February 2019 Floyd Radio Show with Jim Lloyd, Twin Creeks Stringband & Brian Mesko
Venue: Floyd Country Store, Floyd
Organizations: Brian Mesko, Jim Lloyd, Twin Creeks Stringband
Date: Saturday, February 2, 2019
Time: 7:30 - 10:00 PM
Event Types: Music, Arts & Theatre, Speaking Engagements
Cost:

Description:
Floyd Country Store presents the February 2019 Floyd Radio Show with Jim Lloyd, Twin Creeks Stringband and Brian Mesko on Saturday, February 2, 2019 starting at 7:30 pm.

Live from The Floyd Country Store in the heart of downtown Floyd, Virginia! The Floyd Country Store brings together a new variety show every month. A series of guest hosts will perform original radio plays, comedy bits, ads, jingles, music and more. Each show features the finest old-timey musical acts, from storytelling banjo players to flatpicking guitarists to hard-driving string bands.

Raised in the coalfields of western Virginia, Jim Lloyd now makes his home in Rural Retreat, Va., where he operates Lloyd’s Barber Shop, a local gathering spot for collecting and trading tunes, stories, and songs. His musical roots extend back through at least four generations of fiddlers, guitar players, dancers, and singers from the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. Jim is known especially for his skills on guitar and banjo.

Jim was not only a consummate musician spreading old time music with his guitar, but also a radio DJ on WBRF radio at Galax and hosted a live band show called “Blue Ridge Backroads” for a year. He then moved to The William King Arts Center and hosted an NPR show “Living Traditions” for three years on 50 stations across the nation. It was through Jim’s show, “Living Traditions”, that he worked with Matthew Saunders and Polly King Ewell and became one of the first musicians to perform on the internet.

Jim is an excellent instrumentalist whose work has been documented by the Smithsonian Institute as representative of Southwest Virginia mountain music and story-telling. While accomplished on many instruments, he is known especially for his skills on guitar (finger picking style) and banjo (claw hammer and two-finger styles). Jim shares his heritage not only by performing, but as a teacher to many local students ranging from ages 6 to 70 on basically anything with strings, particularly guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle.

Jim has performed at many regional shows as well as West Virginia’s Mountain Stage, Seedtime on the Cumberland (Appalshop), Birthplace of Country Music Alliance and the Minnesota Old-Time and Bluegrass Festival, just to name a few. Jim has two solo recording projects but can be found on numerous recordings by other fellow musicians.

He currently is a member of the The Elkville String Band, but also plays regularly with Mountain Fling, which plays parlor music often associated with the Carter Family and other early mid-20th century artists. He regularly backs up his friend, Carl Johnson at the IBMA and other locations. He also performs solo and with makeup bands consisting of former students and friends. Whether he is solo or with a band, attending one of Jim’s performances is a real treat has he shares the music and stories that he has collected from life in the mountains. Jim has been nominated for a National Heritage Fellowship Award for his contributions to the preservation of the music and stories of Appalachia.

Links:

• http://www.jimlloydmusic.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/Jim-Lloyd-412056615505300

Twin Creeks Stringband plays music for dancing playing a strong rhythmic old time sound that goes back many generations.

In the late 1970s, a group of neighbors and friends got together to play the music that had been passed down in the Dry Hill and Ferrum areas of Franklin County. Some of the musicians were falling behind on their timing one day while playing and having some fun, and one spectator commented that he was going to call the group the Dry Hill Draggers.

Banjo player Jimmy Boyd and his brother Billy Boyd started the official Dry Hill Draggers band in 1981. The group flourished, and more than thirty years later, some of the Dry Hill Draggers members formed Twin Creeks Stringband, including Jared Boyd, grandson of Jimmy Boyd, a third generation claw-hammer banjo player; his dad Stacy Boyd on upright bass; Jason Hambrick on guitar and vocals; and Chris Prillaman on fiddle. Twin Creeks Stringband has a particularly driving old-time beat that is irresistible to dancers, and they are popular performers at the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, as well as at the Galax Old Fiddlers’ Convention.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/Twincreeksoldtime

Raised in a musical family in Little Rock, AR, Mesko began piano lessons at age 8 and switched to guitar at age 10. He continued formal lessons through high school, at which time he studied Jazz Theory & Ensemble for college credit under Michael Carenbauer (who studied under Pat Metheny at Berklee) at the University of AR Little Rock. During junior high Brian learned drums and bass, and has continued developing them professionally along side the guitar.

While completing a bachelor’s degree in Recording Industry at Middle TN State University, Mesko lived in the Nashville area from 1997 – 2005 and played with such international jazz greats as Les McCann, Tony Monaco, Dr. Lonnie Smith, John Jorgensen and Jeff Coffin. He also worked with Roland Gresham, Sam Brooker, Greg Bryant, Chris West, Moe Denham, Nioshi Jackson, Charles Treadway and many more.

After moving to central Virginia in 2005, Brian has been privileged to work with such jazz artists as Robert Jospe, Butch Taylor, Dane Alderson, John D’earth, Bobby Read, Charles Owens, Jonah Kane-West, The Rootdowns, The Nicholson Brothers, Liz Barnes, any many more. He has also shared the stage with blues legends Bob Margolin, Mud Morganfield Jr., Big Bill Morganfield Jr., as well as Wayne Newton, Michael Allman, Groove Collective and the DJ Williams Projekt.

Link: http://brianmesko.com

Tickets for The Floyd Radio Show are $12.00 in advance or $15.00 the day of the show. They are available online, at the store, or by calling 540-745-4563.

To purchase tickets online, visit: https://www.floydcountrystore.com/event/the-floyd-radio-show-2019-02-02.

Each show is streamed live during the show and is available as a podcast. Many of the past show are re-broadcasted by partnering radio stations.

The Floyd Country Store occurs on the first Saturday of the month from September through May.

For more information, visit: https://www.floydcountrystore.com/event/the-floyd-radio-show-2019-02-02 or https://www.facebook.com/TheFloydRadioShow/ or https://www.facebook.com/floydcountrystore or call 540-745-4563.