May Listening Room Concert featuring American Roots
Venue: Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley, Pulaski
Directions: Google Map Link
Organizations: American Roots
Date: Friday, May 2, 2025
Time: 5:00 - 8:00 PM
Event Types: Music
Cost: Free
The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley presents May Listening Room Concert featuring American Roots on Friday, May 2, 2025.
Join us as we welcome American Roots, the incredible father/son duo Fred and Jon Benfield, to close out the 2024–25 First Friday Listening Room season!
American Roots is a Blacksburg-based, father and son 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” (folk tunes played at bluegrass tempo).
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.”
Event entry is free however a $5.00 donation is suggested.
The Listening Room opens at 5:00 PM with light refreshments and a cash bar serving beer and wine. Music is from 6:00-8:00 PM.
There is free parking on the streets in downtown as well as several free lots including one behind the Pulaski Theatre across the street from the Fine Arts Center.
The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley is located at 21 West Main Street in Pulaski, VA.
To view the event flyer, visit: https://i.postimg.cc/bvDXt1cG/image.png.
For more information, visit: https://www.facnrv.org/blog/2025/4/28/american-roots-perform-in-our-listening-room-this-friday-may-2 or https://www.facebook.com/facnrv or https://www.facebook.com/events/1027123725467137 or https://www.instagram.com/fineartscenterforthenrv/ or call 540-980-7363.
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