Megan Clark is sharing her love for music and inspiring many at Chatham Central High School in Bear Creek. You can feel it as soon as you walk into her class. She breathes soul into a quote in her chorus room: “Be Somebody Who Makes Everybody Feel Like Somebody”. Hearing her talking and joking with students,… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Antonio Lynn is Drumming to the Sound of Success
Antonio Lynn, it seems, was born with a drumbeat in his soul. He remembers playing drums at the early age of two. When he was three, his grandparents, Albert and Susan Alston, gave him a full junior-sized drum set for Christmas. By age five, he was playing in his church’s Junior Petite Choir. Now, as… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Experience Bluegrass with bass fiddler Snuffy Smith
Thomas Lee “Snuffy” Smith, bass fiddler with the Bluegrass Experience, grew up on a one-horse tobacco farm in rural Lee County listening to his father play guitar in a square dance band. “He showed me some chords so I started messing with the guitar,“ he said. In addition to playing music, living on the farm… Read More →
Sheila Fleming, Performing Songwriter
Meet This Artist: Bluegrass icon Tony Williamson overcomes pain, finds purpose on his farm
Born into a multi-generational family of musicians, Tony Williamson and his brother Gary quickly earned the title of “child sensations” on the national bluegrass stage. Back home at their school in rural Randolph County, however, their music earned them some teasing from their classmates. Tony and Gary were undeterred. “Music was such a fun… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Leandra Strope is empowering girls to find their voices
While other toddlers were smearing yogurt in their hair and coloring on the walls with crayons, Leandra Strope at age two was learning to play the violin. “My mother was committed to the idea that my brother and I would be musically literate,” said Leandra. By the time she was in elementary school, she had… Read More →
Go See This: Shakori Hills Stimulates the Senses
For four days in the fall and spring, the bucolic Chatham County community of Silk Hope is enhanced with an event that awakens all the senses. Celebrating its fourteenth year, the Shakori Festival of Music and Dance is a world of sights, sounds, smells, and feelings that helps make Chatham an especially amazing place. Bands from across the state and around… Read More →
Music In Me
Meet This Artist: Joey Howell Creates in Paints & Notes
In the deep woods of Chatham County, Joey Howell has found synchronicity between his two art forms. He plays music to create “visual imagery that transports the listener” and he paints visual images that “convey the rhythm, harmony and emotion of music.” There is a bold yen and yang flow between them – rather like… Read More →
Go See This: Sisters’ Voices Winter Concert
Days end sooner. Nights grow longer. The air is crisper and songs sung by Sister’s Voices in their annual Winter Concert weave through the bare trees of Chatham County. Sisters’ Voices is a choral community of girls in two ensembles — nine girls from 2nd and 3rd grades, and 14 girls from 4th through 8th grades. Their Winter Concert… Read More →