Jones House Summer Concerts Series Start June 7

 

The Jones House Summer Concerts are set to begin, kicking off the 27th season of Concerts on the Lawn in downtown Boone with performances by Andrew Finn Magill, Jay Brown, and Amantha Mill on June 7, at 5:00 p.m.

 

“We are really excited to continue this long-standing downtown Boone tradition,” says concerts organizer, Mark Freed. “And we get things start this year with some great acts.”

 

Fiddler and singer, Andrew “Finn the Fiddler” Magill, will start the concert at 5:00 p.m. from the Jones House Cultural and Community Center front porch. Magill hails from the Asheville area, where he grew up surrounded by a musical community. His career surged in 2016 with the release of his two-disc recording Roots and Branches, which made the folk music charts and helped Magill get featured on National Public Radio. Magill has spent significant time soaking up Brazilian musical traditions, after living for a time in Rio de Janeiro, and he has been incorporating those sounds into his performances.

 

“Finn played the Jones House for the first time last summer, and he played an exciting set with sounds from around the world with Brazilian, Irish, and west African influences,” Freed says. “We’re excited to see and hear what he has in store this year.”

 

Guitarist and song writer, Jay Brown, will follow Magill for his return to the Jones House porch. Brown, a prior Boone-area resident, performed in the Doc Watson Day celebration last year, and he regularly plays the series with his bands The Lazybirds, Swing Guitars, and Appalucians. This solo performance by Brown will highlight his song writing.

 

“Jay is a prolific writer,” Freed says. “He has been putting out albums pretty consistently for the past couple decades as a solo artist, in addition to the recordings his bands have released.”

 

The concert will conclude with bluegrass and American roots band Amantha Mill, led by bassist, singer, and song writer, Becca Eggers-Gryder.

 

“Becca was on the Jones House porch in the early 1990s when the series got started, and she has participated in every summer since,” Freed adds.

 

Amantha Mill, named after the small mill community of Amantha, North Carolina, washed away many years ago in a flood, near today’s Cove Creek area. In addition to Eggers-Gryder, the band includes long-time guitar player and singer Billy Helms, National Dobro picking champion, Tony Reece, and Wilkes County native and mandolin player, Zeb Gambill. Fiddler John Cockman is also a frequent member of the band. Amantha Mill will start their set around 6:40 p.m.