Music Along The Crooked Road To Feature Cultural Exchange Through Music

At 7:00 PM, April 14, the public is invited to the Jettie Baker Center in Clintwood Virginia for the riveting performances of Ethel Caffie-Austin and Quandro Hornbuckle outstanding performers of African American praise singing from the mountains of West Virginia. Caffie Austin is not only an outstanding performer, raising the roof on piano and voice in her gospel numbers, but she is also a gifted teacher, inspiring the best from her students of gospel music as she creates community choirs and musical exchanges.

Some of the same can be said of Scott Mullins of the musical Mullins Family in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. The Mullins Family has served their community as musicians for at least three generations. There is no way of knowing how many church services this group has enriched, how many lives they have transformed and how they have uplifted folks in times of hardship. Scott currently works with a group of young musicians, Mountain Tyme, who will spend some time under the mentorship of Ms Caffie-Austin.

Additionally, Ron Short, traditional musician and performer with Roadside Theater of Appalshop, Whitesburg, Kentucky will share the stage with Ms. Austin and Scott Mullins.

Prior the evening event, at 1:00 PM at the Jettie Baker Center the West Virginia and Virginia musicians will hold a public singing workshop for anyone who would like to attend.

This event, presented by the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center and the Baker Center is the latest addition to the Music Along the Crooked Road series of concerts. The series brings together the best in regional old-time, bluegrass, gospel music to create wonderful evenings of culture and entertainment.

This is a free event, but it is requested that you bring a can of food, or a non-perishable food item for the Dickenson County Food Bank. This rare event is being made possible by The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the Mid-Atlantic Arts, The Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center, the Jettie Baker Center and the Dickenson County Extension Office.