Camp Washington-Carver will continue its new musical entertainment series, Sweets and Sounds, on Saturday, Oct. 13, with the Beckley-based band, Everett Lilly and the Lilly Mountaineers. The one-hour concert will start at 7 p.m., and is followed by homemade desserts in the Great Chestnut Lodge. The series will present its final concert this year on Saturday, Oct. 27.
Everett Lilly and the Lilly Mountaineers are masters of bluegrass music. They also specialize in country, Southern rock and gospel, performing in churches, schools, theaters and at private parties, weddings, festivals, family reunions and other special events. The band consists of Everett Lilly, several of his sons and West Virginia banjo champion Rad Lewis.
Everett Lilly and his brother Bea were pioneers in bluegrass music. They began playing as The Lilly Brothers in the late 1930s, bringing professionally performed southern Appalachian music to the upper northeastern region of the United States.
In 1950, Everett joined Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, playing mandolin and singing tenor. He stayed with them until 1952 and recorded many classic songs with them, including “Get in Line Brother.”
He then got back together with his brother and relocated to Boston, Mass., where they helped introduce bluegrass music to New England. The group along with banjo player Don Stover began a 16-year gig as the house band at the Hillbilly Ranch and performed daily radio shows on WCOP.
Everett returned to West Virginia in 1970, but still performed with his brother at bluegrass festivals and toured overseas. In 2002, The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover became the 20th inductees into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor, the highest tribute that the bluegrass community can bestow.
Reservations for the concert are recommended, but tickets also will be sold the evening of the performance. Tickets are $10 per person for the performance and dessert.
For more information about the Sweets and Sounds musical entertainment series or to make reservations for the concert, call (304) 438-3005 or (304) 558-0220, ext. 171.
Sweets and Sounds will conclude on Saturday, Oct. 27, with the Washington Street Strutters, a Lewisburg-based band that plays Dixieland, old-style pop, blues and popular songs from the 1920s and 1930s.
A beautiful retreat listed in the National Register of Historic Places and operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Camp Washington-Carver serves as the state’s mountain cultural arts center. The facility nurtures the cultural heritage embodied in the site since its dedication in 1942 as a 4-H and agricultural extension camp for West Virginia’s African Americans. The camp is located in Fayette County adjacent to Babcock State Park, just off Rt. 60 (Midland Trail) on Rt. 41.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Cultural Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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