Joe Troop Trio will appear at the Blue Ridge Music Center with Tray Wellington Band opening the show at 7 p.m., Saturday, August 28. The concert will be held in the outdoor amphitheater at the base of Fisher Peak. The Music Center is at milepost 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
A multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter from Winston-Salem, N.C., Joe Troop spent a decade in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he formed the group Che Apalache with three of his students. The band’s second album, Rearrange My Heart, was produced by legendary genre-bender, banjoist Béla Fleck, and received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album in 2020. Che Apalache is currently on hiatus as international touring is not possible, so Troop is touring with the Joe Troop Trio, which includes powerhouse musicians César Bacaró and Trey Boudreaux.
Working in a style dubbed “latingrass,” Troop melds music from the Appalachian foothills with traditional soundscapes from across Latin American. He composes wry and well-traveled acoustic music, sung in English and Spanish. Wrenching old-time music into the world of contemporary global politics, Troop creates spaces for sympathy, solidarity, and a little humor. Saturday’s concert is a CD release show for Borrowed Time, his new solo album debuting this weekend on Free Dirt Records, featuring Charlie Hunter, Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Tim O’Brien, and many superb musicians.
Bacaró is a preeminent percussionist from the city of Santa Clara, Villa Clara, Cuba. As a child, he developed a deep passion for music. and at seven years old, enrolled in The Vocational School of Art (EVA) Olga Alonso in Santa Clara. In a career spanning 25 years, he has played across Latin America and Europe but now hangs his hat in New Orleans, where he plays with several bands and slaps his sazón cubano all over The Big Easy.
Boudreaux grew up surrounded by Creole and Cajun music in Lafayette, LA. His parents also provided a constant flow of new sounds at home. Learning music both from his father and in school, Boudreaux developed skills in a wide range of styles and quickly became an in-demand bassist, carving out his own special place in the New Orleans music community. He now lends his commanding and energetic groove to countless artists in and beyond south Louisiana.
Opening the show is the Tray Wellington Band. Trajan “Tray” Wellington’s love for music bloomed at an early age while he listened to his grandpa play diverse styles of music. From learning traditional bluegrass to studying diverse genres such as jazz, progressive bluegrass, blues, and rock, Wellington has gone on to play with some of the most accomplished musicians in the world.
Before reaching the age of 21, Wellington has received a number of awards and accolades, including the 2019 IBMA Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year and 2019 Momentum Band of the Year (with Cane Mill Road).
Tickets are $20 for adults, children 12 and younger are admitted free. Tickets are available online in advance through BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org, and also will be sold at the admission gate on the evening of the show. Parking opens at 5:15 p.m. on the day of the show, and admission to the amphitheater begins at 5:45 p.m.
The Music Center is taking several precautions during concerts to make the experience as safe as possible for visitors. Those who have a fever, cough, aches and pains, loss of smell or taste, difficulty breathing, or are sneezing and coughing, are asked to please stay at home.
We highly recommend that concert attendees follow these guidelines:
Maintain six feet of distance between groups throughout the evening, including when standing in line and selecting seating locations in the amphitheater.
When in high traffic areas, we highly encourage concertgoers to wear masks to protect others.
For more information, visit BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org.
