Fountain Express

[Fountain, NC] Blues and roots music innovator PK Dwyer, scheduled for Friday night, has been forced to cancel. Stay tuned for news of when we can re-book this 30-year traveling-music veteran.

---

Local bluegrass favorites Farm & Home start the weekend's music off with a show and concert on Thursday night. Fronted by Shorty Mooring, whose inimitable stylings and onstage antics always make him a crowd-pleaser, the band also includes excellent musicans. Mooring is one of the best and most prolific songwriters in a region rich with undiscovered talent. Listen to him sing "My Poor Heart." (1.9 MB)

Brothers Bob Gaddis, on banjo, and Jim, on mandolin, are natives of Ohio whose early influences were the Osborne Brothers and Stanley Brothers.

H.C. Croom plays rhythm guitar and John Booker rounds out the group on bass.

Farm & Home's June 8 show and concert begins at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $3.

---

Walking by Faith will present a Saturday night concert of bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, and pop standards performed in original acoustic style. Sometimes with as many as 6 members, the band is led by Snow Hill's Mike Sugg. Other members travel from eastern North Carolina and Virginia for the band's performances.

Walking by Faith's June 10 concert begins at 7:30 p.m.; general admission is $3.

---

Dustin and the Furniture and Real Live Tigers will visit Fountain for a Sunday evening show at 8:00.

Dustin and the Furniture is the folk/acoustic/indie solo project of Dustin Goldklang, a touring singer/songwriter who hails from Atlanta, GA, and whose CD Aimless Turtle is on Oh!Map Records. This will be Dustin's second engagement at R.A. Fountain. Last spring he brought us a real display of heart-felt talent and his return to Fountain is most welcomed.

Also this day, we have another indie artist, Real Live Tigers (a.k.a Tony Presley) of Austin, TX, who cites as influences "old country music" and "old men who tell you important things when drunk." He'll be showing us the stuff he's been performing on two coasts and everywhere in between, from Phoenix to Chicago.

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.

Hamer's New CD "Rhinos Doing the Wild Thing" Now Available
The latest recording project by Greenville-based singer-songwriter Mike Hamer, Rhinos Doing the Wild Thing, has just been released and is available at R.A. Fountain and from Hamer, for $10.

The recording, made with Hamer and the Rhinoceroses with the Angelic Choir, is dedicated to the memory of Vinnie Brooks, who plays drums on all the tracks.

Like most Hamer recordings, this one includes an honor roll of some of the best musicians and singers from the Triangle and eastern North Carolina: Willie Painter, Craig Dittmar, Bill Newton, Robert Turner, Jay Shirley, Jim Roberts, Sue Luddeke, Laura Lemon, and Kim Wilson.

Highlights on the 10-track disc include the title song, "You're the Heat," the dream-narrative "Jesse," and "Joseph," co-written by Marty Silverthorne with Hamer, who wrote the rest of the songs.

Hamer, a longtime veteran of the Greenville music scene, frequently teaches a songwriting course in the English Department at ECU. Two of his previous recording projects, Black Crow and the 2005-release Love Dust, are also currently available for $10 each at Fountain General Store and from Hamer, who will remain based in Greenville until August, when he heads north on a vacation in search of cooler climes.

Rhinos Doing the Wild Thing will also soon be available at R.A. Fountain's secure e.store and at its new eBay store.

---

Bridges Family Bluegrass Replaces Heather Berry and Dominion Grass for June 30
The Sharpsburg-based family bluegrass band the Bridges Family will perform at Fountain General Store on June 30, replacing Heather Berry and Dominion Grass, who wound up with a schedule conflict. The Bridges include twins and two other siblings as well as their mother and father.

The show was booked through Marshall Stephenson, and at press time we've still not gotten full credits for each of the family names. The Bridges Family has released one CD, which Stephenson has put in heavy rotation on his Bluegrass Train radio show, heard on Sunday nights from 7-10 p.m. on 98.5 FM and on the internet at thebluegrasstrain.com.

What You're Reading:
Each week, we send out a news release to 17 area newspapers. The primary contents of each issue of the Fountain Express is that news release. The Express is distributed via an e.mail list in a version that contains no attachments.

To add friends to our e.mail subscription list, send their e.mail address to fountainexpress@rafountain.com. To remove yourself from the list, send an e.mail to the same address with "unsubscribe" as either text or subject.

Our e.mail list is not sold or traded or otherwise shared with anyone.