Farm & Fun Time

Radio Bristol presents the ever-so-entertaining Farm and Fun Time variety show, live from the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, featuring musical guests Che Apalaché and Jesse Lege and the Old Fashioned Aces plus Farm and Fun Time house band Bill & the Belles.

Date: Thursday, August 9, 2018

Time: 7:00 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Audience must be seated by 6:50 p.m.)

Location: Performance Theater at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum

Tickets: $30

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About Che Apalache

Che Apalache is a four-man string band based in Buenos Aires with members from Argentina, Mexico and the United States. The group’s founder is Joe Troop (fiddle), a North Carolinian multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and composer who moved to Argentina in 2010. While patiently carving out a niche in the local music scene, Joe taught bluegrass and old-time music for a living. That’s how he met Pau Barjau (banjo), Franco Martino (guitar) and Martin Bobrik (mandolin), his most dedicated students. They quickly became picking buddies and in 2013 decided to hit the stage.

Che Apalache began as a bluegrass band, but eventually incorporated Latin American styles into their repetoire. Combining instrumental prowess with tight vocal harmonies, they have created an authentic blend of genres to reflect the nature of their lives. Evoking images from Appalachia to the Andes, their debut album Latingrass is a testament to a powerful cultural and musical exchange.

In 2017 the band received grants from the North Carolina Humanities Council and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to tour the United States. Everywhere they went on their five-week ramble, they were met with enthusiasm and praise. At the prestigious Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, WV they were awarded first place in the Neo-Traditional band competition. The momentum is growing for Che Apalache, and the future looks promising in both South and North America.

About Jesse Lége and the Old Fashioned Aces

One dance hall at a time…That is the life work of Jesse Lége: to bring traditional, foot-stompin’ Cajun dance hall music from the dusty back roads of southwest Louisiana, coast to coast and around the world.

Jesse Lége defines traditional Louisiana dance hall music. His unmistakable, hard driving style of accordion play and his powerful voice will get even the most staid listener up on the dance floor. Whether he is performing with Bayou Brew or his many friends, Jesse can crank up any old tune to something new and very different than you have ever heard before.

Vocalist of the Year, Band of the Year, Song of the Year (for “Mémoires Dans Mon Coeur”); in nearly 40 years of playing, singing and living Cajun music, Jesse Lege has seen and done it all. In 1998 Jesse was inducted into the Cajun Music Hall of Fame. His performances include Festival Acadiens, the prestigious University of Chicago Folk Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, major festivals in California and Florida, and the Bury, England, Cajun Festival. Recently, Jesse toured France and England with Joel Savoy and Bobby Michot, with their new CD. Jesse also recently played the Strawberry Park Cajun Festival in Connecticut; the Cajun festival in Wakefield, Canada; the Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs, New York; the Mardi Gras Ball, in Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet, Rhode Island; the Grey Fox Festival, in New York; and the Newport Folk Festival, in Newport, Rhode Island.

About Bill and the Belles

What began as a project to explore the space created between hillbilly and urban, between vaudeville
and down home, has arrived somewhere entirely new. Bill and the Belles offers a contemporary
reimagining of a bygone era, a vocal-centric performance that breathes new life into the sounds of
early country music. At the foothills of the Blue Ridge and the forefront of old-time music, Bill and the
Belles continue to further the music traditions of their region. From sentimental Southern ballads to the
popular songs of Tin Pan Alley to regional fiddle breakdowns, a Bill and the Belles show is a celebration
of the diversity country music once represented.

Bill and the Belles play alongside America’s top country and roots music artists as the house band for
the historic radio program Farm and Fun Time presented by Radio Bristol and the Birthplace of Country
Music. Lifelong musicians Kris Truelsen, Grace Van’t Hof, Kalia Yeagle, and Karl Zerfas bring to the stage
an uplifting show unlike any other, full of humor, high spirits, and all-around revelry. It’s clear this group
shares a rare musical connection and deep love for the music, and their excitement is contagious.