Original Old Farmer's Ball Hall
Phil Jamison's history of the OFB
Old Farmer's Ball
Thursdays
Beginner's Lesson at 7:30, Main dance at 8:00.
Non-members - $6
OFB members - $5
Warren Wilson students - $1
If this is your first time, your second dance is free!
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| A taste of the events on a typical evening at the OFB, as well as the very untypical complete loss of power for the ending dances. April 2012, with Hot Sonata and Terry Doyle. | Dancing and music from March 2012, with Boom Chuck and Hank Morris. |
Bryson Gym
Where?
Warren Wilson College
Bryson Gym
701 Warren Wilson Road,
Swannanoa, NC 28778
As you approach the college on Warren Wilson Road, go past the service entrance, past the South entrance, and past the North Entrance. Just after the North Entrance, turn right into the Kittredge Parking lot. Walk up the stairs and through the breezeway, past the Kittredge music center. Bryson gym is the next building in front of you.
Latitude/Longitude 35 36 46 N, 82 26 27 W
Click here for map and directions
| Date | Dance | Band | Musicians | Caller | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday 5/17 | Old Farmers Ball | Devanney's Goat | Colin Lindsay (fiddle), Glen Loper (mandolin), Brendan Taaffe (guitar and sundry), Stefan Amidon (percussion) | Jessie Edgerton | At the Pavilion! Devanney's Goat brings together three veterans of Magic Foot with Glen Loper, mandolinist extraordinaire from Rumblestrip and Riptide. Expect driving Irish music with an irrepressible dance rhythm. |
| Thursday 5/24 | Old Farmers Ball | Steam Shovel | David White and Roger Gold | Laurie Fisher | Steamshovel, made up of Roger Gold (Guitar, foot drum) and David White (fiddle and banjo) is indeed a dynamic duo in the contra dance world. Roger is well known as one of the finest guitar players on the contra dance circuit, supplying a wonderful combination of intricate melodies, powerful rhythms and big bass sounds, often at the same time!David’s selections of unique old time tunes – from driving to groovy and ‘flowey’ – as well as several tunes he has created for banjo and fiddle, present a great diversity of tunes for dancing and for Roger to play off of. Having played together for 4 years now, their synergy is obvious, and the style that has emerged from this union continues to evolve. They love playing together and inspiring dancers w/ their music. |
| Thursday 5/31 | Old Farmers Ball | Curious George | Laura Lengnick, Paul Moore | Dana Parkinson | Curious George, Laura is joined by Paul Moore in this traditional American swing combo. Laura plays swing fiddle and sings lead in this band which features Paul’s piano improvisations. Classic swing at its best, this music is sure to please dancers as well as those want to sing along as they sit one out! This band is also a favorite among contra dancers in the Southeast for their swinging interpretations of traditional dance melodies. Laura and Paul are often joined by Jeff Hersk on bass in this ensemble. |
| Thursday 6/7 | Old Farmers Ball | Community Band | John Herman and Meredith Mcintosh | Connie Carringer | |
| Thursday 6/14 | Old Farmers Ball | Giant Robot | Blastinator - Michael Ferguson (trombone, digeridoo) Zandroid - Alex Ferguson (trombone) Aarobot - Aaron Marcus (piano, concertina, banjo) Compressor - Andrew Marcus (accordion) The Vortex - Andrew VanNorstrand (electric guitar, fiddle) Thumper - Noah Va | Beth Molaro | Giant Robot Dance brings together six talented young musicians from New York, Vermont and Washington DC for a high-energy, alter-ego, super-psychedelic contra dance experience. Three sets of musical brothers - Andrew and Noah VanNorstrand, Andrew and Aaron Marcus, Michael and Alex Ferguson - have teamed up for a wild night of blaring accordion, shredding electric guitar, bludgeoning drums and honking trombone solos, plus a sprinkling of very tasteful piano melodies and delicate violin accents. If you've ever longed to balance and swing with ELO, hey for four with Carlos Santana or petronella turn to the music of Queen, this may very well be as close as you'll ever get! |
| Thursday 6/21 | Old Farmers Ball | Perpetual E Motion | Ed Howe, John Cote' | Diane Silver | Captivating, passionate, propulsive and progressive are what best define the music of this power duo, perched at the convergence of traditional and electronic dance music. Perpetual e-Motion integrates technical and sonic innovations with old school traditions to create a enormous sound full momentum and groove. Lauded as a two man orchestra, this duo continues to innovate the art of traditional dance music through their use of sound sculpting and multitasking, captivating listeners and dancers with their infectious and unique sound. |
