CARRBORO, N.C. – The final concert of the Music Maker Foundation’s Freight Train Blues 2024 series is set for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, June 21, at Carrboro Town Commons, 301 W. Main Street.
The series is a collaboration among the Music Maker Foundation; the Town of Carrboro; WUNC 91.5 FM; and The Forests at Duke. Funding for this year’s series was also provided by Spark the Arts.
Bring your picnic, lawn chairs and blankets for a free evening of live music on the lawn. Beer and food will be available for purchase at the events.
This week's concert will feature The Sacred Soul of North Carolina Revue with The Glorifying Vines, Bishop Albert Harrison & the Gospel Tones, Jerry Harrison & Faith, and Dave Hargrove & Company.
Glorifying Vines Sisters
The Glorifying Vines Sisters from Eastern North Carolina have been singing gospel music together in their living rooms, churches, and even bars for over 40 years. The Vines sisters’ music is steeped in the traditions of quartet gospel—a style that came into its own in the 1930s with groups like the Soul Stirrers and the Dixie Hummingbirds. Over the years they have shared the stage with many of the biggest names in the genre, including the Mighty Clouds of Joy and the Swanee Quintet. But while the Vines Sisters can wreck the house with the best of them, they also bring a distinctive sweetness and a mellow funkiness to their music.
Bishop Albert Harrison and the Gospel Tones
Bishop Albert Harrison has been traveling and singing gospel music solo since the 1980s. When he was in the hospital in 2006, he took stock of his life and decided resolutely to start a group—The Gospel Tones. Harrison hails from the experimental planned black community of Soul City in Warren County, while The Gospel Tones make Ahoskie, NC their home base. Talking about gospel musicians in Eastern North Carolina he says, “We all come back from a long way back. We all come up on farms. Our mothers and fathers and grandfathers always used to sing. It’s something we love to do.” Harrison says that he sings in the “old jubilee style.” And he sings it anywhere he can. “Wherever the Lord sends me, I go,” he says, “that’s the way I feel about it.”
About Freight Train Blues Concert Series
Celebrating its 10th year anniversary, this Carrboro event honors GRAMMY-winning folk and blues artist and North Carolina Music Hall of Famer Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten, born in Carrboro, N.C. in 1893. Cotten’s soulful voice and unique guitar style have rendered her a legend in the world of blues, leading her to receive National Heritage Fellowship in 1984 and a GRAMMY award in 1985. She lived to be 104 years old and died in 1987. Her songs, like the iconic “Freight Train,” have been reimagined by artists like The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan. In 2022, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Music Maker Foundation honors Cotten’s legacy in the world of roots music by emphasizing the cultural diversity, complexity, and vitality of her music and the music of many other artists local to her community and all over the country.
