NextThreeDays: Event Display

Linda Lay & Sammy Shelor featuring Jesse Smathers & David Lay
Venue: Floyd Country Store, Floyd
Directions: Google Map Link
Organizations: Jesse Smathers, Linda & David Lay, Sammy Shelor
Date: Saturday, March 16, 2024
Time: 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Event Types: Music
Cost:
General Admission: $20.00 Reserved Seating: $25.00

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Description:
The Floyd Country Store presents Linda Lay & Sammy Shelor featuring Jesse Smathers & David Lay on Saturday, March 16, 2024.

Tight vocalist Linda Lay spent her early years with Janette Carter at the Carter Family Fold near Bristol, Virginia. With her husband and founding Springfield Exit guitarist David Lay, Linda has toured nationally with the masters of the Steel String Guitar and is the featured vocalist on the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ “Taking the Crooked Road Home.”

A Master Artist in traditional singing for the Virginia Folklife Program, Linda has performed with singers across several genres of music, from country’s Vern Gosdin and Carl Jackson to Piedmont blues singer John Cephas.

Linda Clayman Lay grew up in Clayman Valley, a tiny community named after her family outside of Bristol, Tennessee. She grew up surrounded by music in a family that treasured tunes, from old-time and bluegrass to gospel and traditional country. Her father, mandolinist Jack Clayman, formed a family band with Linda and his family, taking them to the places where the local musicians gathered, jammed, and performed. Linda spent a lot of Saturdays Carter Family Fold, a barn-like performing place, at the Carter home place at Hiltons in Scott County, a few miles west of Clayman Valley. Here she got to know Jeanette and Joe Carter, son and daughter of A.P. and Sara Carter of the original Carter Family. The Fold was one of the places Linda enjoyed going to flatfoot dance, but her father soon had her performing on guitar, and she later learned bass from the local fiddling barber, Gene Boyd. She also took up and mastered the autoharp.

Linda later founded and led Appalachian Trail, an innovative bluegrass band that performed for more than 20 years. In Appalachian Trail, Linda truly found her voice, becoming not just the band’s lead singer but one of the most beloved singers in bluegrass. During her years touring with Appalachian Trail, she met the gifted guitar player and singer—and her future husband—David Lay. David encouraged Linda to venture out to tour with other musicians, and today when she plays he is always beside her.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/Springfield-Exit-238507955794/

Virginia Country Music Hall of Famer, Sammy Shelor is 5-time IBMA Award Winner for Banjo Performer of the Year, 2011 Award Winner for the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass and has received numerous other awards and recognitions during his impressive career and is one of the greatest bluegrass banjoists of our time. Sammy currently leads the Lonesome River Band who have been entertaining audiences for more than 33 years.

When Sammy Shelor joined Lonesome River Band in 1990, he never envisioned himself leading the band only ten years later. Fresh off a six year stint with the popular Virginia Squires, Sam came on board along with Ronnie Bowman and before long, had recorded the landmark LRB CD, "Carrying The Tradition" with Dan Tyminski and Tim Austin. This recording quickly moved the band to headliner status, where they have remained ever since.

His peers in the International Bluegrass Music Association have voted him Banjo Player Of The Year on four separate occasions, and banjo pickers all over the world have studied Sammy’s tab books and instructional DVD from AcuTab.

Sammy got an early start with the banjo, when his grandfather fashioned him a banjo from an old pressure cooker lid when Sam was only four years old. His other grandfather then issued a challenge, promising to buy him a real banjo if the young Shelor would learn to play two songs. Sam met that mark in short order, and with the help of a family devoted both to him and to bluegrass music, he soon found himself entered in contests at fiddler’s conventions near his home in southwestern VA.

By age ten, he was performing in local bands and became a full time professional musician when he graduated from high school, joining The Heights Of Grass at age 19. That band eventually morphed into The Virginia Squires, and brought Sammy into contact with banjo legend Sonny Osborne, who helped shape the young picker’s approach to working as a pro banjo player.

As a testament to Sammy’s prominence and influence in the banjo world, he has his own signature Sammy Shelor banjo fingerpicks, and a signature model banjo produced by Huber Banjos. His influence on amateur and semi-pro pickers can be demonstrated by a casual walk through the parking lots or jam sessions at any bluegrass event, where licks and phrases which Sam has added to the repertoire are heard alongside those contributed by Earl Scruggs and JD Crowe.

Sammy also recorded and performs with country super star Alan Jackson on the “The Bluegrass Album”. They performed at Carnegie Hall, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Station Inn, and more.

Sammy has received a multitude of awards and recognitions during his impressive career including his induction into the 2009 Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame, 2011 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, 5-time winner of the IBMA Banjo Performer of the Year Award, 4-time winner of the SPBGMA Banjo Performer of the Year Award.

Links:

• http://www.sammyshelor.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/sammyshelorbanjo

Jesse Smathers is an accomplished mandolinist, guitarist, and singer from Eden, North Carolina.

Heavily influenced by the music that runs in his family, Jesse has found inspiration and takes pride in his musical family lineage. His grandfather, Harold Smathers, and grand uncle, Luke Smathers, recorded for June Appal and were awarded the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1993 for their contributions to North Carolina Folk Music with the Luke Smathers String Band.

Jesse began playing the guitar at age 11, picked up the mandolin at 15, and was heavily influenced by the music of Lonesome River Band. In 2009, he won the guitar championship of the Virginia Folk Music Association. He has also won at the Charlie Poole Festival and placed 3rd in guitar at The Old Time Fiddlers Convention in Galax. The following year, he began his career as a touring musician with the James King Band, playing mandolin and singing tenor and high baritone, and later rejoined the band performing guitar and vocals. In 2013, High Voltage, featuring Jesse as the lead vocalist, won first place in the bluegrass band category at the Galax Old Time Fiddler’s Convention.

In 2014, Jesse joined Nothin’ Fancy. The same year, he was also inducted in Phi Mu Alpha, a music fraternity, as a Sinfonian, joining such greats as John Phillip Sousa, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Andy Griffith. The Lonesome River Band welcomed him to the group as a mandolin player and lead and tenor vocalist in 2015, and Jesse won the 2017 IBMA Momentum Award for Vocalist of the Year. Mayhayley’s House, LRB’s second album to feature Jesse, was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2019 IBMA Awards.

Jesse now resides in Floyd, Virginia. He now performs on guitar with Lonesome River Band, and he’s also a member of the core faculty at the Handmade Music School, the Floyd Country Store’s traditional music school.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/Jessesmathers1

Tickets are $20.00 for general admission and $25.00 reserved seating.

Tickets are available for sale online at https://aftontickets.com/event/buyticket/7pj6qo19r0 and in the store.

Doors open at 6:00 PM and the music starts at 7:00 PM.

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

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