The Patrick County Music Association (PCMA) will hold its first Songwriter’s Circle Series show on Saturday, May 4 at the Historic Star Theatre in Stuart. Doors open at 5 p.m.
Denny Alley, president of the music association, said he decided to hold the show because it’s something different than normal, plus it’s a take on Bluebird Café, in Nashville, TN, which features up and coming and experienced songwriters.
“It’s cool,” Alley said of that venue. “We’ve never tried one here.”
Performers include Alley, Michael Ray Fain, Mike Hall, Miller Hopkins, Barry Hutchens, Will Hutchens, Johnny Joyce, Scott Patrick, and Eric Shepherd.
Fain, a Patrick County native who grew up in the Rye Cover area, is a country singer and songwriter. He held a release party for his 2023 album, “Rye’s N’ Shine,” at the Star last year.
Alley said Hopkins is a 17-year-old senior at Patrick County High School (PCHS).
“He’s an old soul in a young body. I’ve been working with him for about a year-and-a-half now. He can play about anything I can play on the guitar, and he can sing and plays the banjo,” Alley said.
Hopkins will be playing the guitar and performing Tommy Moss’s material at the Circle Series show, Alley said.
Patrick, who plays the guitar, is the leader of Lonesome Heart, a quintet from Christiansburg.
“He wrote a lot of songs, and he comes down occasionally with Barry Hutchens and Will (Hutchens) to write new songs and send them to Nashville,” Alley said.
Hall plays bluegrass and gospel music, Alley said, adding “he and his daddy had a” large “stack of songs they wrote during their lives.”
Shepherd, a guitar player, will perform several gospel songs, according to Alley, who said that Joyce is the leader of the Country Boys.
“He’s had that band for 45 years. That’s the longest running band in the entire county,” Alley said, adding that he often hears Joyce’s songs on Galax’s radio station 98.1.
Joyce, he said, has “had some songs that did real well for him.”
Barry Hutchens and son Will are set to perform together and play the guitar. Barry Hutchens said he’s been writing songs for about 40 years.
“We go to Nashville fairly often. We’ll go, for example, last week we had two writing appointments with two different writers, and while we were there, we did a demo session on two songs we had we had written previously,” he said.
“All these people are very talented people. They’re the cream of the crop, to put it that way,” Alley said.
Advanced tickets can be purchased at the Coffee Break and the Patrick County Tourism Office for $10 each. Tickets can also be purchased at the Star Theatre the day of the event for $10.
“There’s limited seating, so once we sell what we have that’s it,” Alley said. “People need to get their tickets before the day of the event if they want to secure their seating.”
Alley said another version of the series will be held in September featuring female songwriters.
