By Ann Matheny

For the Middlesboro News

 

The Magic City Ragtime and Jazz Festival is this coming weekend, June 20-22. The Festival, which celebrates Bell County’s heritage and its importance in the history of modern music, is a project of the Bell County Historical Society.

The Festival will kick off Friday with a reception and dinner sponsored by Hearthside Bank.  A special treat will be music by Todd Spangler.  This is our only ticketed event.

Also on Friday night, we will show a family movie, “Chitty-chitty Bang-bang,” at the Middlesboro Public Library.  This event is being sponsored by the library and the Friends of the Library.

Saturday, June 21, will be a whole day of music, entertainment and activities sponsored by various local businesses and citizens.

The main stage will be in the garden of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. A second venue will be the Presbyterian Church on 20th next to the Bell County Museum.  Several well-known ragtime and jazz musicians will perform for us. The Dan Jackson Quintet will be playing a set named “Rags, Stomp and New Orleans” and another named “Jazz Traditions.”  Frank Saxon, along with his wife, Sara, will perform sets they call “Ragtime Jams” and “Great Singers of Old Vegas.”  The exciting finale of the Festival will be the World Premiere of Frank Saxton’s “Jazz Sonata” which will be played by the Dan Jackson Quintet.

A number of skilled artisans will be showcasing their art and demonstrating how their crafts were produced in the age of ragtime music.  Keith Williams, regarded as one of Tennessee’s finest luthiers, will be demonstrating the art of making fiddles and will be performing on his own instruments.  Joseph Hensley, who began as an apprentice luthier to Keith, will have his own booth with his wife to demonstrate the art of making traditional musical instruments.  Don Hammonds, another musician who constructs and plays various old-time instruments, will also enrich our knowledge of the music of yesteryear. Showing us how to dance to their music will be Carla Gover who has been selected as a Master Artist in both Traditional Flatfoot Dancing and Appalachian Music by the Kentucky Arts Council.

Other fascinating artisans who will be demonstrating their crafts at the Festival include cooper Rick Stewart, who is a master in the ancient craft of coopering, which is the art of making wood vessels such as butter churns, buckets, etc. with wood staves held together with only wood bands.  He will be joined by Jane Buis who uses gourds to produce works of art and by Marie Trigo who will be demonstrating her art on a pottery wheel.  Rounding out our group of period artisans is Jeanette Underwood who engages in and demonstrates rare Appalachian agricultural folkways.

A craftsperson of a different type, Anne Shelby is an author and story teller who will be performing at the Presbyterian Church venue.  Ms. Shelby has an extensive repertoire of Appalachian folk tales and stories from our area’s past.  She tells many of the stories in traditional Appalachian dialect.  She will also have one session especially geared to children, which will be at the public library.  Another oral historian, Emily Hudson, will present “Eastern Kentucky Storytelling and Traditions” on St. Mary’s lawn.  Ann Matheny will be at the Bell County Museum to talk about Middlesboro history.

The library will host special events and activities for children all day Saturday.  This will include games from the past, some still played today, and books that recall a bygone era.  Crafts from that time will also be available for children to try, and they may even have the opportunity to participate in a kazoo parade and a cakewalk.

The Middlesborough Garden Club will present a flower show entitled “All that Jazz” at the American Association Building on Cumberland Avenue from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday.  Alex Gann will perform on the piano during the flower show.

The Bell County Museum on 20th Street will be open all day on Saturday.  Tour their many exhibits showcasing the history of our area and stop by their 1890s saloon for complimentary drinks (soft) and snacks that would have been available in Ben Harney’s day.

A new feature this year is the quilt show which will be held in the sanctuary of St. Mary Episcopal Church.  At 12:30 and again at 3:00, Edwin Langford will give a short concert on the same organ to which our founder, Alexander Arthur, would have listened.

Another new feature will be our “wax statues.”  What are they?  Come to the Festival and find out.

The Festival will end Sunday morning with an old-time gospel sing-along at 9 a.m. outdoors at the Levitt lot. Larry Cadle and his mountain fiddlers will provide the accompaniment.  What a fitting farewell to a wonderful weekend of music and fun!