Wayne Henderson, Jeff Little, & Luke Little + Presley Barker

111 East Grayson Street,Galax VA 24333

24 December, 2022

Description

On Friday, November 25th Wayne Henderson, Jeff Little, and Luke Little will take the stage at The Rex Theater in Galax, VA, and Presley Barker will perform on Saturday, November 26th. You can pre-purchase tickets here for $25 for both nights. You'll save $5 by pre-purchasing. Tickets will be $15 for at the box office each night of the shows. Wayne Henderson’s top-notch finger-picking is a source of great pleasure and pride to his friends, family and neighbors in Grayson County, Virginia. His guitar playing has also been enjoyed at Carnegie Hall, in three national tours of Masters of the Steel-String Guitar, and in seven nations in Asia. In addition to his reputation as a guitarist, Henderson is a luthier of great renown. He is a recipient of a 1995 National Heritage Award presented by the National Endowment for the Arts. He produces about 20 instruments a year, mostly guitars; he is almost as well-known for the mandolins he has made. Good friend Doc Watson owned a Henderson mandolin. He said, “That Henderson mandolin is as good as any I’ve had my hands on. And that’s saying a lot, because I’ve picked up some good ones.” Some of Henderson’s instruments are intricately decorated but are most respected for their volume, tone, and resonance. Blues guitarist John Cephas said that Wayne Henderson “is probably the most masterful guitar maker in this whole United States.” There is a waiting list for Henderson’s guitars made up of the famous (and not-so-famous). Jeff Little is an award winning musician from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. With few exceptions, the piano does not play a prominent part in Appalachian or Americana music, and is rarely the lead instrument. But Jeff Little is an exception – and a remarkable one. Jeff has not only been recognized as a critically acclaimed musician but also a true innovator in acoustic music. Jeff stays busy traveling the country performing concerts with an energy and dedication to his music that is evident at every show. Performances include The Smithsonian Institution, The National FolkFestival, American Piano Masters, Merlefest, and many festivals,performing arts centers and music venues throughout the US. Jeff has been featured on National Public Radio and PBS many times and has also taken his music around the world for the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs performing in Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Oman, Pakistan, France and Tanzania. In 2014 Jeff was inducted into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame. In addition, Jeff is Artist in Residence for the Popular Music Program at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC. Luke Little is a young and talented mandolin player whose musicianship and style expand well beyond his years. Luke's performances include the National Folk Festival, PBS Song of the Mountains, The Richmond Folk Festival and The Moss Center for the Performing Arts at Virginia Tech. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Traphill, North Carolina, native Presley Barker plays country/blues music and is a singer/songwriter. “I enjoyed music from a really young age,” Presley recalls. “My mom liked clogging, so we were always listening to folk music.” Presley was particularly fond of Doc Watson, and started playing guitar at seven years old, It did not take him long to start getting the hang of the instrument and catching the attention of the local music community. Soon, Presley started taking lessons with Steve Lewis, a past winner of the prestigious Winfield National Guitar Championship. Presley also made frequent trips to Grayson County, Virginia, to meet with guitar builder and player Wayne Henderson. “Every time I visit Wayne, he teaches me a new tune on the guitar,” Presley says. Presley also traveled around the region to fiddlers conventions. He started entering guitar competitions and bringing home lots of blue ribbons. In 2015, at age 10, Presley won the Old Fiddler’s Convention Adult guitar competition in Galax, Virginia and won a second time in 2017. In 2017, Presley also won the prestigious Wayne C. Henderson Guitar Championship. While Presley says that the Galax blue ribbon was one of his most prized awards, the competitions are not as important as playing music with friends. Presley sings and plays guitar at his local church, and gives performances at concert venues and festivals around the region. He has appeared on the NBC Today Show with Al Roker. He has played the National Folk Festival, Richmond Folk Festival, Lowell Folk Festival, Montana Folk Festival, Masters of Steel String Guitar Event in Washington, D.C., PBS Song of the Mountains Show, Doc Watson Day Celebration in Boone, NC, David Holt’s State of Music, Blue Ridge Music Center, Silver Dollar City, Dollywood, Houstonfest, Carolina In The Fall, and Merlefest. Presley also appeared on NBC’s “Little Big Shots” with Steve Harvey and “Wonderama” TV show in New York City. Most recently, Presley was invited by Country Music Hall of Fame and Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs to play the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. Presley released his first solo album entitled “JUST-TEN” in the fall of 2015 and is now working with Dolly Parton’s producer and Grammy Nominated Kent Wells Productions in Nashville TN to release some new music coming soon. This info about Presley is from an article from https://www.blueridgeheritage.com/artist/presley-barker/