By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Eastern Kentucky is well known for producing musical talent – particularly bluegrass and country music, styles that are born of, and speak to, the experiences and traditions of the region and her people. One of the premiere celebrations of those musical traditions, Rudy Fest, brings their festival back to Morehead’s Poppy Mountain venue this weekend.
The 22nd Annual Rudy Fest is five day festival, spread over two weekends, with this Saturday’s show a warmup to the festivities that kick off next Wednesday and run through Saturday, June 24.
The show kicks off on Saturday afternoon, with the Gibson Davis Band at 3:30, Troubadour Blue at 5, Jeff Parker & Company at 6:30, The Mountain Grass Unit at 8, and The Driver Brothers at 9:30 closing out the evening.
Things then wind down until Wednesday, when Billie Renee & Cumberland Gap, Sammy Adkins & the Sandy Hook Mountain Boys, East Nash Grass, and Charlie Woods & Deep Hollow get the party started again, beginning at 5 p.m..
Thursday features double sets from – aptly enough – Throwdown Thursday, Wildfire, Seth Moulder & Midnight Run, Dave Adkins Band, and Hammertowne.
On Friday the festival schedule includes afternoon and evening sets from Junior Sisk Band, Blue Highway, the Grascals, and Lonesome River Band, and a single set from the Steeldrivers between the Grascals’ and Lonesome River Band’s evening sets.
Saturdays lineup includes Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, Southern Legacy, Balsam Range, and the Dan Tyminski Band. Tyminski will play a single set, between the second sets for Rhonda Vincent and Balsam Range – who flips places with Southern Legacy for the evening set.
You can find a full schedule, and purchase tickets, online at rudyfest.com.
If show tunes are more your thing, the Olive Hill Center for Arts & Education will hold their annual On With the Show! celebration of musical theater on the following Friday, June 30. The program, musical director Debbie Baker Harman said, includes songs from A Star is Born, Fiddler on the Roof, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, “and more!”
The show starts at 7 p.m. with free admission for the show only. Those who wish to purchase a dinner ticket can do so online at ohcae.org or reserve their ticket by calling (606)207-1480. Dinner tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children twelve and younger. Those who wish to reserve a table for dinner are asked to RSVP by June 28.
The center is also holding an “intensive” violin camp over the course of three weeks in July, with sessions July 11-13, 18-20, and 25-27.
They are also holding a “casting call” for young people interested in acting. You can come out at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 19 or next Wednesday, June 21, at the Center for Arts & Education, 120 Comet Drive, to participate in what Harman described as “a short theater camp.” The “casting call” is not for a particular production, she explained, but rather for various theatrical short pieces to be chosen based on the ages and interests of children who participate.
If you want more bluegrass, the Carter County Shrine Club Bluegrass Festival comes to Olive Hill next month, running from Thursday, July 13, through Saturday, July 15, and featuring Southridge, Turning Ground, Edgar Loudermilk, Ralph Stanley II, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Hammertowne, Lacy Creek, and more. You can find a complete schedule, and purchase tickets for that event, at shrinersbluegrassfestival.com.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com