Todd Remembers Doc Watson...
With great love and gratitude and a tribute concert this weekend.
Greetings from downtown Todd!
The colors are bursting with yellow along the river and roadsides here in Todd, making for an excellent time for a car or bike ride along the ridges and river or jump in a kayak for a great water view! There is no better time to come for music and fun than these next couple of weeks.
This Saturday, August 24th brings the TCPO's premiere summer event and something that you will surely want to get your tickets for... the 2nd annual Doc Watson Tribute Concert with the Kruger Brothers, Wayne Henderson and Charles Welch. Doc Watson played in Todd every August for the last 10 or so years of his life. Anyone who came to one of these concerts always left feeling like they had just sat and listen to Doc on his own front porch. He would sit and tell stories - whether it be of his youth, of Rosa Lee, or of traveling with his music and other musicians. He just had a way to make you feel connected to him and his music. He was joined on stage during some of these concerts by Charles Welch, Jens Kruger and Joel Landsberg (of the Kruger Bros.).
This concert brings the Kruger Brothers, Charles and one of Doc's favorite guitar picking buddys, Wayne Henderson back together on the same stage to pick up where Doc left off and bring their memories and music to our small river town. Tickets are just $15 dollars (day of the show $18). This will be a show you won't want to miss. Tickets are available here at the Mercantile, the Ashe or Boone Chamber, Appalachian Music, Scott's Guitar, the Riverside Restaurant or Rivergirl ~ Stop by and get yours or buy them online at www.toddnc.org The show starts at 4pm. This show is rain or shine, I hear it is supposed to be a beautiful day in Todd, but it's always good to check ahead and come prepared. The Youth Group at South Fork Baptist Church will have parking available right close to the park for $5.00 to help fund some of their activities and there will also be parking available in another lot not far from downtown with a shuttle available to and from the concert. Some local folks from Todd will be on MTN tomorrow live on their noon show and then at 5:30pm with Jane Lonon with the Ashe Arts Council. You can check them out here.
On Tuesday, join us in the Todd Mercantile Gallery at 7:30pm for a screening of Elkland Art Center's documentary "The Land Sustains Us: A Todd Story". The art center made the film to serve as an exploration and community conversation on how the changing landscape (development, infrastructure improvements, loss of environments, etc) affects the sense of community in Todd, NC. The film involved interviewing a cross-section of people from the community including long term and short term residents, developers, government officials and scholars to obtain their insight into how land use has affected or changed their attitudes in the community. A discussion with the documentary team will follow the screening.
Labor Day weekend will be another great time to be in Todd. On Saturday, August 31st Fleetwood Folk will be coming back to the Mercantile for an encore performance. They will be playing outside on the porch -weather permitting, inside if it isn't - the music starts at 2:00pm.
Then on Sunday starting at 1:00pm, the 2nd annual TCPO Ice Cream Social will get under way in Cook Memorial Park. The Wooten Family Singers will be performing and if you haven't heard them you are in for a treat! They are a gospel group that harmonize like the Statler Brothers. They all have incredible voices that will delight the whole family! Plus, if you're a baker or an ice cream maker there will be contests too!!! There will be prizes for the best homemade ice cream, best pie and best cake. The ice cream will be provided by the TCPO and is free; just bring a topping to share! Hope to see you all there!!
Earlier that morning (Sunday, Sept. 1st) the South Fork Baptist Church invites everyone to join them for Sunday services in the park and also that same evening at 6:00pm for Bible Study and free hot dogs.
Looking ahead into September, the Blue Ridge Relay - a 208 mile relay race - will be running through Todd on Friday Sept. 6th. The race starts in the Grayson Highlands and finishes in Asheville, now that's a race! The Todd Ruritan's BarBQue Dinner will be held Saturday Sept. 7th from 4-7pm in the fellowship hall of the South Fork Baptist Church.
On Friday September 13th we'll have a CommUnity Pot Luck Dinner followed by a Contra Dance here at the Mercantile! The dinner starts at 6pm followed by the dance around 7:30pm. Sure is a good time to come out and meet your neighbors, have a whole lotta fun and enjoy some great food and music!
Friday, September 20th is a date to save as one of Todd's favorite bands returns - The Tillers! It will be a pay at the door event to cover the cost of the band. The music will start at 7:00pm and you won't want to miss it. The band included comments about playing with Doc Watson here in Todd in one of their recent CD's and a song about playing with him on their most recently released CD - check out the video for their song The Neverending Road here!
Here at the Todd Merc we're getting great new merchandise all the time. Soon we will be carrying really neat, locally made tile coasters and trivets that will benefit the Wautaga Humane Society - how cool is that!! They're great hostess gifts or gifts for the holidays! We're really excited about that and also, did you know we do layaways at the Mercantile? Come in and talk to us about it if you're interested in something and want to start shopping for the holidays or want to buy that special painting you've had your eye on but your wallet's been a little too thin to manage it.
As always, we hope to see you soon in Todd!
Helen
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