The Paul’s Creek Band

….notes from Paul’s Creek November 2009

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and it’s almost winter here at Paul’s Creek. The band is working hard to finish a new CD  by February 2010. Gigs are coming in for next spring, summer and fall and we look forward to our upcoming concert at the White Horse Black Mountain. It’s a  new venue that holds 650 people with cafe seating, join us Saturday December 12.  We are happy that Tim Gardner (High Windy) will join us once again on fiddle.

Last month’s Snuffy Jenkins festival at Isothermal Community College was a blast, it was a treat to perform with Doc Watson and David Holt. I played a songwriters in the round last week with Jay Brown of the Lazybirds, Laura Blackley and Bob Hinkle at WHBM, it was a great evening. My song “Carolina Cabin” appears on the soundtrack to the new documentary “Beer Y’All”, and the fall WNCW fundraiser was hard work, exciting and a great success. Thanks to all who support “This Old Porch”!

Jamie promises some new songs this year, we are recording his version of “Rose of my Heart” this month and Troy has us working on his version of the Staten Island Hornpipe.

The Holiday Parade was too much fun, Jamie and Troy had the weekend off and George Buckner, Emma McDowel, Brooke Buckner and I had a blast riding in the back of an antique pickup truck, playing music for those cute Cole Mountain Cloggers to dance through downtown.

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope to see you soon.

11/24/2009

 

October 1, 2009

Fall is really here at Paul’s Creek and we sure have been having fun.

“Paul’s Creek band represents what mountain music in the Blue Ridge is all about! The musicianship and variety is wonderful. And their interaction with the audience really makes for a great show! Feed & Seed highly recommends this band.”     Phillip Trees, owner of Feed and Seed, one of Western North Carolina’s most popular new venues.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mountain Heritage Day at WCU was sadly marred by torrential rain and the stage closed, not much picking there this year. We’ve had a busy and fun month. I really enjoyed the Steep Canyon Rangers with Steve Martin at the Mountain Songs festival in Brevard, and especially liked Shannon Whitworth and her band. Milton Harkey of Bluegrass First Class took the photo above backstage, Thanks Milton!

Last Sunday i mc’d the Flat Rock Folk Festival and sat in with the Moonshine Babies and  their jam. They were awesome, Suzanne Schmidt and Jerry just rock and exude fun and friendliness. The onstage jam with Gove Scrivner, Sam Anderson and more was as fun as it gets. Catch Paul’s Creek Band soon at the Southern Highlands handicraft fair at the Asheville Civic Center and the Waynesville Apple Harvest Festival, we’ll post all our upcoming dates on the schedule real soon, yikes it’s busy around here!

Tune in to “This Old Porch” this Sunday 3-6 p.m. on WNCW 88.7 fm or stream online at www.wncw.org   CR

Fall is coming to the banks of Paul’s Creek as the leaves fall and acorns hit the tin room. We’ve been so busy playing gigs we’ve missed our practice session here bythe creek.

Last week we returned for the first time in almost a year to Feed and Seed in Fletcher to host a wonderful evening with friends, every seat was full. Tim Gardner joined us again on fiddle and many in the crowd got up and danced, especially that wonderful Holly B.! Promoter Milton Harkey of Bluegrass First Class joined us that night too and i saw him again at the Mounain Songs Festival, what a well done and fun event. We’ll be at many upcoming events in the region this fall so come out and join us. Congratulations to Tim Gardner, Jamie Soesbee and Troy Harrison for winning first place fiddle, bass and banjo respectively at the Mountain State Fair, what a talented bunch.   CR

Wednesday September 9

    The last Shindig on the Green in downtown Asheville last week means the end of summer i guess. We’ve had so much fun playing this month. Fines Creek was a great festival and an added plus was meeting and playing with Tennessee’s legendary fiddler Fletcher Bright. We play this Friday September 11 at the Feed and Seed in Fletcher if you can join us, Tim Gardner plays fiddle. I hope a few friendly cloggers will try out the wooden floor to a fiddle tune or two. It’s a store front church on Sunday’s run by our friend Phillip Trees and we’re happy to be back there, the acoustics are great.

