SHAWSVILLE – John and Kathie Hollandsworth will be the featured musicians at April’s Beans and Banjos.
John and Kathie are natives of Christiansburg and have been performing and teaching for more than 30 years, with a repertoire that includes traditional Appalachian music and many related styles.
John developed his own autoharp playing-style from childhood, when he became familiar with traditional music by playing stringed instruments with relatives and friends in the area. He has become sought after as a workshop leader and classroom teacher of autoharp style and repertoire across the U.S. and beyond. An autoharp builder as well as an outstanding autoharp player, John is the only autoharp player ever named the Best All Around Performer at the Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax – and he’s won the title three times. He’s also in the Autoharp Hall of Fame.
Kathie sings and plays hammered dulcimer and upright bass, and she has led workshops on those instruments and on traditional song. Together, John and Kathie truly enjoy sharing their Appalachian musical heritage with a wide variety of concert and festival audiences. This will be their first appearance at Beans and Banjos.
Fort Vause will open the show with bluegrass and bluegrass flavored blues, ballads, gospel, novelty and show tunes.
Fort Vause features 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; and the newest member of the band, virtuoso guitarist Steven Paul, who came to Fort Vause from a Gypsy jazz band and is front man for the electric alt-country band Electric Road. Tim Thornton, who slipped onto a Black Twig Pickers recording once, plays bass and sometimes other things. Everybody sings, sometimes all at once.
Along with the music, we’ll have beans, cornbread and desserts – dinner and a show Shawsville style.
”This is the last Beans and Banjos until September, so you don’t want to miss it,” state orgsnizers. “We’ll have copies of our CD, Best of Beans and Banjos Vol. 1 on hand, so you can take some Beans and Banjos home to tide you over the summer.”
Supper and music begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, in the Dr. George R. Smith Community Center inside Shawsville’s Meadowbrook Center, 267 Alleghany Spring Road, at the corner of Alleghany Spring and U.S. 460.
This Evening of Beans and Banjos raises money for the LINC Letter and its webpage, lincletter.com. We hope each person who comes will donate $5 or more.
As always, Beans and Banjos operates by 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.
—Tim Thornton
