Fountain AfterDark vol 3, no 33 August 23, 2007 published weekly by R.A. Fountain, General Store & Internet Cafe Boys from Carolina Play Bluegrass Friday, International Harvesters Country on Saturday ¥ High Ground Bluegrass Saturday 2 p.m. at Winterville for Free ¥ RAF Updates ¥ Cool NC Post Card Show On-line at UNC [Fountain, NC] Two of eastern North Carolina's most popular bands perform Friday and Saturday night shows of bluegrass and country music at Fountain General Store this coming weekend. The Boys from CarolinaÊ is a Triangle-based quintet that boasts over 140 years of bluegrass picking experience. They are noted for exceptional 4-part harmonies and expert picking. The Boys perform original bluegrass as well as covers of classic bluegrass and bluegrass gospel songs. Bandsmen include Bob Wilkerson on banjo; Lindy Brown on bass; Larry Nunnery, lead guitar; Charles Schutte, Dobro; and Wright Young, mandolin. All but Wilkerson are native to the Triangle area and have collectively played with many of the region's best-known bluegrass bands. Wilkerson performed in the Baltimore area with several bluegrass bands before relocating to Smithfield. They have released one CD, "Train Ride Home," which contains mostly original numbers. The Boys from Carolina perform August 24 at 8 p.m.; general admission is $5. Charlie Flowers and the International Harvesters perform classic honky-tonk country music. Flowers, the Hootin' Cowboy, fronts a band of fine musicians led by Johnny Barham of Wendell on pedal steel guitar. Ryan Kirby plays bass and Darren Lee plays drums; both live in Wilson. Flowers, of Elm City, plays guitar and harmonica and does most of the band's lead singing. They are often joined by guest guitarists and singers from the Wilson-area country music scene. Charlie Flowers and the International Harvesters' show begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 25. General admission is $5. R.A. Fountain, General Store and Internet Cafe, is located at 6754 E. Wilson Street in downtown Fountain, at the intersection of US 258 and NC 222. Its family atmosphere is smoke- and alcohol-free. For further information, visit www.rafountain.com or phone 252-749-3228. -30 ÊÊ ÊPHOTO of the Boys from Carolina The Boys from Carolina, posing outside Fountain General Store, where they'll perform original and classic bluegrass and bluegrass gospel on Friday night, August 24, at 8 p.m. http://rafountain.com/pictures/BoysFromCarolina/Boys_at_RAf.jpg Hi Resolution PHOTO of Charlie Flowers performing at Fountain General Store http://rafountain.com/pictures/CharlieFlowers_IntlHar/CharlieFlowers_lg.jpg -30- High Ground Bluegrass Plays for Free Saturday 2 pm in Winterville [Winterville, NC] Winterville Watermelon Festival festivities begin this evening and continue through Saturday evening. Performing for free on Saturday at 2 p.m. is High Ground Bluegrass which has put on a couple of excellent shows in Fountain. From the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, this is a quartet of outstanding pickers with a genuine love for traditional bluegrass. They've also got the kind of sweet 4-part harmony that helps transform a really good show into a great one. Larry Taylor plays guitar, Rick Altis plays bass and guitar, Jimmy Almarode plays mandolin, and Bryan Plemmons plays banjo. They'll perform a high-energy 1-hour set that will feature originals as well as some classic bluegrass and bluegrass gospel covers. Rides, crafts, lots of watermelon games, and on Saturday, the local historical society will be open about 11 a.m. on Main Street. -30- RAF Updates Our fried hard drive got replaced courtesy of our having purchased an AppleCare package. But when a technician tried to retrieve data from it, all he got was a loud buzzing sound. "Not good," he said, in rendering the verdict that all data was lost. And thus we joined the long list of folks who learned the hard way the value of backing up computer files. (We trust that you, gentle readers, have made such protection for your ownselves.) Primary among our losses were all e.mail communications and addresses accumulated prior to the storms that hit Fountain on August 10, and several live recordings that Cliff Nelson had engineered. And we lost some photos. But most of our business is remote from here, on our server, who's in Greenville and better protected (and backed up) than we were, where winds hit 58 mph and an extended power outage produced a brownout that got us. Our ability to distribute Fountain AfterDark was limited last week to the use of a webmail program. With this issue, our usual method should resume, and you should again be receiving our weekly newsletter from the "fountainexpress@rafountain.com" address. We're still not up to speed on updating our events page. We had just gotten caught up with the past events page and had also gotten almost all back issues of Fountain AfterDark uploaded on our webpage. Our air conditioning unit is fully functioning now, with a new compressor. No word on why "Our State" magazine didn't run the story it had prepared, along with photos from the Malpass Brothers and Don Helms show in April. Its September "Music Issue" features a piece on the Carolina Chocolate Drops but pretty much ignores the eastern part of NC. Cantaloupe ice cream is in! Homemade at Jones Fruit Farm outside of Walstonburg, and like their strawberry, peach, and blueberry flavors, made with fresh, locally grown fruit. ¥ ¥ ¥ Fun with Post Cards in Virtual Show at UNC Library (Chapel Hill, NC) The North Carolina Collection at UNC's Wilson Library is currently showcasing an outstanding collection of early NC-related postcards. The show cards have been culled from a collection that topped 12,000 items with the recent addition of the Druwwood Barbour collection--over 8,000 items itself.