Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990 TAG: 9004020180
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Guess who's comin' 'round the mountain?
Bill Monroe, the originator of bluegrass music, will be performing with banjo-picking Ralph Stanley at Floyd County High School at 8 p.m. Saturday. This should be a great show!
Enshrined as the Father of Bluegrass Music in the Country Music Association's Hall of Fame, Monroe, who began his career in the early 1930s, is still going strong on the concert circuit. Even if you aren't a fan of bluegrass and country music, chances are that you can name these tunes: "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and "Y'all Come."
If y'all do come to the concert, you might want to buy your tickets ahead of time. Advance discount tickets are available from Floyd County merchants. Admission at the door is $12 for adults and $7 for children 12 and under.
The concert is sponsored by the Floyd Recreation Authority. For information, call 745-3777.
\ OH, NO! SAME TIME: If you're a bluegrass music fan, you have a real problem Saturday evening. How will you decide between the Bill Monroe-Ralph Stanley blowout in Floyd and the Original Dillards concert in Pulaski?
Of course you remember the Dillards, though you might not remember the name. The Dillards were that honest-to-Ozark bluegrass quartet who chugged into Mayberry on the back of a flatbed truck every now and then to entertain Sheriff Andy Taylor and company.
The Dillards played the four brothers in the Darling family on "The Andy Griffith Show." They were the jug-jammin', guitar-pickin' good old boys who played and sang old-time mountain music.
They're still playing old-time music, plus some new material they recently released on their new video album, "A Night in the Ozarks." Filmed near Salem, Mo., in the heart of the Ozark mountains where the group's members grew up, the video features such favorites such as "Dooley," "There is a Time," "Doug's Tune" and "Banjo in the Holler."
The group, consisting of the two Dillard brothers, singer-guitarist Rodney and nimble-fingered banjoist Douglas, along with Dean Webb on mandolin and Mitchell Jayne on bass, are known in bluegrass music for their tight harmony singing and unique repertoire.
The Dillards will kick off New River Community College's Appalachian Awareness Week with their performance in Pulaski County High School's Little Theater at 8 p.m. Saturday. Opening the show will be country and folk recording artists The Smith Sisters.
Tickets for the show are $10 and are available at New River Community College's Office of Continuing Education or at the door. For information about this and coming events for Appalachian Awareness Week, call 674-3607.
\ WOMEN'S WEEK 1990: It's a big event at Virginia Tech. It's a time for recognizing the problems, the accomplishments, the contributions of women everywhere. Women's Week 1990 begins Sunday and continues through the week.
Sonia Sanchez will deliver the keynote address on Monday at 8 p.m. in the Donaldson Brown Auditorium. Sanchez, a poet, activist and author of 12 books will speak on "Women in Liberation Struggle." It's a topic she knows quite well.
Sanchez, now a black literature professor at Temple University, said that she learns as much from her students as they learn from her:
"Quite often in a classroom, many women see how similar their oppressions have been. You will see how incest has permeated the lives of women - black women, white women, whatever - and the silence about that. What we learn in our classroom is unbelievable. That's why I love teaching, the kind of joy of teaching where you make people jump barriers and touch each other."
A product of 1960s activism, Sanchez is on a mission, a mission she carries out in her lecturing and in her writing. "I write," she said, "to keep in contact with our ancestors and to spread the truth to people."
She speaks out on black culture and literature, women's liberation, peace and racial justice . . . and she speaks out eloquently.
Admission to the lecture is free and the public is invited. For information, call the Women's Program Office at Virginia Tech at 231-7615.
by CNB