Geraud Barralon comes from the Rhone-Alpes region of France and now makes his home outside of Murphy, NC. He has a background in Django Reinhardt style, rhythmic swing guitar and has performed for many a swing dance in Lyon with group, Djoukil. He sings original and traditional French song, accompanying himself on guitar or octave mandolin, and published his first solo album in 2012 called "Comment faire du feu....avec ce qu'il rest" (How to make a fire with what is left). Geraud also organizes an annual tour called the "Bal Itinerant" (Traveling Dance). A team of 14 travel and perform traditional French, Irish, Appalachian, and Cajun music for dancers in small towns in Ardeche.

Annie Fain Barralon grew up in a musical family who played often for square dances and concerts at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She has played with several string bands in the Asheville area, most recently the all-woman group Blue Eyed Girl and is also banjo instructor for Cherokee and Clay county Junior Appalachian Music Program. Since meeting Geraud she puts down her banjo to pick up the diatonic accordion and fiddle for the French tunes, studies European Bal Folk dances and participates in the "Bal Itinerant" tour in Ardeche.

Hailing from opposite ends of the Appalachian mountains, Zoe & Cloyd is renowned fiddler and vocalist Natalya Zoe Weinstein and award-winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist John Cloyd Miller. Their show is as diverse as their upbringing: coming from a lineage of klezmer and jazz musicians, Natalya trained classically in her home state of Massachusetts before moving south in 2004. John, a twelfth generation North Carolinian and grandson of pioneering bluegrass fiddler, Jim Shumate, is a 1st place winner of the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest as well as an Artist Fellowship recipient for songwriting from the North Carolina Arts Council.

As founding members of the acclaimed Americana trio, Red June, and long-time fixtures of the Asheville, NC music scene, the couple shifted focus to Zoe & Cloyd in 2015. Their debut recording, Equinox, as well as their 2017 album, Eyes Brand New, both met with high praise and the pair have continued to gain momentum with their brand of ?New Appalachian Music? at performances and festivals all across the country. Zoe & Cloyd delight audiences of all ages with soaring harmonies and heartfelt songwriting, seamlessly combining original folk, country, old-time and bluegrass with sincerity and zeal. Their eagerly anticipated third studio album, produced by Jon Weisberger, will be released on Organic Records in September 2019.

Eyes Brand New named one of the ?Ten Best Roots Music Releases of 2017″ by No Depression Magazine

?Favorite Musical Picks of 2017″ - Lisa Snedeker, Huffington Post

1st Place Winners of the 2015 FreshGrass Duo Contest

http://www.zoeandcloyd.com

The Mountain Music Ambassadors is the flagship group of student performers from The Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University in Morehead, KY. Ready to entertain with Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music, these student musicians form a section of band class. Young musicians from the center have represented our region and our mountain culture in concerts at theaters, schools, festivals and other venues regionally, nationally in such diverse lands as Ireland and The Peoples Republic of China and have appeared nationally on television programs, Song of the Mountains and WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour.

Students performing in Brasstown will include Bailey Stephenson, Baylee Henderson, Jack Caudill, Melissa Keiser, Elizabeth Bowman, Savannah Braddock, and Sarah Kate Morgan, who is a national champion mountain dulcimer player. Sarah Kate has a close relationship with the John C. Campbell Folk School and will be teaching dulcimer at the school starting on December 4. This group is led by Ruth McLain, and Raymond McLain. All MSU Traditional Music Ensembles are comprised of students enrolled in band class so members vary from semester to semester.

All Students in the Mountain Music Ambassadors are majoring in Traditional Music at Morehead State University's Kentucky Center for Traditional Music. This Traditional Music degree is the world's first Bachelor of Arts with a robust curriculum in Traditional Music meeting the accreditation standards of The National Association of Schools of Music.

The Rosin Sisters are Barbara Panter-Connah and Jan Smith from Atlanta, and Ann Whitley-Singleton from Dahlonega. These three 'heart sisters' came together as a trio over ten years ago when Ann was still living in the big city, but they have known each other through the traditional music scene for over thirty years. They explore traditional Appalachian, honky tonk, early country, gospel, and Cajun music and perform all around the southeast. They also teach harmony singing at Dahlonega's Bear on the Square Festival as well as the Blue Ridge Old-time Music Week in Mars Hill, North Carolina. They have produced two CD's with a third one in the works and available very soon.

http://www.rosinsisters.com/

Special Thursday Night Concert.

Join us for our annual Junior Appalachian Music Program student showcase.

Folk School JAM is an after-school program for high school age children that introduces music through small group instruction on instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as fiddle, banjo and guitar.

Folk School JAM is offered, free of charge, to students in both Cherokee & Clay Counties and it's current instructors are:

Annie Fain Liden, Banjo
Peggy Patrick, Fiddle
Zac Kilmer, Guitar
Geraud Barralon, Guitar, Fiddle, Upright Bass, String Band and is the program director

https://jamkids.org/folkschool

Boomchuck Swing Time is a combo hailing from both Asheville, NC and Brasstown, NC. They are most known as a hot band on the scene for regional contra dances, but concerts are their forte as well.

Multi-talented Laurie Fisher has been entertaining dancers and inspiring musicians full-time for the past 17 years. She can fiddle, play piano, call dances, teach and enthuse with the best of them. The very thriving Asheville contra dance scene has been passionately influenced by her bands and music over the past 25 years. She is regionally well known as the fiddler for Boomchuck and Bareknuckle Quartet.

