Thanks to PineCone founder Wayne Martin for all his time, effort and dedication to this project and to the music traditions of the North Carolina Piedmont.

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Going Down to Raleigh: Stringband Music in the North Carolina Piedmont: 1976-1998

*Copies of the two-disc anthology will also be available for purchase at upcoming PineCone events. PineCone members save $5 on their purchase - join today!

PineCone's first-ever CD release highlights some of the very best old-time, regional Piedmont stringband music. Artists who performed at a special pre-release performance on October 11 were Marvin Gaster (banjo; 2000 NC Heritage Award Winner), Evelyn Shaw (fiddle), Gerry Overton (guitar) and Glenda Overton (guitar & piano), Rich Hartness (guitar), Margaret Martin (guitar) and Wayne Martin (fiddle).

The richness of musical traditions of the eastern and central North Carolina Piedmont comes into sharper focus when these musicians are heard together. Fiddle and banjo music have long established histories in the region, as evident from the particular tunes played, the instrumental and singing styles employed, and from the stories about where and how the pieces were learned.

Titled Going Down to Raleigh: Stringband Music in the North Carolina Piedmont 1976-1998, the two-disc anthology CD is a collection of field recordings that highlight the distinctive music traditions of the Piedmont region, including fiddlers, banjo players and other instrumentalists and singers who learned their music from family and friends. The anthology includes full liner notes and documentary photos of the musicians. It was produced by Wayne Martin and sponsored by PineCone with funding support from NC Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Listen to preview recordings from the CD.

Musicians featured in the collection are: Virgil Craven, Lauchlin Shaw, A.C. Overton, Leonard Eubanks, Marvin Gaster, Beth Hartness, Rich Hartness, Jack Jones, Smith McInnis, Robert Mitchener, Fred Olson, Gerry Overton, Evelyn Shaw, Joe Thompson, Odell Thompson, Wade Yates, Glen Glass and Wayne Martin. These artists were recorded in the field by Bob Carlin, Barry Poss, and Wayne Martin.

Martin, one of PineCone's original founders who is now the Folklife Director at the North Carolina Arts Council, said, "Discovering these musicians in the Piedmont who were under the radar screen prompted us to create PineCone so that more of our citizens would start to know our heritage." Martin grew up in North Carolina but was unfamiliar with the Piedmont's musical heritage in middle and high school. In the early 1970s he became acquainted with some of the musicians he later documented. "It was fiddlers and banjo players from this area who provided the inspiration for me to make recordings and later to help create PineCone."

Photo Credit: Roger Haile

News & Observer Story about Going Down to Raleigh - by David Menconi

Independent Weekly Story about Going Down to Raleigh - by Spencer Griffith

Durham Herald-Sun Story about Going Down to Raleigh - by Chris Bellamy