Ê The exhibit, which can be viewed in person at Wilson Library through September, is also online, where you can find a county-by-county click-on map of NC. Clicks on Pitt, Wilson, Nash, Greene, and Edggecombe counties reveal early 20th century post cards of downtown Greenville, Farmville, Rocky Mount, Wilson, and Snow Hill. The site also includes a chart that will aid in identifying post cards you might find in your own collection. Check it out:Êhttp://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/nc_post/ ¥ ¥ ¥ What You're Reading ÊÊ Ê Ê Each week, we send out a news release to 26 area newspapers and radio stations. The primary contents of each issue of Fountain AfterDark is that news release. The FAD distributed via e.mail contains no attachments. ÊÊ Ê Ê To add friends to our e.mail subscription list, send their e.mail address to ?fountainexpress@rafountain.com.? To remove yourself from this list, reply to this e.mail with ?unsubscribe? as either text or subject of your e.mail. Ê Ê Our e.mail list is not sold or traded or otherwise shared with anyone. Ê Ê Ê Please let us know of any suspected abuses of the Fountain AfterDark/Fountain Express distribution list. -30- Fountain AfterDark vol 3, no 34 August 30, 2007 published weekly by R.A. Fountain, General Store & Internet Cafe Farm and Home Bluegrass Band Plays Friday in Fountain, Which Is Dark on Saturday ¥ 3-Day Live Music Weekend Resumes Next Week, Sept 7-9 ¥ Proprietors Gone to Chapel Hill for Navy Band Reunion [Fountain, NC] The Farm and Home Bluegrass Band plays classic bluegrass and bluegrass gospel at Fountain General Store this coming Friday. On an otherwise quiet Labor Day weekend, this local quartet of pickers is the only act playing Fountain. Fronted by the Gaddis brothers, Bob and Jim, Farm and Home has played Fountain several times before, usually with Shorty Mooring playing guitar. Mooring is no longer associated with the band, which has added Donald Dunn on lead guitar. The Gaddis brothers have been active on the eastern NC bluegrass scene since re-locating here from Ohio some 25 years ago.ÊBob plays banjo; brother Jim plays mandolin. John Booker of Greenville joins the band on bass. They all share vocals. Farm and Home's August 31 concert begins at 8 p.m. General admission is $5. Fountain General Store will resume its long weekends of live music September 7, when the Wilson-based Whitewater Run ÊÊplays bluegrass. Also on that weekend, the twin sisters act the Bowmans from Brooklyn, NY, will perform free-at-3 on Sunday afternoon, September 9, and Mike Hamer and Tommy Gillespie will be featured in a singer-songwriter showcase on September 8. R. A. Fountain, General Store and Internet Cafe is located at the intersectiion of US 258 and NC 222, in historic downtown Fountain. Its family atmosphere is smoke- and alcohol-free. For further information, visitwww.rafountain.comor phone 252-749-3228. -30- Historic Black Navy Band Reunion at Chapel Hill this Weekend [Chapel Hill, NC] When the US Navy B-1 Band veterans enter Kenan Stadium this Saturday prior to UNC's home opener against James Madison University, they'll be on familiar turf.Ê But in the half-century that has passed since they last performed in Kenan, the times and crowds have changed immeasurably. B-1 performed on many occasions in Kenan during World War II, but when they did, they and the university's custodial staff were the only African-Americans present.Ê "Nothing was open to us back then," recalls Calvin Morrow, one of the 13 surviving members of the 44-man regimental band who will be in town for the weekend's events.Ê Prior to Saturday's game, the vets will be made honorary members of the Marching Tar Heels. Photos of them from their service days--including a performance in Kenan--will be flashed on the big screen as they are recognized.Ê The B-1 was formed in 1942 almost exclusively of North Carolinians, student musicians at NC A&T, North Carolina Central, Hampton Institute, South Carolina State, and Johnson C. Smith as well as Dudley High in Greensboro and Hillside High in Durham. When they were inducted in Raleigh, on May 27, 1942, they became the first African Americans to serve in the modern Navy at rank other than galley.Ê "Somehow, the Navy seems to have lost that record," said Alex Albright, an East Carolina University professor who is the band's official historian. "Even after officially recognizing their existence in 1981, the Navy's official record grants this barrier-breaking distinction to the sailors who trained at the Great Lakes bases in Chicago, beginning in August 1942. But by then, the B-1 was already trained and in place, attached to the PreFlight School at UNC." The weekend's reunion begins with a reception at Wilson Library on Friday, Aug. 31 at 3 p.m., where Chancellor James Moeser will welcome the band to campus. "Despite their service in the Navy, this will be the first time for almost all of them thatÊ they've been on the Carolina campus as citizens with equal rights," said Albright. "It's not a significance that is lost on them." On display at the reception, which is open to the public, will be scrapbooks