The last Beans and Banjos of the season will be held at Shawsville’s Meadowbrook Community Center on Saturday, Oct. 28. Supper and music start at 6.
October’s Beans and Banjos will feature two bands, American Roots and Fort Vause. Music will accompany beans and cornbread and dessert.
“We’ll start up again in January,” Beans and Banjos promoter, Tim Thornton, who is also the bass player for Fort Vause said.
The band American Roots is the father-son duo, Fred and Jon Benfield.
The Benfields play guitar and sing everything from The Carter Family to W.C. Handy to Hoagy Carmicheal.
“They’ve performed at venues all around the region, including the Floyd Country Store and Blacksburg’s Steppin’ Out festival. This will be their first appearance at Beans and Banjos,” Thornton said.
American Roots’ music has been described as “Appalachian ballads, blues, swing, early country and ‘folkgrass.’”
The father and son have performed together for at least a quarter-century.
“My favorite part of performing is the communication that occurs between us during gigs. We’ve played together for so long that we just somehow know where the other is going on tunes without saying anything or even looking at each other,” said the Benfield dad. Fred Benfield is also an ecology professor at Virginia Tech.
The band Fort Vause will open the evening featuring George Smith, who played banjo in the Appalachian Music Masters concert series and on recordings with Jack Hinshelwood and Buddy Pendleton; Jeff Wilcke, a doctor of veterinary medicine and rhythm guitar who also plays mandolin; bass player Tim Thornton, and the newest member of the band, virtuoso guitarist Steven Paul, “the mysterious man with two first names,” Thornton said.
The Shawsville’s Meadowbrook Community Center. That’s at 267 Alleghany Spring Road in Shawsville.
There’s no admission fee, but the LINC Letter hopes everybody who attends will chip in at least a $5 donation to help the LINC Letter keep on publishing. The LINC Letter Project LINC, Inc. is the organization Linking Individual Needs in Our Community, that works to support and champion cultural traditions like bean dinners and traditional music in southwestern Virginia, part of the Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation.
“As always, we operate on granny rules: no drinking, no smoking, no cussing, no spitting on the floor. Y’all come on out for supper. Stay to dance or sing along – or just sit there and pat your foot,” Thornton said.
Beans and Banjos is usually held on the fourth Saturday of the month and the music ranges from blues to old time.
“For years it was a Ruritan project, raising money for scholarships for East Mont graduates. Eventually the Ruritans decided it was too much work, so the LINC Letter took over,” Thornton said.
For more information visit http://www.lincletter.com and “I’m probably the guy to call about beans or banjos. 540-520-2399” Thornton said.
