Montgomery Museum & Lewis Mill Art Center

The Crooked Road Festival is about to kick off throughout Montgomery County on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. While there are three sold-out headliners, performing on stage at the Moss Arts Center, there are so MANY free or low-cost events that you can still catch.

Want an exhaustive list? Of course you do–let’s dig in! (Pro tip: click each location to see it on a Google map.)

Wednesday, March 19

Virginia Heritage Music Instrument Exhibit
Student Art Exhibition: Music of the Crooked Road
Additional dates March 1-April 30
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Montgomery Museum & Lewis Miller Art Center
Free

Instrument-Making Demonstration: John Hollandsworth
Wednesday, March 19
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Montgomery Museum & Lewis Miller Art Center
Free

Open House with Old Time Music and Square Dance, featuring Katie and the Bubbatones with fiddler Kathleen O’Connell and caller Liam Kelley
6 p.m., open house begins
6:30 p.m., presentation
7 p.m., music begins
Prices Fork Elementary School Cafetorium
Additional band members will be John Hollandsworth, Russ Boyd, Eddie Ogle, and Sam Linkous.
Free

Thursday, March 20

The New Town Connection Exhibit
Noon-5 p.m.
St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall
The New Town Connection exhibit tells the story of African-American Appalachian music through the stories, images, video, and music of New Town at St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall.
Free

Instrument-Making Demonstration: Olen Gardner, John Hollandsworth, Mac Traynham, and Clinton Smith
The Virginia Luthiers: Instrument Display
6:30-7:45 p.m.
Moss Arts Center
Free

Crooked Road After Hours Music Social 
11 p.m.-2 a.m.
Holiday Inn University Blacksburg
Just when you thought there was no way to pack any more fun into The Crooked Road Festival in Montgomery County, The Crooked Road is hosting an after-hours music social from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursday, March 20, and Friday, March 21, at the Holiday Inn University Blacksburg at 900 Prices Fork Rd. Relax, connect with friends, order food or drink from the menu, and enjoy non-stop music and dance into the wee hours with artists from the evening concerts and the surrounding area. This event is a fundraiser to support the work of The Crooked Road, with a suggested donation at the door of $10.

Friday, March 21

Instrument-Making Demonstration: Olen Gardner
Friday, March 21
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Montgomery Museum & Lewis Miller Art Center
Free

The New Town Connection Exhibit
Noon-5 p.m.
St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall
The New Town Connection exhibit tells the story of African-American Appalachian music through the stories, images, video, and music of New Town at St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall.
Free

Pete Reiniger, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings: Presentation on producing Long Time…Seldom Scene, the group’s newest recording
6:45-7:30 p.m
Moss Arts Center
Pete Reiniger will give a two-part presentation on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and on the production of Long Time…Seldom Scene, including the story of the Smithsonian’s acquisition of the Folkways Record label, the growth of its catalog through the acquisition of other labels and newly generated releases since 1988, and the particulars of producing Long Time…Seldom Scene for Smithsonian Folkways. Reiniger is sound production supervisor for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the non-profit record label of the national museum. He has spent more than 35 years working with traditional musics of the world on recordings and in live sound for concerts and festivals. The recordings he has engineered, mixed, and/or mastered include old-time, bluegrass, blues, gospel, Cajun, polka, Tex-Mex, American Indian, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cape Breton, Caribbean, Asian, African, and various Latin musics. He has also worked on jazz recordings and children’s recordings. He is honored to have been awarded three GRAMMYS, one as engineer/mixer for Quetzal’s “Imaginaries,” Best Latin Urban, Rock, or Alternative 2012; one as engineer/mixer for Los Texmaniacs’ “Borders y Bailes,” Best Tejano 2009; and one as a compilation producer for the “The Anthology of American Folk Music,” Best Historical 1997.
Free

Crooked Road After Hours Music Social
11 p.m.-2 a.m.
Holiday Inn University Blacksburg
Just when you thought there was no way to pack any more fun into The Crooked Road Festival in Montgomery County, The Crooked Road is hosting an after-hours music social from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursday, March 20, and Friday, March 21, at the Holiday Inn University Blacksburg at 900 Prices Fork Rd. Relax, connect with friends, order food or drink from the menu, and enjoy non-stop music and dance into the wee hours with artists from the evening concerts and the surrounding area. This event is a fundraiser to support the work of The Crooked Road, with a suggested donation at the door of $10.

Saturday, March 22

The New Town Connection Exhibit
Noon-4  p.m.
St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall
The New Town Connection exhibit tells the story of African-American Appalachian music through the stories, images, video, and music of New Town at St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall.
Free

Eastern Montgomery County Gospel Music Program, with Nancy Smith and Friends and the Eastern Montgomery County Community Choir
1-3 p.m.
Shawsville Middle School
Free

Oral History of St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church by Jacquelyn Eaves, with St. Paul’s Choir, Alexis Johnson, Michael Herndon and Lynette Wilcox, Enlightened Gospel Choir, and Ada Sherman
2-3 p.m.
St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church
Free

Clogging Workshop with Phil Louer and Jen Barton; Square Dance with Giles Mountain String Band and callers Ginger Wagner and Phil Louer
2-5 p.m.
Moss Arts Center
No experience is necessary! All dances will be taught first.
Free

An Evening of Beans and Banjos
6-8 p.m.
Meadowbrook Center
The Shawsville Ruritan Club is hosting an evening of Beans and Banjos. That’s beans, cornbread, and dessert with a side order of entertainment by Fort Vause, featuring banjoist George Smith. Beans and Banjos raises money for the Shawsville Ruritan Club and the club’s scholarship fund for graduates of Eastern Montgomery High School. Admission is free, but the club suggests a donation of $5 per person.
Free (donations welcome)

Traditional Music Concert with Olen Gardner and Friends, The Blackberries, The Gravel Road, and Mike Mitchell
6-8 p.m.
Main Street Baptist Church
Free

Crankies Performance by Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle
7-7:30 p.m.
Moss Arts Center
Old time balladeers Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle perform original “crankies”—scrolling illustrations, made out of cloth or paper, that depict a story that is sung or spoken—that were collaboratively designed and built with students from Prices Fork and Harding Avenue Elementary Schools.
Free

Sunday, March 23

Square Dance with the Indian Run String Band, caller: Phil Louer
4-7 p.m.
Homestead Farm, Riner
Free