with band photos from the North Carolina Collection. Several of the bandsmen will make remarks, and three V-disc recordings made by the B-1 forÊ the Armed Forces Radio Network in the Central Pacific will be played. "Nobody's heard these recordings since they were made," said Albright. "One of the bandsmen has donated them to ECU, and the Southern Historical Collection at UNC is making playable copies for this event." While in Chapel Hill, the band played for war bond rallies, parades, and concerts throughout the region, performing with such luminaries as Kay Kyser and Kate Smith. They staged a concert series at the Forest Theatre. They regularly played for the PreFlight cadets' drills and formal reviews and performed at special events such as ship launchings and for visits by President Roosevelt and Vice-President Wallace. Their dance band, the Cloudbusters, was popular at cadet dances and smokers.Ê They were championed by such white integration pioneers as Frank Porter Graham, Paul Green--who penned a community Christmas program that featured the B-1--and the Rev. Charles Jones. Jones, who first started getting into trouble with some in his Chapel Hill Presbyterian congregation for hosting interracial events that welcomed the B-1 bandsmen, would go on to found the Community Church of Chapel Hill in 1953 after he was kicked out of the Orange County Presbytery for heresey.Ê Despite that support, the bandsmen never forgot the times in which they lived.Ê "It was straight segregation back then," said Morrow. "There might have been a couple of places where you could eat. Certainly not on campus, not in downtown Chapel Hill. And you certainly wanted to be real careful if you ever left barracks." The segregationist policies of the era necessitated a 2-mile daily march for the band back to their barracks, at the Hargraves Center, for lunch. The center, now a Town of Chapel Hill rec center, had its construction completed by the Navy for the purpose of housing the B-1 during its Chapel Hill posting. The band stayed in Chapel Hill from August 1942 to April 1944, when it was transferred to Hawaii and a new all-black band, trained at the Great Lakes, replaced them. "That's part of the historical confusion," said Albright. "But mainly it's because B-1 was brought to Chapel Hill under the screen of official Navy proclamation and policy."Ê Rebecca Clark is one of the Chapel Hill residents who vividly recalls the band's morning marches from their barracks to campus. "They'd come by before the kids went to school and before most of us had gone to work. All the people, especially the kids, would come out to watch them parade by," she said. "Every morning. It was really something to see, all those boys in their white uniforms. It made us all proud." Among the kids watching those daily marches to and from campus were Doug and John Clark, of the renowned band Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. "Doug loved watching that band major," said John Clark. "Seeing him parade made him want to be a band leader. I liked the saxophone, the way it sounded." "That's how all of the kids around here got exposed to music," Rebecca Clark added.Ê Rebecca and John Clark will be among the locals who will greet the returning vets. Two of them, Robert Carter of St. Louis and Dr. Filmore Haith of Kansas City, are attending a B-1 reunion for the first time. "That's really thrilling to the rest of us," said Morrow, "to see these fellows for the first time after all these years." Other reunion events Ê¥Ê an official welcome by the town of Chapel Hill on Saturday at 11 a.m. on the plaza of the downtown Chapel Hill post office, with remarks and proclamations by Mayor Kevin Foy and Orange County Commissioner Chair Moses Carey, and music by the UNC pep band; ¥ a public reception at the Hargraves Center (216 N. Roberson St., Chapel Hill) on Saturday at noon, where photos and DVDs honoring the band will be displayed and shown; ¥ a post-game dinner at Ma Dip's. The celebrated chef and restauranteur is recalled fondly by many of the fellows from their Chapel Hill days; ¥ Sunday morning business meeting and memorial service at 10 a.m., at the Hampton Inn (6121 Farrington Road, Chapel Hill) The memorial service, in the hotel's hospitality suite, is open to the public.Ê PHOTOS, including high resolution, and further background information see http://rafountain.com/navy/ Ê 2007 B-1 Band Reunion attendees Robert Brower, Winston-Salem, NC John Clay, Roxboro, NC Robert Carter, St. Louis, MO John Gilmer, Columbus, GA Dr. Filmore Haith, Kansas City, MD Wray Herring, Gloucester, VA Simeon Holloway, Las Vegas, NV Dr. Richard Jones, Fayetteville, NC Roy Lake, Silver Springs, MD Huey Lawrence, Ayden, NC John Mason, Charlotte, NC Calvin Morrow, Greensboro, NC Abe Thurman, Beaufort, NC ¥ ¥ ¥ What You're Reading ÊÊ Ê Ê Each week, we send out a news release to 26 area newspapers and radio stations. The primary contents of each issue of Fountain AfterDark is that news release. The FAD distributed via e.mail contains no attachments. ÊÊ Ê Ê To add friends to our e.mail subscription list, send their e.mail address to ?fountainexpress@rafountain.com.? To remove yourself from this list, reply to this e.mail with ?unsubscribe? as either text or subject of your e.mail. Ê Ê Our e.mail list is not sold or traded or otherwise shared with anyone. Ê Ê Ê Please let us know of any suspected abuses of the Fountain AfterDark/Fountain Express distribution list. -30-