NextThreeDays: Event Display

Americana Afternoon Music with American Roots and Marteka & William
Venue: Floyd Country Store, Floyd
Directions: Google Map Link
Organizations: American Roots, Marteka and William
Date: Saturday, August 10, 2019
Time: 12:00 - 3:00 PM
Event Types: Music
Cost: Free

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Description:
Floyd Country Store presents Americana Afternoon Music with American Roots and Marteka & William on Saturday, August 10, 2019.

Schedule:
• 12:00 pm: American Roots
• 1:30 pm: Marteka & William

American Roots is a Blacksburg-based acoustic guitar and vocal harmony duo performing roots and Americana music penned between about 1900 and 1950. Fred and Jon Benfield took the name “American Roots” because it describes the music they have enjoyed performing together in the five-county area over the last 30 or so years.

The father and son guitar duo's musical influences are many and varied as are their shows which could be characterized as Americana Music: “Carter Family to Gershwin”. They are "Crooked Road Artists” interested in preserving the music of the southern Appalachians, but also enjoy performing tunes from other genres. Fred and Jon have spent most of their lives in and around the southern Appalachians and have developed an affection for the broad scope of music appreciated by folks in the region. Their performance may include traditional ballads, Appalachian blues, Piedmont blues, trad-country, trad-jazz, western swing, early country, tin-pan alley toe tappers, swing tunes, hot fiddle tunes (on guitar), and “folkgrass”.

They’ve performed at venues all around the region including the Floyd Country Store, Blacksburg’s Steppin’ Out festival and Shawsville's Beans and Banjos.

An retired ecology professor at Virginia Tech, Fred Benfield told a writer for Virginia Tech’s website, “My favorite part of performing is the communication that occurs between us during gigs. We’ve played together for so long that we just somehow know where the other is going on tunes without saying anything or even looking at each other.”

Link: https://www.facebook.com/American-Roots-260081600850582/

Marteka and William are a classic bluegrass music group performing in the style of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. They are based in Hacker Valley, West Virginia.

Marteka and William are rapidly making a name for themselves in the bluegrass music business appearing with such people as J.D. Crowe on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour in Lexington, KY, which was aired national on PBS and Blue Highways TV which went into over 90 million homes in America, and was broadcasted into 170 countries on the radio.

They have also opened up for Melvin Goins at the Mountaineer Opry House in Milton. Mr. Goins later said, "In my 60 years performing Marteka and William played some of the smoothest, purest bluegrass I have ever heard". They are endorsed by the national banjo company Stelling Banjos. Geoff Stelling, owner of Stelling Banjos built her a one of a kind stelling banjo, and in her honor named the model after her, "The Marteka Challenge". Happening at the age of 15-years-old this is an outstanding accomplishment for Marteka and William.

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

Admission is free.

On Saturdays the Floyd Country Store presents their Americana Afternoon starting at noon. The music is varied, but has the common thread of Americana: traditional acoustic music. Some of it is indigenous, including bluegrass, or the music of contemporary singer-songwriters: you might hear the blues, or some of the Celtic or African sounds that underpin our American folk traditions.

For more information, visit: http://www.floydcountrystore.com or https://www.facebook.com/floydcountrystore or call 540-745-4563.