From blaring horns to sweet duets, May 9’s Farm and Fun Time featured a dynamic display of roots music styles! Thanks to our sponsor Eastman Credit Union, Radio Bristol was able to bring Farm and Fun Time to not only those in the audience or tuned in to WBCM-LP, but to viewers far and wide via Facebook Live. Be sure to like WBCM – Radio Bristol on Facebook to tune in every month!
Host band Bill and the Belles started the show off with favorites old and new, including a rip-roaring rendition of “Roll on the Ground.” The “Heirloom Recipe” segment was presented by the reigning Haint Mistress of Abingdon Virginia, Donna Marie Emmert. When Donna Marie isn’t looking for ghosts, goblins, and ghouls around historic Southwest Virginia, she can be found hunting for the ever-elusive Appalachian spring time delicacy: morel mushrooms. While Donna Marie shared a recipe for how to prepare the elusive dryland fish, she wasn’t about to disclose the location of those rare treats – you’ll have to find your own! Bill and the Belles then crooned a song of longing and frustration all about the woes of not finding any morels.
Our first musical guest of the evening was Hoot and Holler. Amy Alvey and Mark Kilianski are a hard touring duo of multi-instrumentalist musicians and songsmiths who draw heavily from the roots of American music, especially old-time, bluegrass, and Cajun music. Together they craft timeless songs that tell the stories of their life on the road. From a classic fiddle tune “Honey Suckle Blues” to “Old Buffalo,” a piece of self-proclaimed “cowboy existentialism,” to “Reasons to Run,” a song that explores the feeling of needing to be in multiple places at once but never settling, Amy and Mark took the audience on a journey down the highways and backroads of America in just a handful of songs.
With only a few songs, Hoot and Holler explored a range of emotions and experiences, bringing the audience right along with them. © Birthplace of Country Music; photographer: Billie Wheeler
This month’s “ASD Farm Report” went off the beaten path to showcase foraging with Taylor Callahan. If one knows what to look for and where to find it, there’s a bounty of useful plants growing wild in the hills and hollers of Appalachia, and Taylor crafts apothecary projects to cure what ails you from locally sourced flora. Here’s a video from our visit:
Our last guest of the evening was Davina and the Vagabonds. Hailing from the land of 10,000 Lakes, Davina and the Vagabonds put on a high energy stage show that blended elements of New Orleans-style jazz and 1950s R&B into a style all their own. Sitting at the keys, Davina is powerhouse performer, who channels the likes of Bessie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe into an expressive vocal style that cuts above the horns and drums and takes listeners on a roller coaster ride of emotions. In a set that seemed to be perpetually rolling forward, Davina and the Vagabonds performed original songs about topics ranging from “Monday Dates” to how the devil got his horns, and they brought the Farm and Fun Time crowd to their feet for perhaps the most rousing standing ovation we’ve seen yet!
Davina and the Vagabonds’ energy on stage and quirky and expressive songs combined together to create a really special Farm and Fun Time night! © Birthplace of Country Music; photographer: Billie Wheeler
Thanks to everyone who came out and shared in this wonderful evening of music! Tickets are on sale for June’s show featuring Sierra Ferrell, Steel City Jug Slammers, and host band Bill and the Belles, but they’re going fast. We hope to see you there!
