B. Calendar

Freight Train Blues Concert Series – Hard Drive & The Branchettes

The Town of Carrboro Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department, in partnership with Music Maker Foundation, is pleased to present the 8^th Annual Freight Train Concert Series featuring Blues and Roots music on Friday evenings starting in May and running for 5 weeks.

For more information on the series, visit FreightTrainBlues.com.

Hard Drive

Hard Drive is a hard-driving aural modern traditional old time authentic millennial bluegrass collective made up of Tatiana Hargreaves, Aaron Tacke, Sonya Badigian, and Nokosee Fields. From brother duets to raging fiddle tunes, Hard Drive brings a sense of deep intuition and silliness to the world that encompasses old-time, country, and bluegrass. The Bluegrass Situation describes the band as “a delightful subversion of our expectations of what traditional bluegrass is supposed to be.” Hard Drive serves up a “high-octane bluegrass-old-time style, delivered with deep intuitive insight, manic exploratory zeal and seriously powerhouse instrumental (and vocal) chops but also, importantly, with an abundant and overwhelming sense of fun.” [Folk Radio UK]. They float gently around a Bermuda-Triangle-type spacetime warp in central North Carolina, and they are constantly expanding at the approximate pace of the universe.

The Branchettes

Lena Mae Perry and her friend Ethel Elliott founded the Branchettes more than three decades ago — and it happened almost by accident. Both Lena Mae and Ethel were born and raised in Benson, North Carolina. Both attended the Long Branch Disciple Church. And one day the Long Branch Senior Choir was scheduled to perform at a church program in nearby Smithfield, but only Lena Mae, Ethel, and Mary Ellen Bennett showed up. They sang anyway and discovered the gift of their combined voices. “The people were just shouting and crying,” Ethel Elliott once recalled in an interview, “even though there were just three of us.” They decided to continue as a group and they called themselves the Branchettes — small branches of the Long Branch, their home church. The Brachettes’ style draws from the African American traditions of congregational hymn singing. Ethel Elliott passed away in 2004, but Perry continued to perform with pianist Wilbur Tharpe until his passing in June 2021. The group’s releases include “Singing in the Spirit,” and they are featured on the Music Maker Foundation release “Sisters of the South,” alongside artists like Beverly “Guitar” Watkins, Precious Bryant, and Etta Baker.

*No outside alcohol. Beer and food will be sold at the events. *Bring your own chairs or blankets!

May 13 - Herman Hitson & Harvey Dalton Band

May 20 - Sacred Soul of NC Revue & Weaver Gospel Singers Tribute

May 27 - Hard Drive & The Branchettes

June 3 - La Banda de los Guanajuatense & Joe Troop with Larry Bellorins

June 10 - Music Maker Blues Revue featuring Gail Ceasar, Tad Walters & Little Jimmy Reed

All Ages