The premier event on the Mountain Music Trail this month is the Allegheny Echoes Summer Workshops, held in Marlinton June 18-24. For this week, the town of Marlinton takes the title of Music city USA. The Marlinton Motor Inn, on 219 a couple of miles north of town, turns into a 24 hour a day music festival, with music classes, jamming and the party that never ends. (There’s plenty of space for kids as well – about a third of the students are under 18, with kids as young as 8 taking classes.) Other events are in town – classes in the Pocahontas County Opera House and the Marlinton Municipal Building, with a square dance at the Opera House Tuesday night and concerts there by the students on Thursday and the instructors on Friday.
Founded and still run by outstanding West Virginia traditional musicians, including Mike and Tim Bing, Allegheny Echoes brings together outstanding traditional musicians from around the Mountain State and students from beginners to near professional level in one of the most intense musical experiences you can imagine. The public is specially invited to the Opera House events, but you can drop by the Marlinton Motor Inn to take in the jams and bonfire sessions throughout the week.
Outstanding older musicians are honored as Allegheny Echoes Masters and give afternoon workshops. This year they include banjo players Richard Hefner and Dan Wilson, fiddlers Bobby Taylor and Junior Spencer singer Amanda Smith and writer Marie Manilla. (Creative writing classes are also on the agenda.)
For more about Allegheny Echoes, go to alleghenyechoes.com.
Other events along the Mountain Music Trail in June include:
Saturday, June 3: Square Dance at Dunmore Community Center with Juanita Fireball and the Continental Drifters
Saturday, June 10: The Terah Crawford Band at Mountain State Brewing in Thomas
Sunday, June 11: Mark Lowry at the American Mountain Theater in Elkins
Sunday, June 18: The Gage Brothers at the Purple Fiddle in Thomas
Thursday, June 22: Carnegie Hall’s Ivy Terrace free concert with the Spanglers in Lewisburg. You can learn more about them at wvpublic.org/post/spanglers-not-your-typical-family-band-west-virginia#stream/0
Saturday, June 24: The Little Levels Heritage Fair in Hillsboro presents four Mountain Music Trail member groups: The Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys, Juanita Fireball, The Hefner Family and the Viney Mountain Boys
– Gibbs Kinderman, HashtagWV #90. June 2017
HASHTAGWV ART & ENTERTAINMENT Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Christina Entenmann-Edwards has been a WV resident since September 2008. She was born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and is no stranger to hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit. In 2006, she graduated from Quinnipiac University (Hamden, Connecticut), Cum Laude, with a B.A. in History. In 2010, she graduated with an M.B.A. from Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia). In February 2012, Christina launched HashtagWV as the area’s first full-color, free arts and entertainment tabloid + online platform. Christina completed the Leadership West Virginia class of 2021, which is an innovative program that grows, engages, and mobilizes leaders to ignite a life passion to move West Virginia forward.