Thursday, 7:30-10pm

The Old Time Sound - The 85th Star Fiddler's Convention
Right down the road in Star, NC, the Star Fiddler's Convention has been entertaining audiences in our region for almost 100 years. This short documentary features a brief cameo by a couple of Hoppin' John regulars.

Welcome to Spivey's Corner
Every year, on the third Saturday of June, in an otherwise sleepy borough of southeastern North Carolina known as Spivey's Corner (population 49), some 5,000-10,000 folks gather from far and wide to take part in the festivities and entertainment in the day-long extravaganza known as the National Hollerin' Contest. 

The Sacred Soul of North Carolina
Eleven groups in eight days. A marathon recording session in a makeshift storefront studio in a 100-year-old building in the tiny Eastern North Carolina town of Fountain. Once the idea for the project was in place, Alice Vines of the Glorifying Vines Sisters started calling local musicians. It didn’t take her long to line up almost a dozen groups to come lift their voices and represent the region’s unique Sacred Soul traditions. This is Sacred Soul of North Carolina.

Daybreak with Homer Briarhopper
A 1973 episode of WRAL's country music variety show, featuring old-time fiddling and classic country entertainment.

A Singing Stream
This documentary highlights the importance of religious faith and music in the Landis family of Granville County, NC, and shows the impact of tenant farming, Jim Crow, the New Deal, civil rights, migration, and issues of land inheritance in this extended family. 

Friday 7:30-10pm

Country Morning featuring Brothers in Bluegrass
A 1978 episode of WRAL's country music variety show, featuring bluegrass picking and singing by Glen Dyer and his Brothers in Bluegrass.

Blind Gary Davis
A 1964 portrait of Carolina blues master Reverend Gary Davis, filmed while he was living in Harlem.

Blues Houseparty
Some of America's greatest traditional blues masters get together at home to swap songs from the old days and stories of what those days were like, when blues flourished 'back down home' at country breakdowns, corn-shuckings and houseparties. These musicians and their friends create the lively spirit of houseparty blues, while conveying the values, the history, the good and bad times, and the sense of community that gave form to their music and dance.

Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician
Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician is one of the few documentary films about a black traditional musician who plays the banjo. James “Dink” Roberts (1894–1989) grew up in the “Little Texas” community of Alamance County in the Piedmont of North Carolina and made his living growing tobacco as a tenant farmer. But early in his life he learned the clawhammer banjo style from the older children of an uncle who raised him and from other black banjo players in the community. He gained local popularity playing the banjo for dances of both blacks and whites in their communities and continued to enjoy playing and singing banjo songs all his life. The film shows him in his family setting performing several kinds of music—playing banjo and singing dance songs, dramatic banjo songs, and even early country blues performed on guitar.

Lauchlin Shaw, A.C. Overton, and Wayne Martin
Footage of Harnett County fiddler Lauchlin Shaw and Chatham County banjo player A.C. Overton with Wayne Martin at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington.

Saturday 7:45-9pm

Joe and Odell Thompson
In our second event supporting the upcoming Hook & Line Thompson Music & Arts Heritage Festival we will screen films exploring the life and music of Joe and Odell Thompson. We will start with a conversation with Joe's cousin Iris Thompson Chapman, and once the sun goes down, we'll present Iris's 2004 documentary The Life and Times of Joe Thompson. Following that, Wayne Martin will share from his collection of home videos of Joe and Odell, offering us a rare window into their distinctive style of fiddle-and-banjo playing.

After you attend the screenings, make sure to check out the Joe Thompson Square Dance at 9:00pm.