January's Beans and Banjos with Eight Point Star and Fort Vause
Venue: Meadowbrook Center, Shawsville
Organizations: Eight Point Star, Fort Vause, LINC Letter
Date: Saturday, January 28, 2023
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Event Types: Music, Food, Family Friendly
Cost:

Description:
The Shawsville Ruritans and The LINC Letter presents January's Beans and Banjos on Saturday, January 28, 2023 in the Dr. George R. Smith Community Room inside Shawsville’s Meadowbrook Center.

A trio-version of Eight Point Star will be the featured band at January’s Beans and Banjos along with Fort Vause. In addition to the music, the evening will feature a meal of beans, cornbread and dessert. It’ll be a humdinger of a show!

Eight Point Star features Mike Gangloff and Matt Peyton. They do most of the songwriting. Mike, who has a new solo album out, plays fiddle and banjo and an eight-string, Norwegian Hardanger-style fiddle. Matt plays guitar, dulcimer and sometimes theremin. Tim Thornton plays bass, dulcimer and sometimes guitar. Isak Howell, who plays banjo, guitar and harmonica, won’t be at this show. Versions of the band has toured from Carolina to Maryland and in Europe. Mike and Isak have toured and recorded extensively with the old-time string band The Black Twig Pickers – who also brought out a new album in 2021.

Promotions for the group’s eponymous album call them a “Cosmic-Appalachian string band.” That album (Yes it’s on vinyl, but you can stream it and download it, too.) is all original music. The CD the band produced as a companion to Blue Ridge Public Television’s documentary, The Story of the New River, is a mix of old-time standards and originals. You can see and hear a trio version of the band online on Blue Ridge PBS’s Project Southwest, too.

This month’s version of Fort Vause will feature the band’s new fiddler, Aran Garnett-Deakin. Aran plays in the Virginia Tech Philharmonic Orchestra and won a ribbon last summer fiddling with the Hot House Cucumbers, the first-place old time band at this year’s Hoppin’ John Fiddler’s Convention. Aran will be backed up by Jeff Wilcke, a doctor of veterinary medicine and rhythm guitar who also plays mandolin; and Tim Thornton, who plays bass and sometimes guitar for the band and has recorded with the Black Twig Pickers and Eight Point Star.

There’s no admission fee, but the LINC Letter hopes everybody who attends will chip in at least a $5.00 donation to help the LINC Letter keep publishing.

Supper and music start at 6:00 PM.

As always, we operate on granny rules: no drinking, no smoking, no cussing, no spitting on the floor. Y’all come on out for supper. Stay to dance and sing along or just sit there and pat your foot.

LINC Letter is the non-profit community newsletter for Eastern Montgomery, and an affiliate of Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation. The LINC Letter is distributed to residents of Alleghany, Elliston, Ironto, Lafayette and Shawsville, Virginia.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/eastmont.lincletter

Meadowbrook Center is located at 267 Alleghany Spring Road in Shawsville, VA.

For more information, visit: https://shawsvilleruritan.wordpress.com/.