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Seldom Scene, a Maryland-based band together since 1971, will perform their "Live at Cellar Door" album in two sets during the Mount Airy Farm concert September 25.
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From top left and clockwise: Myriam Phiro, Anthony Rosano, Stephanie Nakasian, Bobby Blackhat, and No BS! Brass. The Winter Blues Jazz Fest will be held in Williamsburg over four days from June 24-27.
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From top left and clockwise: The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg; 1940 photographs of Menokin, an 18th-century Virginia home located in Warsaw and stairway; Menokin today; The stairway from Menokin is currently on display in the Pamela J. and James B. Penny Court in the Dewitt Wallace Museum.
Fans of Bluegrass will surely be delighted about the return of the Grammy-nominated Bluegrass artists Seldom Scene to Mount Airy Farm on the Northern Neck this September.
Seldom Scene will perform hits from their classic 1975 double album, “Live at The Cellar Door,” which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year. The concert was postponed last summer due to the pandemic.
“This event is extra special, a one-of-a-kind event,” said Tayloe Emery, owner of Mount Airy Farm.
“Live at The Cellar Door” was one of the earliest live Bluegrass albums to be released and helped put the musical genre on the map. Seldom Scene, a Maryland-based band that first played together in 1971, will perform the whole album in two sets during the Mount Airy Farm concert on September 25.
The band features Dudley Connell on guitar, Lou Reid on mandolin, Ron Stewart on banjo, Fred Travers on dobro and Ronnie Simpkins on upright bass. Band members are looking forward to playing together once again in front of a live audience following the respite as a result of Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns.
“Performing the album will be a challenge,” said Seldom Scene guitarist Dudley Connell. “It really is a classic recording in every sense of the word. ‘Live at the Cellar Door’ captured a lot of people’s attention outside of the normal Bluegrass listener. In many ways, the record redefined what Bluegrass music could be. It is a privilege and honor to try perform the record in its entirety.”
Emery is also thrilled about the upcoming concert given the current world climate.
“It’s just a rambunctious album,” Emery said. “A lot of people associate it with their childhood. We are looking forward to a safe, fun event for everyone. We see this as something hopeful and positive for people as we get back to normal.”
CultureFix is also bringing back live music to Williamsburg this summer. The popular Winter Blues Jazz Fest returns at the end of June. This is the seventh year of the jazz festival, which is typically held each January but was rescheduled due to the pandemic.
“We are very excited to finally be able to start working on events again,” said Steve Rose, co-founder and president of CultureFix, an organization that promote arts and culture in Williamsburg.
“We know people are eager to get out and socialize together, and we are happy that restrictions are beginning to ease.”
The Winter Blues Jazz Fest will be held on the lawn of The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg over a four-day period June 24-27. The festival will include a variety of musical acts spanning different jazz styles from Dixieland and Latin to traditional and contemporary.
Opening act for the Winter Blues Jazz Fest will be Myriam Phiro and her Phirocious Swing Orchestra. Other scheduled performers include No BS! Brass, Bobby Blackhat, Anthony Rosano, and Stephanie Nakasian and her band with a special guest.
“We have a huge tent for the festival so a great time will be had by all while still respecting proper distancing,” said Lance Pedigo, one of the organizers of the festival. “The spirit of jazz has persevered over time and so shall our spirit in bringing great music and arts to our community.”
CultureFix also plans to once again host the Summer Breeze Concert Series, which will also resume this summer. Outdoor concerts will be held each Wednesday evening from 6 to 9 pm, June 23-September 1, also on the lawn of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. While a complete lineup hasn’t been announced yet, previous Summer Breeze concert performers included local fan favorites Slapnation and Good Shot Judy and others playing hits from an array of musical genres and decades.
It seems The Art Museums are the place to be this summer. Art, history and architectural enthusiasts should make plans to see one of the museum’s latest exhibits, a rare 18th century stairway on loan from historic Menokin near Warsaw. The stairway is currently on display in the Pamela J. and James B. Penny Court in the Dewitt Wallace Museum.
The stairway is a representation of daily life of one of the country’s Founding Fathers, Francis Lightfoot Lee and his wife, Rebecca Tayloe Lee. Menokin, which was the Lees’ home, is a National Historic Landmark.
“Seeing a staircase triggers a physical response that some of us share in climbing to and from private quarters in a house,” said Christopher Swan, Wooden Artifacts Conservator for Colonial Williamsburg. “We might imagine the interactions of the Tayloes, the Lees, the house servants and slaves alike on this very flight of stairs that connects their daily experience to our own, thus creating a link to the past.”
Guests will admire the shape, size, design and style of the staircase, which was originally painted a pale cream color to match most of Menokin’s first floor finishes, a rare coloring for steps in the 18th century. The stairway also boasts an unusual four-per-tread set of diamond-shaped balusters, another rarity for the time period in which it was first built.
“It is an amazing piece of Colonial architecture,” said Matthew Webster, Executive Director, Grainger Department of Architectural Preservation and Research for Colonial Williamsburg. “It shows the status of the owners and is a remarkable survival. Its path from Menokin to Colonial Williamsburg is also an incredible preservation story. The stair has not been seen as an intact unit since the 1960s.”
Colonial Williamsburg first contacted Menokin in 2019 about borrowing the staircase as part of the introduction of its recently expanded Art Museums. The new Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, which includes the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, reopened with additional gallery space and a new entrance in the summer of 2020.
Sam McKelvey, Executive Director of the Menokin Foundation, is pleased the stairway is being showcased.
“Personally, I love the individual handmade pieces that create the whole, all handcrafted by its historic maker, most likely an enslaved craftsman,” McKelvey said. “We hope fans of Virginia history and architecture will visit the exhibit at Colonial
Williamsburg to get a modern interpretation showing that historic buildings tell great stories about our past. We believe it is a great preview to what the entire Menokin project will illustrate once fully developed and open to the public.”
For tickets to the Seldom Scene concert at Mount Airy Farm, visit MountAiry.farm/tickets.
For tickets to the Winter Blues Jazz Fest, visit Culture-fix.org.
For tickets to the Art Museums at Colonial Williamsburg, visit ColonialWilliamsburg.com.