Fountain Express

[Fountain, NC] The Boys from Carolina return to Fountain General Store this Saturday night for a concert of driving bluegrass music that features the tight vocal hamronies of all five members.

These bluegrass veterans boast over 140 years of bluegrass performing experience in their current band, which grew out of their associations in Friends in Bluegrass. They assemble from various points across northeastern North Carolina to perform, and were a big hit in Fountain their first time through. [link to photo of Boys from Carolina performing at R.A. Fountain]

Wright Young of Durham has been playing mandolin for over 25 years. He formerly played with the Eno Ramblers and Friends in Bluegrass.

Chuck Shutte of Raleigh plays dobro, and his 30 year career includes stints with Friends in Bluegrass and Piedmont Bluegrass.

Lindy Brown, also of Raleigh, has played bass in a 30 year career with Sweet Dixie and Varina Station.

Larry Nunnery of Benson plays guitar and has worked with the Tony McLamb Band, Hanna Creek String Band, and Lonesome Pine Bluegrass.

Bob Wilkerson of Smithfield has been playing banjo for over 35 years. Before settling in North Carolina, he was active in the Maryland/Northern Virginia bluegrass scene, where he performed with Leon Morris, Bill Harold, Cliff Waldon, and Jack Fincham and Dixie Grass.

Boys from Carolina's May 27 concert begins at 7:30. General admission is $5.

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This 4-day run of music in Fountain begins on Wednesday night with a homecoming concert by Lipbone Redding, who bills himself as a "one-man orchestra, singer, songwriter, world-traveler, and storyteller."

A native of Greenville, where he was known as Lawrence V. Behr, II, Redding performs more than 200 shows a year for audiences in South America, Europe, Asia, and along the eastern seaboard of the U.S.

Currently a resident of New York City, he performs most Sunday nights at the Anyway Cafe in Manhattan.

His music has been featured on the new F/X prime time television series Starved.

Redding's dynamic performances have been likened to performance art. He fuses his songs and tales of world travels with vocal trumpeting and tromboning, beat-boxing, and other wild mouth noises which approximate synthesizers and electronica.

Lipbone Redding's May 24 show begins at 8 p.m.; admission is $3.

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Chicago's Abe Quigley performs a folk Americana concert in Fountain on Thursday night. His shows feature outstanding acoustic guitar work mixed with a stage presence that has brought comparisons to Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson.

Quigley is traveling in support of his newly released second CD, b. Both it and his first CD, acousticrockjazzfunk, will be available at his May 25 show, which begins at 8 p.m. General admission is $3.

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Charlie Flowers and International Harvesters return to Fountain for a county music show and dance on Friday night. Flowers, the Wilson entertainer who is popular at open mic and karaoke shows throughout the region as a solo artist, usually brings along several performing guests to augment regulars Darren Lee on drums and Larry Hilliard on bass for his Fountain shows.

Charlie Flowers and International Harvesters May 26 show begins at 8 p.m. General admission is $5.

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.

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

Helms/Malpass Nearly Sold-out
As of press time, less than 25 seats remain to be sold for the June 1 concert and Hank Williams tribute featuring Don Helms and the Malpass Family.

BULLETIN: Illness Forces Don Helms to Cancel
Click here for message.

Come Read Our Mail
The international mail art show "Crossroads: World" opens June 3 for a summer run at Fountain General Store.

The show includes 120 pieces, with entries mailed to Fountain from 14 international artists representing 12 countries and 53 artists from 13 U.S. states. Local artists in the show include Mel Stanforth of Greenville and a couple from the Greene County town of Walstonburg who identify themselves only by initials.

"We got a flyswatter and three flies from Chicago," said store proprietor Alex Albright, "a nicely decorated Frisbee from Minnesota, and a surprising number of very fine paintings, collages, and pieces of stamp and photocopy art."

The show was promoted on webpages throughout the world that specialize in announcing calls for entries for mail art exhibits. Albright said he was pleased by the response, especially for his shop's first venture into the correspondence mail art world, which first gained notice and popularity through the work of Ray Johnson in New York City in the 1950s.

Johnson's artistic aesthetics were honed at Black Mountain College, where he studied in the 1940s with Josef Albers. Among the BMC crowd with which he associated in NYC in the '50s were John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly.

Mail art principles are simple, basic, and adaptable, said Albright: "The art is a gift, really, to the community that hosts the show. Whatever's mailed is exhibited, and documentation of the show is returned to all artists."

The original call for entries asked artists to connect their world with that of Fountain, "a small crossroads town in rural eastern North Carolina." All entries, the call stated, would be displayed, "subject to small town Southern sensibilities and tastes."

"So on one of the entries," Albright noted, "we had to black out a word."

"Crossroads: World" received several entries from Ocracoke-based Bob Ray and Kevin Hardy, and Carbondale, Ill.-based Richard Canard (a.k.a. Richard Craven), who lives in what he calls "the state of Illusion." In 1976 Craven curated a one-man show of Johnson's correspondence art at the NC Museum of Art.

"Crossroads: World" will officially open for a summer run on June 3 with a reception to meet the artists from 5-7 and a concert by Wilson-based singer-songwriter Chet Nichols beginning at 8 p.m.

