The Blue Ridge Music Center, in partnership with the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, is presenting a free outdoor concert featuring the Becky Buller Band and The Grassifieds at 6 p.m. Friday, May 17, at the Triad Park Amphitheater in Kernersville, N.C. The performance is part of the annual Summer Parks Series.
Becky Buller, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter from St. James, Minn., is scheduled to appear. She is a two-time Grammy award-winning songwriter. She cowrote “Freedom” the lead-off track of The Infamous Stringdusters’ 2018 Grammy-winning album Laws of Gravity, as well as “The Shaker” on The Travelin’ McCourys’ self-titled release that garnered a Grammy for 2019 Best Bluegrass Album. Her compositions can also be heard on records by Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent, and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.
Buller made IBMA history in 2016 as the first bluegrass musician to win in both instrumental and vocal categories, as well as being the first woman to win Fiddler of the Year. She also won the 2018 honors for Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year for the song “Speakin’ To That Mountain.”
Other members of the band include Ned Luberecki, the 2018 IBMA Banjo Player of the Year, Guitarist Dan Boner, who is also the Director of the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies program at East Tennessee State University, Nate Lee, the 2015 IBMA Momentum Award winning instrumentalist, on mandolin and fiddle, and Daniel Hardin on doghouse bass.
Opening the show will be The Grassifieds from Walkertown, North Carolina. Covering a range from the mountain music of The Stanley Brothers to the subtly less traditional styles of the Lonesome River Band and Hot Rize, The Grassifieds remain true to the basics of bluegrass: strong vocal harmony, uncluttered acoustic instrumentals, and soulful delivery of the “high lonesome” sound. The same is true of their original songs.
Children are invited to have fun making craft banjos at the Blue Ridge Music Center’s kids station on the hillside. Concert goers may bring a picnic or purchase snacks and meals from local food trucks. The event will go on rain or shine.
For more information, visit BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org or IntotheArts.org.
