The Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College will present Grammy award winning bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys as the headline attraction for the Augusta Festival Concert on Aug. 10. Two other nationally known groups will also perform.
The concert will take place in Myles Center for the Arts Harper-McNeeley Auditorium. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Joe Newberry & Friends open the show at 6 p.m., followed by The Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers at 7 p.m., and Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 general admission and free to Augusta participants of Week 5 as well as D&E faculty, staff and students. Tickets may be purchased at www.itickets.com, by calling 1-800-965-9324 or at the door.
Dr. Ralph Stanley has performed and recorded bluegrass music for more than six decades, first along with his older brother Carter Stanley and then with The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys. Among their best-known works are “Angel Band,” “Rank Strangers,” “Little Maggie” and “Man of Constant Sorrow.”
Stanley is one of the most celebrated country and bluegrass artists. His contributions to the multi-platinum soundtrack for the film “O Brother Where Art Thou?” earned him two Grammy awards in 2001 – Album of the Year and Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his classic a cappella solo “Oh, Death.” His work with the Clinch Mountain Boys and Jim Lauderdale on “Lost in the Lonesome Pines” netted another Grammy in 2002 for Best Bluegrass Album.
In 2006, President George W. Bush presented Stanley with the Living Legend award from the Library of Congress. Stanley was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2000 and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1992.
Stanley’s legendary band the Clinch Mountain Boys has produced some of country and bluegrass music’s biggest stars, including Ricky Skaggs, Larry Sparks and the late Keith Whitley. Currently, the band features Stanley’s grandson Nathan Stanley and son Ralph Stanley II, Dewey Brown, Jimmy Cameron, James Alan Shelton and Mitchell Van Dyke.
Supporting their performance at the August 10 concert will be the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers. One of the few remaining quartet-style groups that perform old-school a cappella, the singers specialize in an intricate and emotional four-part harmony jubilee style. Now in their 27th year, they perform gospel and have recently added patriotic and R&B to their repertoire.
The concert will open with Joe Newberry & Friends. Newberry has won numerous contests throughout the county for his banjo playing. He is a prize-winning guitarist, fiddler and singer as well. A showcase of his multiple talents is evident in his 2005 solo recording “Two Hands,” which drew critical acclaim from SingOut Magazine and Inland Northwest Bluegrass Association, among others.
The Augusta Festival Concert is just one of the events planned for the August 9-11 weekend that caps off the five-week summer sessions of music, dance, craft and folklore. The Augusta Festival weekend will also feature the Augusta Festival Dance on August 9 at 8 p.m. in the open-air pavilion, the Augusta Festival in Elkins City Park on August 10 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday Festival Dance on August 10 after the concert in the Augusta pavilion, and the Festival Gospel Sing on August 11 at 10:30 a.m. in Robbins Chapel.
As Davis & Elkins College’s program for the heritage arts, Augusta provides instruction and performances, folk life programs and a home for significant collections of field recordings, oral histories, photographs, instruments and Appalachian art.
Related to the Presbyterian Church (USA), Davis & Elkins College is located in Elkins, 2 hours east of Charleston, 3 hours south of Pittsburgh and 4 hours west of Washington, DC.