Nichols, who studied art at ECU, has been described as "an eastern Carolina Springsteen," though his narrative songs are more reflective of the tobacco belt than the rust belt of Bruce Springsteen's world. He has released two CDs, Somewhere Out There and Local Vocal Session, both of which are available at R.A. Fountain, over the counter or by clicking here.

Most entries for "Crossroads: World" can be viewed at rafountain.com/crossroads.
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Artists whose work will be included in "Crossroads: World"

NC Artists

DRF of Walstonburg, NC
EFF of Walstonburg, NC
Kevin Hardy of Ocracoke, NC
David Norris of Wilmington, NC
Barbara Ray of Ocracoke, NC
Bob Ray of Ocracoke, NC
Mel Stanforth of Greenville, NC

Artists from Other States

Vycki Angel of Pinson, AL
Anne L. Braunschweig of Corrales, NM
Pati Bristow of Los Altos, CA
Dan Buck of Armour, SD
Richard Canard of Carbondale, Illusion
Eric Carlson of Forest Grove, OR
Eva W. Christopherson of St. Peter, MN
Dan of Portland, OR
Jesse Edwards of Granada Hills, CA
René Z. Garza of Weslaco, TX
Mim Golub of Richmond, VA
Lex Loeb of Portland, OR
16 from Maggie O., friends & family
Pondidia of Troy, NY
Tim Scannell of Port Angeles, WA
Scott Thomas of Lexington, KY
R. Trawick of Fontana, CA
Joseph A. Uphoff of Colorado Springs, CO
Yvette van der Velde of Plain City, OH
Vickiwin of Bryon, MN
Sean Whatever of So. Charleston, WV
Pablo Wright of Cincinnati, OH
Tamara Wyndham of New York, NY

International artists

Jo Bennet of Alton Hants, UK
Muhammad Rasfan B. Hj. Abu Bakar of Selamgor, Malaysia
Denis Charnot of Marnaz, France
Ryosuke Cohen of Osaka, Japan
Ah Davin of Lapalud, France
Costas Evangelatos of Athens, Greece
Luis Diaz Garcia of Madrid, Spain
G.D.P. of Sint-Katharina-Lombeek, Belgium
Sinasi Gunes of Sisli - Istanbul, Turkey
Jean-Luc LaCroix of Marolles, France
Millesime/Sinepress of Bathori, Hungary
peg leg of Surrey, B.C., Canada
Barry Edgar Pilsher of Court Donegal, Eire
Morena Regaiolli of Venice, Italy
Miriam Tagliati of Bologna, Italy

June Music at Fountain General Store: Mark Your Calendars

Thursday, June 1, 8 p.m. -- $8, $10.50 reserved
Don Helms & Malpass Family
Classic Hank Williams from the steel guitarist who defined Hank's sound, teamed up with the best country/bluegrass band in eastern NC.
FEWER THAN 25 SEATS REMAIN TO BE SOLD.

Friday, June 2, 8 p.m. -- $5
Steve Creech Sextet, with Carol-Ann Tucker
Hot jazz and classic ballads: a big city kind of show

Saturday, June 3, 8 p.m. -- $3
Chet Nichols
Alt-Americana, original songs from the Springsteen of eastern NC

Thursday, June 8, 7:30 p.m. -- $3
Farm & Home
Shorty Mooring and the Gaddis Brothers always put on a great bluegrass show.

Friday, June 9, 8 p.m. -- $3
PK Dwyer
Recently named "best blues act" in Seattle, Washington area

Saturday, June 10, 7:30 p.m. -- $3
Walking by Faith
Bluegrass and bluegrass gospel with some pop standards in original acoustic style

Sunday, June 11, 8 p.m. -- FREE
Dustin the Furniture
Real Live Tigers
Two traveling shows, both performing original material

Thursday, June 15, 7:30 p.m. -- $3
Four-Way Grass
Bluegrass from the Lenoir County crossroads of Four-Way

Friday, June 16, 8 p.m. -- $5
Tamalyn with Steve Creech Sextet
Country music from Las Vegas via Greenville, with the inimitable Creech and crew

Saturday, June 17, $7:30 p.m. -- $5
Bluegrass Redemption
One of Fountain's favorite bluegrass bands finally returns

Sunday, June 18, 3:00 p.m. -- FREE
Melody Brown
Outstanding original acoustic music from Zebulon-based singer-songwriter

Thursday, June 22, 8 p.m. -- $3
Javis Street Bluegrass Band
ECU students bring jamming fever to their bluegrass shows

Friday, June 23, 8 p.m. -- $5
Andy Coats
West coast blues from this Raleigh native who's recently returned to live in NC

Saturday, June 24, 7:30 -- $7.50
High Ground Bluegrass Band
Great bluegrass from the Shendandoah Valley in Virginia

Sunday, June 25, 8 p.m. -- FREE
Joe Wilson
Forever in Motion
Original music from traveling troubadours

Thursday, June 29, 7:30 p.m. -- $3
Dymond City Express
Williamston-based bluegrass band makes their Fountain debut

Friday, June 30, 8 p.m. -- $5
Heather Berry & Dominion Grass
Blue Circle Recording artists -- supported by Tom T. & Dixie Hall

What You're Reading:
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