| Thursday 6/28 | Old Farmers Ball | Cranberry Rock | David Lynch, Scott Dixson, Volley Mckenzie, Joy Moser, Beth Molaro | Tamara McGovern | |
| Thursday 7/5 | Old Farmers Ball | Fly By Night | Diane Silver | ||
| Thursday 7/12 | Old Farmers Ball | TBA | Charlotte Critten | ||
| Thursday 7/19 | Old Farmers Ball | Celtic Week Staff | Pete Campbell | Swannanoa Gathering - Expand your knowledge of social dance forms at this Irish Ceili Dance night. The music will be great, Celtic tunes played by the leaders of the SG Celtic week staff. Click the band link to learn a bit about these extraordinary musicians. | |
| Thursday 7/26 | Old Farmers Ball | Old Time Week Staff | Phil Jamison | Swannanoa Gathering - Join us for an evening of old time square dancing, led by one of the country's most knowledgeable callers. The music will be great old time tunes played by the leaders of the SG Old Time week staff. Click the band link to learn a bit about these extraordinary musicians. | |
| Thursday 8/2 | Old Farmers Ball | Dot Dot Dash | Anne Marie Walter | ||
| Thursday 8/9 | Old Farmers Ball | Fiddle Staff and Mandolin-Banjo staff | Cis Hinkle | Swannanoa Gathering - Join us for a Barn Dance, the type of dance that stared the Old Farmer's Ball a few decades back. It's a mixture of squares and contras and other forms. The music has to be fantastic with the staffs of both the SG fiddle week and mandolin/banjo week will be playing. Click on each band link get an idea of who will be playing. | |
| Thursday 8/16 | Old Farmers Ball | Sligo Creek Stompers | Sargon de Jesus | Sarah Foard: fiddle. Sarah blends the clean sounds of a classical violinist with the energy of Irish reels and the soul of early American jazz. Sarah began studying the violin at the age of five in Huntington, West Virginia and completed a music degree at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music studying with Patricia Green, Laura Kobayashi, Piotr Melewski, and Rebecca Henry. Sarah has performed at many venues throughout the DC area including the Kennedy Center, the ATLAS Theater, THEARC, and Strathmore Music Center. She was inspired to play traditional folk music and jazz when she began contra dancing a few years ago. She now performs regularly with the Sligo Creek Stompers and is studying jazz violin with Eddie Drennon Adrian Erlinger: upright bass, guitar, mandolin, dobro, lap steel. Adrian was born, bred and buttered in St. Louis County, Missouri. He cut his teeth on traditional music in the late 1990s in Lawrence, Kansas where he formed the bluegrass outfit Two Dollar Shoe and filled dobro and guitar licks on OK Jones’ 2004 debut album Middletown. Adrian's biggest influences are the titans of bluegrass and country music: Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Clarence White, Tony Rice and Lomax field recordings. An audiophile and self-confessed music junkie, he has soaked up styles ranging from Chicago blues to eastern European fiddle tunes to Afro-Cuban grooves. Jess Eliot Myhre: vocals, clarinet, washboard, ukulele, euphonium, melodica. A native Floridian, Jess grew up dodging alligators, swinging from banyan trees and wondering what snow was like. Studying the old records of southern singers like Bessie Smith brought her west to New Orleans, where she became mesmerized by the sounds of the street bands and second lines. She is forever grateful to Joe Braun and the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, who let her sit in every week at the Spotted Cat to learn the ropes of fronting a traditional jazz band. She is now thrilled and honored to be fulfilling her destiny by inciting riotous post-barn dance jam sessions with the Sligo Creek Stompers.Chris Ousley: banjos, guitar, ukulele, upright bass, vocals, bodhrán. A DC Metro-raised boy, Chris tramped off to the hills of western Pennsylvania to study books, beer and banjos. There he woodshedded with old hill cats in barns outside of abandoned steel and coal towns playing any instrument he could take a turn on. His biggest influences in chronological order: Jerry Garcia, Ralph Stanley, Marcy Marxer, Tim Eriksen, Sam Chatmon, and Roscoe Holcomb. Come see Chris onstage with the Stompers, beard and banjo a'blazin'. | |
| Thursday 8/23 | Old Farmers Ball | TBA | Barbra Groh | ||
| Thursday 8/30 | Old Farmers Ball | TBA | Phil Jamison | Welcome Back WWC |
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Old Farmer's Ball
PO Box 2852
Weaverville, NC 28787
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Thanks to Skip Metheny for creating the site, and to the new ideas and ongoing work from Jonathan Gilbert, Taija TeviaClark, Andrea Fey, Mark Phillips and Todd Pierce.