STAYTON, OR. (Top40 Charts/ American
Roots Music Festival) - In a rare Northwest appearance, the 6th annual American
Roots Music Festival (ARMF) will feature direct descendants of the original Carter Family in 'Roots & Branches: A Multimedia Celebration of the Carter Family', a special event celebrating the musical legacy of the group often referred to as the 'first family of country music'.
Grammy-winning producer, author and performer John Carter Cash, grandson of Maybelle Carter and son of June Carter and Johnny Cash, will be featured along with his wife, national fiddle champion and Oregon native Laura Cash. Joining John and Laura will be Dale Jett, the grandson of A.P. and Sara Carter, who performs frequently at the Carter Family Fold in Southwest Virginia.
As a trio, A.P. Carter, Sara Carter and Maybelle Carter influenced generations of artists between 1927 and 1941, and helped launch the country music industry with their vast catalog of classic songs, seminal recordings, vocal harmony innovations and original guitar stylings.
'After 5 years of steady growth for the American Root Music Festival, the Carter Family celebration takes us to the next level and will allow us to expand our fundraising efforts for school music programs in the area,' said Steve Gehlen, Festival Director. 'Having John, Laura and Dale travel here from Tennessee and Virginia says a lot about their commitment to our objectives of keeping American roots music alive and supporting K – 12 music education.'
In addition to live performances of classic selections from the influential Carter Family music catalog, the event will feature large-screen projection of rare photos and never-before-seen footage from Northwest filmmaker Beth Harrington's work-in-progress documentary about the Carter Family. The documentary includes interviews with several members of the Carter Family tree.
The ARMF, which has raised $14,500 for local school music programs over the past three years, showcases a variety of American roots music genres. The 2007 line up will also feature the Total Experience Gospel Choir from Seattle and the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band from Portland.
The 6th annual American Roots Music Festival happens on Saturday, October 13th at the Turner Tabernacle in Turner, Oregon. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.americanrootsmusicfestival.org.
In conjunction with this year's American Roots Music Festival, a new nonprofit organization called 'Keeping the Beat' is being launched by ARMF Director Steve Gehlen to expand the mission of supporting school music education to additional rural Oregon communities. The new organization will develop a network of existing music festivals in Oregon to grow a shared pool of resources that can be leveraged by school music programs across the state.
Sponsors of the ARMF include JELD-WEN, West Coast Bank, Holiday Retirement Corp., Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company, Norpac Foods, Inc. and Stayton Auto Parts. Grant funding is provided by the Doris J. Wipper Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.
