Galax, VA -- The Blue Ridge Music Center is proud to welcome award-winners Jeanette and Johnny Williams and Strictly Strings to the amphitheater stage on Saturday, July 18, at 7 p.m. Jeanette and Johnny Williams from Danville, Virginia, bring together their individual talents as singers, songwriters, and musicians to create a dynamic bluegrass duo.
Johnny is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and accomplished guitarist. He has been named Virginia State Champion Male Vocalist, and was the bluegrass division winner of the prestigious Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest in 1998 and 1999.
Since her debut solo release in 1994, Jeanette has quietly become one of the most successful and celebrated women in bluegrass music. Jeanette burst onto the national scene in 1999 with her Doobie Shea Records release Cherry Blossoms in the Springtime, which spent nine months on the Bluegrass Unlimited National Album Chart. She has received more than 10 award nominations by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America, including three wins for Female Vocalist of the Year, two International Bluegrass Music Association awards, and two songwriting awards.
The show kicks off with Strictly Strings. This incredibly talented youth bluegrass band features Kathleen Burnett, Willow Dillon, Anissa Burnett, Caleb Coatney, Liam Purcell, and Cecil Gurganus, an instructor with the Watauga County Junior Appalachian Musician program. During the concert, The Galax Smokehouse will be on site serving its signature barbecue, down-home sides, drinks, and desserts.
The Blue Ridge Music Center is one of the major attractions along the Blue Ridge Parkway and includes a state-of-the-art performing arts facility built to preserve and promote the historic music of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Blue Ridge region has produced more old-time and bluegrass musicians per capita than any other region and serves as the epicenter of many of America’s living music traditions. The Music Center is operated by the National Park Service, and the programming is coordinated through a partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. The Blue Ridge Music Center is a major venue of The Crooked Road: Virginia's Heritage Music Trail and a partner venue of the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina. www.BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org
