The Patrick County Music Association (PCMA) is set to hold its Songwriter’s Circle Series II Guys & Gals on Saturday, September 14, at the Historic Star Theatre with doors opening at 5 p.m. The show starts at 6 p.m.
PCMA President Denny Alley said the original plan for the show was to have only female singers and songwriters perform, which is why the May show only featured men.
“The problem we have here is finding four girl singers. I can find 15 men, no girls. There’s not eight women around that sing and write” songs, Alley said.
Performers include Marcie Horne, Yvonne Smith, Olivia Jo, Wendy Dearmin, Jordan Morrison, Tim Lineberry, Miller Hopkins, and Barry Hutchens. According to Alley, and all are from Patrick County except one.
At the show, Alley said the four female performers will be grouped together and then take turns performing their original songs for three rounds. Then the male performers will do the same.
Alley expects the show to last three hours until 9 p.m.
“Most of the songs performed will be original songs. I mean, Miller (Hopkins) will probably do a cover song. He doesn’t have a lot of songs written, but he has two now,” he said,
Alley said he was inspired to start holding this type of show because it’s something different.
“This is something you see on RFD-TV on Sunday nights from Tennessee. They’ll have a songwriters’ circle, and Barry Hutchens goes to Nashville to the Bluebird Inn Songwriter Restaurant,” Alley said, adding that he’s interested in holding similar shows in the future.
“The first one was very successful, and we’re hoping this one will be too, bringing in the gal singers. It should bring some people in. I mean, if the second one is a success like the first one, we’ll be doing two a year – spring and fall,” he said.
PCMA will also hold three shows each month during the last quarter of 2024.
Alley said the October 26 show will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Crooked Road. It will feature the Charlie’s Corner segment where music students of Charlie Chaney will perform, The Country Boys, Olivia Job, and the Hutchens Brothers.
The November 23 show will be the Veterans Show, and all veterans are admitted for free. Ron Inscore & Friends, Barry Collins & The Mudflaps, and Carsen Peters, a musician from Nashville, will take the stage. General admission is $5 plus two cans of nonperishable food for the Patrick County Community Food Bank.
Alley said the December show will be the Hopkins Lumber Christmas Show, and it’ll take place at the Patrick County High School (PCHS) Auditorium, headlined by the Lonesome River Band, Nick Goad, Kyser George, and multiple other banjo players. Admission for that show is free, but donations are accepted.
“I have yet to get my whole list of banjo players, but there’s going to be four or five new ones that’s never played here,” he said.
The Christmas show has become an annual event, and if Alley has his way, the Songwriter series will become a semi-annual show.
The September show “is the second one of these that we’ve had. There were wall-to-wall people at the first one in May,” Alley said, adding that 150 people attended that event, because that is the number of seats at the Star Theatre. As such, seating for the September event is limited to 150 people.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the Coffee Break, Quilted Colors, and the Patrick County Visitor’s Center.
“We’ve sold many tickets, probably 50 to 60, in the last few weeks. People need to come by and pick up their tickets” before they sell out, he said.