Nic Coker plays for various Asheville based bands including The Stuff and Boomchuck. He is able to trade between guitar and fiddle and has a wonderful sense of using rhythm in ways that make folks want to get up and dance.

Geraud Barralon, comes from Ardeche, France and now makes his home in Brasstown. He has a background in Django Reinhardt style, rhythmic swing guitar and has performed for many a swing dance in Lyon with group, Djoukil. He sings original and traditional French song accompanying himself on guitar or octave mandolin publishing his first solo album in 2012 called "Comment faire du feu....avec ce qu'il rest" (How to made a fire with what is left). He joins Laurie and Nic on the stand up bass.

Steve Trismen started playing violin in grade school and has been improvising in folk and jazz styles since his college days in upstate New York. A versatile fiddler, he currently plays with the Gypsy Jazz group One Leg Up, as well as rock group Franklin's Kite, and Irish traditionalists The Boys of Buncombe.

Frank and Allie Lee (Bryson City, NC) are a harmony-powered old time duo. Their April 2018 release, Roll On, Clouds, showcases their favorite songs from over two years of performing together. These pieces range from blues tradition (Somebody On Your Bond, Roll and Tumble) to bluegrass classics (Standing on a Mountain, Cabin on a Hill), yet remain rooted in the old time aesthetic. Frank's nylon string fretless banjo is the dominant instrument, with guitar, slide guitar, and Allie's banjo and harmonica adding to the musical texture.

Frank and Allie, core duo of longstanding string band The Freight Hoppers, have traveled extensively as touring musicians. Frank, a founding member of The Freight Hoppers, has impressed audiences all over the United States, Canada, and northern Europe with his signature clawhammer sound. Allie is a founding member of The Whipstitch Sallies, a band from Indiana that toured in the Midwest, North Carolina, Colorado, and Hawaii. Together, the pair is a powerhouse duo with appearances planned across the country, and they toured France for two weeks in May 2018.

www.frankandallie.com

Special Thursday Night Concert

Spring is bursting forth all around us in the mountains, and Brasstown Ringers has gathered some of the season's energy and vitality to create a musical Springtime Season Concert.

https://www.facebook.com/brasstownringers/

Four inspiring performers on mountain and hammered dulcimers (and other instruments!):

Anne Lough an internationally known traditional musician who performs and teaches at schools, workshops, and festivals throughout the country. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Murray State University (KY) and a Master of Music Education from Western Carolina University (NC). She is well known for her artistic and sensitive style of playing, and her skill as an instructor. In addition to many recordings, Anne has published several dulcimer arrangements, including Old-time Hymns & Gospel Favorites for Mountain Dulcimer, through Mel Bay.

Sam Rizzetta is a musician and instrument maker whose many design innovations have helped to define the contemporary hammered dulcimer. The tone of Sam?s dulcimers and his heartfelt and ornamented playing style have been called ?resonantly sensual magic,? and ?awe inspiring.? His performance credits include The Kennedy Center and The National Cathedral, as well as TV and radio appearances. Rizzetta recordings include 15 CDs featuring dulcimers, and there are four book collections of his original compositions.

Madeline MacNeil is a best-selling author of mountain and hammered dulcimer books for Mel Bay Publications, and from 1978 through 2006 she was the publisher of Dulcimer Players News, a quarterly publication devoted to both hammered and mountain dulcimers. She has performed in schools for students from elementary through high school and often invited them to play a little on her dulcimers. The Barns At Wolf Trap has presented her in concert, as have arts centers, churches and universities throughout the United States. Across the Atlantic, she has performed at the O?Carolan Festival in Keadue, County Roscommon, Ireland; the Glasgow Festival of the Arts in Scotland; and for the Nonsuch Dulcimer Gathering in East Norton, Leicestershire, England.

Janita Baker has been playing mountain dulcimer for over 40 years; through her recordings, books and appearances at festivals and workshops across the United States she has become well-known for her teaching skills and Blue Lion Dulcimers, which she builds with her husband Robert. As a solo performer on the mountain dulcimer, Janita presents her audiences with a wide range of musical experiences including classical, traditional, delta and country blues, ragtime, swing and original instrumental pieces. A gifted story teller, Janita delights her listeners with a warm and personal sharing of her music and introduces to her audience and her students the incredible complexity, variety and beauty of the mountain dulcimer.

https://classes.folkschool.org/class_details.aspx?pk=20759

The Moon and You is a folk/soul band based in Asheville, NC that tours the Eastern US and Western Europe. At its core are married songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Ryan Furstenberg (banjo, guitar) and Melissa Hyman (cello). The band released its debut album A White Light That Sings in June 2016, to critical acclaim. They celebrated their second full-length release, Endless Maria on March 19, 2017 with a live string quartet and rock rhythm section bringing the album to life onstage.

At once excitingly inventive and cozily familiar, the Moon & You continues to craft a compelling, acoustic Americana sound. The duo's ever-evolving output encompasses a wide range of American roots music, and is flavored by contributions from a rotating cast of super-talented friends. Their onstage synergy and warmth invite audiences in, offering a peek into a strange and joyful universe of their own.

http://www.themoonandyou.com