Superpickers

Location: R.A. Fountain

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Tim Smith, champion fiddler, headlines the SuperPickers, an all-star bluegrass band assembled by Marshall Stephenson for a Saturday night concert in Fountain.

Smith won his first fiddling championship in 1977 at the famed Galax Fiddlers Convention. He has released 5 albums under his own name, and he has been a featured performer on over 30 other recording projects. He has performed with a who’s who of bluegrass stars and legends, including Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Mac Wiseman, Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Lou Reid, and Vassar Clements, among many.

“He’s the best,” said Stephenson, “the absolute best bluegrass fiddler alive.”

Joining fiddling Tim Smith and Stephenson, on mandolin and guitar, will be Clyde Mattocks on Dobro; Kelly Tew on guitar and tenor vocals; Daniel Casey on banjo; and Mike Langdon on bass. “Patty Hopkins will be one of our special guests,” added Stephenson, who has been performing and promoting bluegrass in eastern North Carolina since the mid-1960s. “With her [on fiddle] and Daniel on banjo, we’ll have two of the best young pickers in eastern North Carolina.” Hopkins is completing her studies in classical violin at East Carolina’s School of Music. Casey plays regularly with Roby Huffman and the Bluegrass Cutups.

Mattocks, an original SuperGrit Cowboy, also fronts his own bluegrass band, Highway 58, and he often performs with other regional favorites such as the Malpass Family. Tew and Langdon are familiar to Fountain audiences from performances with both Stephenson and their own band, White Pine Hollow.

Stephenson is host of “The Bluegrass Train” radio show, now syndicated on over 25 radio stations.

Tags: bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, Concert, tradtional bluegrass