Gathering Schedule and Registration Information

Opening 4:30-6:30 (Farthing Foyer).
The commemoration and continuation will open from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, March 24, with words from Appalachian State University folklorist Cece Conway, Appalachian scholar and musician Mark Freed, singer and musician Rhiannon Giddens, and African American scholar and banjoist Tony Thomas. Along with Arizona percussionist, and banjoist Sule Greg Wilson, they were the primary organizers of the 2005 Black Banjo Gathering. There will be a little music from the world-famous Black string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops who met at the 2005 gathering, banjo builder, banjo collector, banjo historian and master minstrel, classic, and old time banjo player Clarke Buehling, and traditional player and maker Rick Ward of Beech Mountain, NC.

Concert 7:30 Farthing Auditorium
Cheick Hamala Diabate, West African historian in the Griot tradition, and a world-recognized master of the ngoni, a Malian traditional instrument and a great banjoist and guitarist.

Old Time Set

Riley Baugus, banjo maker, traditional North Carolina banjoist, fiddle, guitar player learned from elder traditional musicians throughout North Carolina and Virginia, learning the Round Peak style at the knee of National Heritage Award winner Tommy Jarrell and other traditional musicians of the area, including Dix Freeman, Chester McMillian and former Camp Creek Boys members Verlin Clifton and Paul Sutphin. James Leva, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter whose music is deeply rooted in Appalachian tradition learned much of his fiddle, banjo and vocal repertoire from great traditional masters including Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, and Doug Wallin. Alice Gerrard, singer, song writer, multi-instrumentalist, folklorist, activist, a talent of legendary status who in a career spanning some 40 years, has known, learned from, and performed with many of the old-time and bluegrass greats and has in turn earned worldwide respect for her own important contributions to the music. John Cohen, Master old time banjoist, guitarist, and singer, fifty year veteran of the New Lost City Ramblers, film maker, traditional music collector, art and documentary photographer.

Don Vappie, Jazz banjoist par excellence, who is descended from a long line of New Orleans Creole musicians that goes back to the nineteenth century. Once a featured performer in the Preservation Hall Band, Vappie now leads and tours with the Creole Jazz Serenaders. His music links New Orleans music with the Creole music of the Caribbean and with contemporary African American soul and funk.

Intermission

Corey Harris, blues guitar and banjo. Corey Harris seeks to learn and teach the roots of African-American music and channel its raw emotion to modern audiences. Harris is a guitarist, songwriter, and performer whose journey, which included learning from Cheick Hamala Diabate, has taken him from the American south to Africa and everyplace in between. His recordings, such as Greens from the Garden (1999), Mississippi to Mali (2003), and Daily Bread (2005), are reinterpretations of African influences on American blues based on Harris's ethnographic research, enriched by his musical collaboration with traditional African musicians like Ali Farka Toure.

Carolina Chocolate Drops are the leading tradition-based African American old time, jug time, and blues time string band, known for their music based on Carolina Piedmont Black tradition in string instruments, old time songs, and modern lyrics. A product of the 2005 Black Banjo Gathering, the Chocolate Drops are international favorites who have received rave reviews for their three CDs including the recently released Genuine Negro Jig.

Tickets: $10/$20 in advance (while tickets last) $12/$25 at the door. For tickets call Farthing Auditorium at 1-800-841- 2787, or visit www.farthing.appstate.edu.

Classes & outreach to Ashe & Avery Counties

12:30-2:30
Public program on Diversity & Representation Solarium. Paul Sedgewich Play Skits, Alice Gerrard, Tina Groover, Jim Lloyd, and Trevor Mckenzie, Dom Flemons & Rhiannon Giddens & Videos of Black Banjo Songsters
2:45-3:45
Talk & music
3:45-6:00
Instrument Makers & Banjo Forum Solarium
Pete Ross, Clarke Buehling, Rick Ward, Riley Baugus, Jim Lloyd, George Gibson, & more
6:30-8:30
Supper & Music
JAM (Junior Appalachian Musicians) at Jones House
7:30 pm--11
Jam sponsored by the Watauga Arts Council at the Jones House Community Center.

By day: workshops, panels, presentations in Linville Falls Room, Plemmons Student Union. By night: Concerts, jams, & frolics by night at the Legends performance and dance space at Appalachian State. Legend Frolics & Concerts will include Cheick Hamala Diabate, Don Vappie, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ebony Hillbillies, Otis Taylor and more, as well as Riley Baugus, James Leva, Alice Gerrard (Fri), John Cohen, Dust Busters & Hubby & Jerron (Sat).

The Ebony Hillbillies The Ebony Hillbillies have applied decades of professional music experience to synthesize the Black old time music string band tradition with African American musical traditions in Jazz, popular music, and Bluegrass. Led by Henrique Prince on fiddle & vocals and Norris Bennett on banjo, mountain dulcimer, guitar, and vocals, the band currently features William ("Salty Bill") Salter on acoustic bass and Dave Gibson on washboard and percussion. Blues and Jazz singer Gloria Gassaway who thrilled Legend’s audiences with her Blues singing with Don Vappie in 2005 will be a special guest.

Otis Taylor A leader of the revival of African American banjo playing, Otis Taylor is a masterful entertainer whose music has depth and relevance that touches audiences deeply while preserving and extending the traditions of Black music. Taylor creates banjo-based music on guitar, electric mandolin, solid body electric banjo, and his custom made Otis Taylor Ome open back banjo. His singing and song writing has produced Blues and what he calls "trance music" of unequal intensity and power in a series of CDs that speak both to the heart of Black life as well as to central questions of African American history and intellectual life. Guitar Player magazine called Otis Taylor “arguably the most relevant blues artist of our time,” while Billboard has called him “one of the most innovative, thought-provoking blues artists to emerge in the last 20 years.” His leadership of the Recapturing the Banjo CD and tour was a landmark event in the Black Banjo tradition. “Over the years, the instrument just lost touch with its roots,” says Taylor, “I’m just trying to re-establish that connection.”

Check here soon for more information and updates. Schedule subject to change as more special events and participants are added. All events except where noted at Appalachian State University Boone North Carolina.