We love celebrating traditional Irish song and Irish poetry and we’ll pay
special tribute to legendary Irish Poet Laureate WB Yeats this year.
The Southern Highlanders perform a music tapestry of Scotland, Ireland and the
Southern Appalachians, as well as more recent compositions in the traditional
mode. All are singers and instrumentalists, including the guitar, mountain
dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, piano, concertina, jaw harp and various percussive
instruments.
Doug and Darcy Orr have been performing music for over 30 years through their
previous Celtic/Appalachian band Maggie’s Fancy in Charlotte, as they recorded
and toured through several states, and during subsequent years at Warren Wilson
College where Doug served as president from 1991 to 2006. There he founded the
Swannanoa Gathering summer music camp now in its 31st year with attendees
from throughout the world. Doug co-authored the New York Times best-selling
book, Wayfaring Strangers with Fiona Ritchie, host of NPR’s The Thistle &
Shamrock, about the musical connections between Scotland, Ireland and the
Southern Appalachians. Darcy, an oil and watercolor painter, is the book’s art
editor.
Joe Holbert is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and a music educator. He and his wife, Karen, have performed over the years at many venues and events throughout the region including the Asheville Mountain Dance and Folk Festival where they won awards for their performances, and now return each year with the Southern Highlanders. Joe and Karen can be heard on numerous recordings by other folk musicians plus their own, Appalachian Saga. Joe retired after 30 plus years as a public and private school music educator, and has taught a variety of musical instruments to adults at summer music camps including the Swannanoa Gathering and the Augusta Heritage Workshop in West Virginia.
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THE BELFAST BOYS are
Alyn Mearns (guitar & vocals) and Adrian Rice (mandolin, bodhran & vocals).
Mearns and Rice both hail from the Troubled streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mearns has lived in the States since his late teens, but Rice only settled in Hickory (NC) in 2005, having come to Lenoir-Rhyne College as their Visiting Writer-in-Residence. Both men have been happily ‘captured’ by lovely American brides. The men met in a local Hickory bookstore and quickly formed a strong bond based on their shared Ulster heritage and ‘Belfast-speak’.
As their friendship grew, the two men discovered their shared love of Irish traditional music. Back in Belfast, Rice had played in an Irish band in his college and post-college years; while Mearns has written and produced a successful Irish CD, entitled ‘The Tree’. So it was only a matter of time before the idea of an Irish duo would surface: thus – The Belfast Boys.
In performance, the boys work hard to deliver a serious traditional Irish set of jigs, reels, polkas and songs. They pay their own particular homage to folk classics from the likes of Planxty, The Bothy Band, and Christy Moore, mixed in with some tastefully popular pub numbers like ‘Molly Malone’ and ‘Tell Me Ma’. They even manage to breathe memorable new life into folk favourites like ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘The Wild Mountain Thyme’. The duo also incorporate some of Rice’s own poetry, and create plenty of good wholesome ‘craic’ (fun!) from the stage. They also encourage audience participation and love to share the stage with any local musicians who may want to get up there and do their little bit to make the evening hum.
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Bob Hinkle is a musician, poet, and celebrant of the creative spirit…..and he’s also
the owner and manager of White Horse Black Mountain. His wit and charm combined
with original music and poetry and songs of others are always an audience favorite. Bob began his musical career while still in high school, in Asheville, After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill he headed straight to New York, NY with a recording contract already secured for his trio, The Good Earth. After touring and recording with The Good Earth, Bob released his own solo LP in the early 70’s. Then he moved into artist management, serving as manager of many important artists including Harry Chapin, Etta James, and The J Geils Band. Bob’s career in music has many other highlights which you can read HERE.
Note: Bob is also renowned for telling some of the worst jokes you’ve ever heard.