Carol’s summer updates August 2009

Wow, summer has just gotten away from me. The Paul’s Creek band schedule is updated for August! And our big news is that we now have a brand spankin’ new, state of the art sound system with all the wiz bangs for everything from concerts to square dances.

  We had a blast playing the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival at Diana Wortham Theater at Pack Place where the Paul’s Creek band was joined by Ralph, Marty and Don Lewis plus Arvil Freeman.  Arvil and Donny did some great twin fiddle playing and Marty played some great Dobro. Ralph was his usual wonderful self on mandolin and his singing is wonderful. His bass singing on “Turn Your Radio On” rocked! I also had the honor of presenting Bob Brunk with a special recognition award for his work in preserving heritage through his books and shape note singing.

  I love when friends join the band, at Shindig in June,  Arvil and Bryan McDowell joined us on twin fiddle, plus George Buckner jumped in on banjo. We will be at Shindig again on August 22 and September 5. August 22 will be my night to represent WNCW. September 5 I will  dance with the Green Grass Cloggers too.

 Last weekend was the first fundraiser I have worked with WNCW for “This Old Porch” and it was an important one. The station is losing over $200,000 in state funding and raised an incredible $128,000 but times are still tight. Jim Lauderdale came and helped during the show. He is special. I still love being part of “What It IS”, Joe Kendrick’s morning commentary as much as I can, working with the smart boys Jeff Eason and Fred Mills and new friends Wendy and Justin. You can stream on your computer, listen to the podcasts or download to itunes from www.wncw.org if you can’t listen in real time. Laura Blackley has a new show called “Southern Sirens” worth listening to.

 I had a blast interviewing Doc Watson and David Holt, they both rock. Sadly, David’s Dad passed away recently, that is a hard one. They opened for the Oak Ridge Boys at the Biltmore House and it was an awesome concert.  I just interviewed Josh Crowe recently too, wonderful person and their new CD “Brothers -N-Harmony” is great. Really fine singing. Don’t forget to read the take5 too, my stories appear weekly thanks to my wonderful editor Tony Kiss! Check it out on the street (the take5 is free in boxes or included in the purchased Friday paper) or at http://www.citizen-times.com/

 Band Gigs in the Near Future:

   Saturday August 15 Paul’s Creek at the Mountain Music Jamboree with Buncombe Turnpike, Fines Creek Flatfooters, Crowe Brothers and more.  6-10 p.m., http://www.haywoodcountyfairgrounds.org/

 Saturday August 22, Paul’s Creek at Shindig on the Green, Martin Luther King Park, downtown Asheville 7-10 p.m. www.folkheritage.org

 Friday and Saturday August 28,29, 4 p.m. to midnight, Paul’s Creek at the Fines Creek Bluegrass Festival at the old Fines Creek School, 192 Fines Creek Road, Clyde, N.C., Balsam Range, Buncombe Turnpike, lots of great bands, clogging teams, really fun small mountain festival   http://www.finescreek.org/bluegrass.html

 Friday September 4, Paul’s Creek plays Smokey Mountain Folk Festival at Stuart Auditorium, Lake Junaluska Assembly.   (800) 222-4930 www.smokymountainfolkfestival.com

 Saturday September 5 Paul’s Creek at the last Shindig of 2009, Carol dances with the Green Grass Cloggers too. Shindig on the Green, Martin Luther King Park, downtown Asheville 7-10 p.m. www.folkheritage.org

 Monday September 7 Paul’s Creek plus Tim Gardner plays the  Mountain State Fair, 6pm?, Agricultural center in Fletcher, www.mountainfair.org

 Tuesday September 8, Paul’s Creek plus Tim Garnder at Wild Wings, w cloggers the Bobcat Stompers, 161 Biltmore Ave. Asheville, 6-8:30 p.m. no cover, (828) 253-3066, http://www.wildwingcafe.com/asheville

 Friday September 11, 7 p.m. Paul’s Creek at the Feed and Seed Concerts, 3715 Hendersonville Road, Fletcher.   (828) 216-3492, www.feedandseednc.com

 Wow, tired of typing, more soon!