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Vintage Valle Music Returns to Baird’s Creek Presbyterian Church Sunday for a Jam-Packed Performance!

 

The Burnett Sisters

 

By Elly Murray

The Baird’s Creek Presbyterian Church will be lit up this Sunday July 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. for their Vintage Valle Music series. This jam-packed performance features music from three different local bands: the Dollar Brothers, the Burnett Sisters, and the Junaluska Gospel Choir. Jinx Miller, who is often the MC for these events, says, “This is a really dynamite line up, I’m so excited to have them all.”

First up, the Dollar Brothers take the stage. They’re an upbeat bluegrass band from Watauga and Ashe Counties, and Miller says that, “The Dollar Brothers play primarily bluegrass and bluegrass gospel. They are local, and they have been playing since they were just little boys…But they’re very local, very well known, and very popular. They’re a dynamite group that has quite a following.”

 

The Dollar Brothers

 

Next up, the Burnett Sisters, a group of talented young ladies. Ranging from ages 10 to 20, these sisters perform gospel, folk, bluegrass, and old time music. Miller describes them as, “rising stars…These young ladies have grown up in the area. They started as children, playing violins and fiddles….from one instrument to a larger instrument as they grew up…The best description of the Burnett Sisters is ‘rising stars’ and we’re fortunate to be able to catch on to the tail end of those stars as they go flying across the sky.”

The final group, closing out this night of spectacular sounds and singing, is the Junaluska Gospel Choir. As their name states, this group performs gospel music while upholding their heritage. Miller describes them as, “the Gem of the High Country—The Junaluska Gospel Choir….They’re not strictly gospel; the band that accompanies them is pretty much like a jazz blues band, really hot, high intensity music. They too have been playing in the High Country for years. They’re well known…and highly respected, very much in demand to play their unique type of gospel.”

 

The Junaluska Gospel Choir

 

The majority of the music performed at these events is gospel and spiritual music, and Miller says that, “These particular groups do go heavy with the gospel but that’s just because they’re performing there. I tell them everytime ‘You’re not restricted to sacred or gospel music just because we’re at a church”…but they tell me that they enjoy bringing out some of their favorite gospel tunes. We usually end the show with a big singalong, where all of those groups mix it up and get on the stage area and sing songs that we in the audience can sing along with.”

The Vintage Valle Music series is in its 7th year as a community-gathering event, and Miller says that they do it, “just as a community outreach. We never charge admission, and with each show we feature a local giving opportunity.”

At each of their events, the Baird’s Creek Presbyterian Church collects donations for a different charity. According to Miller, “This particular event, we’re collecting non-perishable foods for the Western Watauga Food Outreach, to fill their pantry…They’re part of the larger Watauga Hunger Coalition, but this one in particular is located there in the Western county for people who can’t get into Boone.” Suggested donations for this event include canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned meat, soup, and peanut butter.

 

 

For their next event on August 19, featuring the popular Folk and Dagger, they will be collecting, “school supplies for our local elementary schools, again for the Western elementary schools: Cove Creek and Valle Crucis Elementary.”

Miller says that the main idea behind the event is, “getting together as a community, and helping our neighbors. I’m usually the MC, and I tell the audience to remember the days back when it was hard to get around, and we didn’t have television…So we’d go down to a neighbor’s and sit on the front porch and pick and sing. So that’s pretty much the idea that we’re trying to convey is neighbors getting together on a Sunday afternoon. And just like they used to do in the old days, we may be sitting around and somebody would mention ‘Well, you know so-and-so’s going through hard times, they could use a bit of help with the groceries’ So people would pitch in and give them some groceries, and that’s pretty much what we’re doing.”

The Baird’s Creek Presbyterian Church is located at 2174 NC-194 in Villas. For more information on the performances, please visit https://bairdscreekpres.org/ or call 828-297-4089