Fountain Express

The return of Nancy and Tammy Dail and the Country Roads Band on Friday night highlights the upcoming weekend of music in Fountain, which also includes three bluegrass shows.

The mother-daughter singing duet from Raleigh front one of the area's most popular country music attractions. "This is an excellent band," said Alex Albright, Fountain General Store proprietor, "and they put on a dynamic show."

Bowie Martin on steel guitar leads the band, which also includes Ronnie King on guitar; Glenn Speight on bass; Ken Dawson on drums; and John Ackerman on keyboards.

Nancy and Tammy Dail and the Country Roads' April 7 concert begins at 7:30. General admission is $8; reserved seats -- highly recommended -- are $10.50.

Hear the Country Roads Band perform a couple of numbers from their CD Country Music Bill Ellis Style --
"Those Memories" (3.8 MB)
"Just Someone I Used to Know" (2.2 MB)

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The 4-day run of music begins on Thursday night with a concert presented by bluegrass impresario Marshall Stephenson and Clyde Mattocks, one of the best and most versatile musicians in eastern North Carolina.

Stephenson hosts the Sunday night radio show Bluegrass Train on Rocky Mount's 98.5, and he has been a local favorite since R.A. Fountain opened. "Marshall got our bluegrass jam going for us," said Albright. "He's been playing and promoting bluegrass in eastern North Carolina since the 1960s, and we're always glad to have him in town."

Stephenson has released two CDs under his own name. He most recently was in town with his Superpickers, an all-star bluegrass band that he assembles for occasional dates in Fountain and elsewhere.

Mattocks, one of the original SuperGrit Cowboys, also has a bluegrass band, Highway 58, and he has released two CDs under his own name, one featuring his dobro playing and the other his steel guitar. He plays bass on the recently released CD by Chris Malpass and Don Helms, Turn Back the Years, a collection of Hank Williams songs.

The Stephenson-Mattocks concert begins at 7:30 on April 6. Admission is $3.

Hear Marshall Stephenson perform "Sittin' on Top of the World" (2.7 MB) from the CD Sing the Old Songs.

Hear Clyde Mattocks perform the title tune (2.7 MB) from his CD Hugging the Hound.

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Greenville native Alice Zincone brings her band, Haywire, with Rick Lafleur to town for a Saturday night concert of traditional and original bluegrass. Zincone plays banjo, sings, and writes many of the band's songs, including the title track from their debut CD, Moma's Voice. Lafleur, a native of Canada who settled in North Carolina to be closer to the true roots of bluegrass music, plays banjo.

Haywire's April 8 concert begins at 8:00. Admission is $5.

Hear Haywire perform "Big Black Train" (1.6 MB) from the CD Moma's Voice.

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On Sunday, the Marlboro Boys return to Fountain for their monthly free concert of bluegrass gospel. Showtime is 3:00. Hear them playing a couple of numbers:
"Farside Banks of Jordan" from the CD First Time Around (2.4 MB)
"Prayer Bells of Heaven" from the CD God's Only Son (2.7 MB)

Reserved seats are available for all shows. Prices are always posted on our up-coming events page. For further information, phone 252-749-3228.

R.A. Fountain, General Store and Internet Cafe, is located in historic downtown Fountain, at the intersection of US 258 and NC 222. Its family atmosphere is smoke- and alcohol-free.

CD Review: Jerry Peterson's Deep into the Woods
by Willie Painter

Jerry Peterson is a singer/songwriter from Butternut, Wisconsin. Yeah, I know; I had to look it up. It's way up there between the Michigan and Minnesota borders, with Lake Superior a few miles to the north. Evidently there is still plenty of forest land up that way, because that's what the songs on this CD of all original material talk about. Peterson has an engaging baritone voice and plays most of the instruments, save percussion, himself.

The title cut is an uptempo tune with sprightly harmonica and conga drums fleshing out the rhythm. "Out At The Cabin" has a more languid feel, thanks to the dark slide guitar that meanders around the melody. "A Family" brings to mind Steve Earle's picking style, while "Camper Made For Two" swings, moving easily through a variation of a basic blues vamp.

It's on "Another Day" that Peterson turns more introspective:

We all get hurt along the way
Some skies are blue, some skies are gray
We move along without delay
'Cause after all it's just another day

This is a well produced album that should entertain folk/Americana fans.

Jerry Peterson performs at R.A. Fountain, General Store & Internet Cafe on April 13; he will also be performing in Wilmington and Carrboro during April. For more information, see jerrypeterson.net.

About the reviewer: Guitarist Willie Painter, who has lived in Durham for a decade, wrote a regular music column for the Urban Hiker for five years.

A native of Dallas, Texas, he has performed with several Triangle-based bands, including the Real Gone Cats, the Boomers, the Pigz Brothers, and with Lightnin' Wells, Mike Hamer, and many others. Currently he fronts the Willie Painter Band, with Craig Dittmar on bass and vocals and John Hanks on drums and vocals, both of whom he has played music with since high school.

With this issue, Painter joins the staff of Fountain Express as our regular music reviewer.

April is Poetry Month
Barton College in Wilson will host "Walking into Poetry: Moving the Mountains East," on Saturday, April 8.

Visiting poets will be Keith Flynn, editor of the Asheville Poetry Review, and Kathryn Stripling Byer, North Carolina's Poet Laureate, who lives in Culhowhee. Barton's poet-in-residence Jim Clark, a Tennessee mountain man in his own right, will be part of the program, which also showcases Barton College student poets.

Clark has performed at Fountain General Store as a solo artist and also as a part of the Near Myths, who will celebrate the release of their new CD Wilson in Fountain on April 29.

Registration for "Walking into Poetry" begins at 8:45, and a lunch is available for a small charge. Contact Barton English professor Rebecca Godwin for further information or to register: rlgodwin@barton.edu.

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