightclub, and hosted folk music programs on cable television.
Workshops and Panel Discussions Organized by Tracks
Some three-dozen 75-minute workshops during the conference will be organized by tracks: Activism, Business for Musicians Media, Performing and Recording, Presenting, Songwriting, and Roots and Sources. Workshops and panel discussions will delve into such topics as the art of community jams and song swaps, the art of record-making, backwoods Appalachian songs and new generations, DIY touring, the folk music community and social responsibility, how to grow your audience, learning from the old songs, music in healing environments, promoting to radio, sharpening the tools in your promotional tool kit, social media, Texas country blues-style guitar, and using music for tourism development. Several workshops will focus on house concerts, while there also will be forums for presenters.
A Wisdom of the Elders session will feature Rooney, Hawker & Schwarz, and award-winning songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler. A West Virginia native, Wheeler has lived in North Carolina since 1963 — apart from a short stint in Nashville managing United Artists Music Group. His songs have been recorded by nearly 100 artists – including Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Bobby Darin, Elvis, The Kingston Trio, Kenny Rogers, and Neil Young. Among his songs are “Coal Tattoo,” “Coward of the Country,” “Jackson,” “Ode to the Little Brown shack Out Back,” “The Coming of the Roads,” and “The Rev. Mr. Black.” Wheeler also has written a dozen plays (including four outdoor dramas) and penned or co-authored several books of humor – including Laughter in Appalachia, which is now in its 13th printing. He was recently inducted into both the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Association International’s Hall of Fame and is a recipient of Distinguished Alumnus awards from Warren Wilson College and Berea College.
Besides the workshops and panel discussions, there will be one-on-one mentoring sessions, yoga, two-dozen exhibit tables, communal meals, and, of course, a lot of music. Grady Ormsby of Down East Folk Arts will host several open mics that are being dedicated to the memory of singer-songwriter Robert Bobby (Joe Milsom), a frequent conference attendee, who died earlier this year after a battle with brain cancer.
Official and Guerilla Showcases Abound
Slated to present official showcases on Thursday, May 17, are ilyAIMY, James Lee Stanley, Sarah Peacock, Rough & Tumble, The Belle Hollows, Jacob Johnson, Ernest Troost, and Suzie Vinnick. Friday’s official showcase lineup features Alan Barnosky, Jon Byrd, Beth Snapp, Escaping Pavement, Ed Snodderly, Tret Fure, Matthew Sabatella, and Piper Hayes. Saturday’s showcase artists include Louisa Branscomb with Jeanette & Johnny Williams, Rupert Wates, Brian Ashley Jones, Bill and the Belles, Edgar Loudermilk Band (featuring Jeff Autry), Jane Kramer, Greg Klyma, and David Jacobs-Strain and Bob Beach.
To listen to a sampler featuring songs from each of the 24 official showcase artists, click on the following link:
https://noisetrade.com/serfaartists/serfa-showcase-artists-2018
Following the official showcases, late-night guerilla showcases will take place in various meeting rooms between 10:40 p.m. and 2 a.m. AcousticMusicScene.com, which has had a presence at the SERFA Conference for the past seven years, will host late-night showcases on Thursday and Friday, May 17 and 18, overnight. These will primarily take the form of song swaps.
Here’s the AcousticMusicScene.com showcase schedule:
Thursday Night, May 17:
10:40: Friction Farm
11:00: Tennessee: Claudia Nygaard, Erin O’ Dowd and Taylor Pie
11:30: O Canada: Linda McRae, Suzie Vinnick and Noah Zacharin
12:00: Guys of Note: Alan Barnosky, Paul Helou and Chuck McDermott
12:30: Women’s Voices: Kala Farnham, Jane Kramer and Tret Fure
1:00: A Pair of Duos: Dan & Faith and Jubilant Bridge
1:30: Tunes by Todds: Todd Burge and Todd Hoke
The Belle Hollows, a Nashville-based contemporary folk trio, will kick-off the Friday overnight musical festivities in the AcousicMusicScene.com room.
10:40:The Belle Hollows
11:00: Marylanders: Domenic Cicala and Teghan Devon (with Emily Matteson)
11:30: Mara Levine, Dennis McDonough and Susan Shann
12:00: Guys of Note: Jacob Johnson and James Lee Stanley
12:30: Women’s Voices: Gina Holsopple, Beth Snapp and Heather Styka
1:00: Keystone Staters: Antonio Andrade and Meghan Cary
1:30: Acoustic Blues: David Jacobs-Strain & Bob Beach, Jon Shain & FJ Ventre and Ruth Wyland
Editor’s Note: Besides hosting AcousticMusicScene.com showcases, I will facilitate and participate in a panel discussion on social media. I will also again be a mentor offering advice and counsel on various aspects of public relations and strategic communications. An elected board member of Folk Alliance International, I also serve as board president for the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA). I have been an active participant at SERFA conferences since 2011.
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