A Celebration of Bluegrass has become a favorite annual summer tradition in Cary. Students from PineCone’s and the Town of Cary’s Bluegrass Camps for Youth take center stage at the Page-Walker Arts and History Center to demonstrate what they’ve learned in a week of camps, and their performance is followed by a performance from a North Carolina bluegrass band. This year Diamond Creek brings their modern, traditionally rooted music to the stage as part of the Town of Cary’s Starlight Concert Series.
Students ages 8-16 will have spent a week learning bluegrass styles of fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and songwriting, and this concert showcases their hard work and all that they’ve learned over the course of the camps for their families, friends, and the whole community. At the end of the week, this culminating concert is a highlight of the program for both the audience and students. Come prepared to be inspired!
Diamond Creek is firmly rooted in the fertile bluegrass scene of central North Carolina. This band is a combination of old and new in both members and music. Winners of the prestigious Got to be NC Bluegrass Band competition sponsored by the N.C. Department of Agriculture in 2013, they have made appearances at bluegrass and street festivals, concerts and corporate events, and they released their debut CD, Where Do I Go from Here, on New Time Records in the fall of 2015. A lot of Diamond Creek’s spirit and energy is created from the vocals of 22-year-old Emily Kirsch. Singing with confidence and conviction well beyond her years, she makes any song her own with her powerful delivery. Guitarist Spencer Mobley has worked with and filled in with bands on mandolin and guitar at a local and regional level for several years, while banjo stylist Julie Elkins has decades of performing and recording experience. Completing the band is husband and wife duo Russell and Kandis Johnson. Russell is long-time veteran of the music, having played mandolin the last 28 years, first with New Vintage and just recently finishing a 20 year run with North Carolina’s Grass Cats. A songwriter of note, he has had more than 30 songs chart on national bluegrass charts, including four number ones with The Grass Cats. Diamond Creek calls on some of North Carolina’s best fiddlers to fill out their sound, and for this show, they are pleased to have Jack Deveraux joining them on fiddle.
Share an evening celebrating one of North Carolina’s cultural treasures – bluegrass – with your friends, families, and community. Bring blankets, cushions, lawn chairs, picnic baskets (no alcohol!), and sunscreen, and enjoy an evening of live music under the stars.
