2025 New Year's Dinner & Dance with Twin Creeks Stringband, Larry Sigmon & The Virginia Girls & More
Venue: Floyd Country Store, Floyd
Organizations: Mac Traynham, Twin Creeks Stringband, Unique Sound of the Mountains with Larry Sigmon
Date: Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Time: 6:00 PM - 12:00 AM
Event Types: Music, Food, Arts & Theatre
Cost:

Description:
The Floyd Country Store presents their 9th Annual New Year's Dinner & Dance featuring Twin Creeks String Band, Larry Sigmon & The Virginia Girls and Mac Traynham & Friends on Tuesday, December 31, 2024.

Event Schedule:
• 6:00-7:30 PM: Dinner
• 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM: Dancing and Live Music

Join us at the Floyd Country Store for our Annual New Year’s Eve Dinner & Dance with Twin Creeks Stringband, Larry Sigmon & The Virginia Girls and Mac Traynham & Friends. Dinner will be served from 6:30-7:30 PM and dancing and music from 8:00 PM – midnight.

The dinner include your choice of Turkey or Ham along with Mashed Potatoes, Poultry Gravy, Collards, Cranberry Relish, Garlic Greenbeans, Herb-Butter Carrots, Traditional Stuffing, Homemade Rolls and Assorted Desserts. All menu items made from scratch.

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

Larry Sigmon was born in Callaway, Virginia. His father, Lewis Eldridge Sigmon, was a locally beloved banjo and fiddle player. Larry taught himself harmonica as a child, and then moved to guitar, learning to play by backing up his father. When he took up the banjo at fifteen, it became his main instrument, and he developed a signature hard-driving, rhythmic style. Larry’s first band was the Sugar Hill Ramblers, a six-piece group that performed old time tunes and old country numbers for six years. He went on to play stints with Carl Scott and Richard Bowman until the late 1980s, when he met bassist Barbara Poole at a local fiddlers’ convention.

Larry and Barbara began performing together, winning countless ribbons in banjo, bass, and folk song competitions and playing at festivals, dances, and other concert venues. Their sound was so distinctive with just the banjo, bass, and Larry’s distinct singing, they became known as the “Unique Sound,” and gained a dedicated local following, particularly among flatfoot dancers. Larry and Barbara drew upon a repertoire of old time and bluegrass songs from Charlie Poole to Jimmy Martin and Bill Monroe, making songs their own through Larry’s strong vocals and Barbara’s double-slap bass. Throughout their eighteen-year career, the duo performed at the Carter Family Fold, the Grand Ole Opry, and mountain music festivals throughout the South, becoming one of the most popular bands in the Blue Ridge Mountains until Barbara passed away in 2008 after a long struggle with cancer.

Larry had quit performing until old-time musician and advocate Martha Spencer arrived to interview him for her online documentary project, Mountain Music Magazine. During their interview, Martha encouraged Larry to play some tunes and the “Unique Sound” was reborn.

The Unique Sound of the Mountains now features Heather Krantz on guitar and vocals, Susan Blankenship on bass and Ashlee Watkins on mandolin, guitar and vocals.

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

Floyd County master musician and luthier Mac Traynham is best known for his banjo building and playing, as well as his fine fiddling. He has been playing and teaching traditional music in Floyd, Virginia for decades and is a wealth of knowledge about the history of our local music traditions.

Links:

• http://mactraynham.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/mac.traynham
• https://www.instagram.com/mactraynham/

Tickets for the dinner and dance are $50.00 per person or $20.00 for the dance only.

To purchase tickets online visit: https://aftontickets.com/event/buyticket/l3x3nw2zjd or in-person at The Floyd Country Store.

The doors open at 5:30 PM and the event starts at 6:30 PM.

The Floyd Country Store is located at 206 South Locust St in Floyd, VA.

To view the event flyer, visit: https://i.postimg.cc/GpZg4Tvj/image.png.

For more information, visit: https://www.floydcountrystore.com/event/new-years-eve-2025 or https://www.facebook.com/floydcountrystore or https://www.facebook.com/events/1093790589126173 or https://www.instagram.com/thefloydcountrystore/ or call 540-745-4563.