New Spring Creek cultural space to host stacked lineup of Madison County musicians

HOT SPRINGS - A New Hot Springs event venue will celebrate musicians from Madison County at an upcoming annual fundraiser event.

Rare Bird Farm, a 98-acre farm and cultural event space that can host gatherings of up to 150 people in Spring Creek, will host the Fine Tuned Sessions event May 4.

The Fined Tuned project is a Blue Ridge National Heritage Area mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina.

Only 100 tickets will be sold to the event, and the music will take place at the venue's concert space, Tug Fork Barn.

Rare Bird will also offer camping options, and onsite food/catering will be available.

Rare Bird Farm is owned by Mitchell Davis, Farrah Hoffmire, Benjamin Gibbins and Edwin Self. Davis, Hoffmire and Gibbins grew up together in Summerville, South Carolina, and moved to the farm in 2021.

Fine Tuned musicians include performances from Asheville resident Cary Fridley and Leicester resident Bayla Davis, a 14-year-old vocalist and award-winning banjo player who is also learning mandolin, guitar and fiddle.

Donna Ray Norton, an eighth generation ballad singer who grew up singing ballads in Sodom Laurel/Revere like Sheila Kay Adams, was born into the tradition of ballad singing.

Norton soaked up the songs of her mother Lena Jean Ray, as well as Adams and others. She is the granddaughter of fiddler Byard Ray and Morris Norton.

For the Fine Tuned project, Norton collaborated with Josh Goforth, who in 2009 was nominated for a Grammy for his album with David Holt entitled “Cutting Loose.”

Norton said Fine Tuned mentorship theme accurately sums up her experience working with Goforth.

"I call myself the prototype for that because what happened was, I asked Josh to produce my album, 'Forevermore I'll Sing,'" Norton said. "So, Josh and I went to Virginia, and we were recording and it's all a capella and all that, and he says, 'Why don't we try something a little different.' And I was like, 'Josh, I don't sing with music.'

"But because Josh Goforth just had a guitar, there was no drums and there was on everything else, I hear the whole song and can pick up on it if it's an instrumental of the whole entire thing. I had never sang with musical accompaniment, because with the ballad singing, it's all traditional."

A final urging from Goforth reminding Donna Ray Norton of her importance was what drove her to take the plunge and record with him.

"He was like, 'Are you nervous right now?' I said, 'Yes, I am.' He was like, 'Well, you're Donna Ray Norton. You better get up and sing this song.' So, I got up, and we recorded 'In The Pines,' and we did it with the music, and it was fun. I enjoyed it."

According to Norton, the idea for the Fine Tuned project originated from Norton and Goforth's "In The Pines" recording.

"They came up with this idea of combining all these mentor-mentees because Josh was helping me do something I'd never done before, and then also having all these collaborations of all these different types of musicians," Norton said.

The Fine Tuned Sessions at Rare Bird will feature a ballad swap with Norton, Adams, William Ritter and Melanie Rice, Sheila Kay Adams' daughter, and like Norton, an eighth-generation ballad singer.

There will also be a Fine Tuned Jam featuring multiiple sets of music with Madison County old-time artists including Laura Boosinger, Brandon Johnson and Troy Harrison (featured in the documentary below), Bayla Davis and Fridley, hammered dulcimer player Benjamin Barker and more.

Tyler Ramsey, the former lead guitarist of Band of Horses, will also be on the bill, and will be playing with Norton.

“I’m more and more drawn to playing intimate shows for people,” Ramsey said via the Rare Bird Farm website. “Stripping away smoke and mirrors, being in a room with people and trying to create a moment — one person with a guitar and a room full of people that want to listen.”

Davis said he began working with Johnson when he and the Rare Bird Farm team hosted Emmy Award- and Grammy Award-winning filmmaker David Hoffman for a conversation and screening of his 1965 movie Music Makers of the Blue Ridge, which spotlighted Madison County musicians such as Bascom Lamar Lunsford.

Davis and Hoffmire said they are excited to host an event showcasing the musical talents of Madison County.

"It's a good sampling of local musicians," Davis said. "When I talked to Tyler Ramsey, he mentioned how excited he was to play with Laura Boosinger."

"It's the hyperlocal Madison County people," Hoffmire said.

According to Davis, the Rare Bird team hopes to host the event annually.

"We're going to try to turn it up and keep making it just a little bit better," Davis said.

Hoffmire said the Rare Bird team draws influence to David Byrne's idea that the music adapts to the place where it was made.

"The idea is that over music history, the space has kind of led to where the music goes, which is really, really interesting," Davis said.

Rare Bird Farm offers a full schedule of music acts, and held its first concert event in March. The venue also offers workshops and season passes for concerts.

Half of the proceeds from the event will go to the Fine Tuned program, which is part of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, Mitchell said.

Rare Bird Farm is located at 91 Duckett Top Tower Road. Gates for the Fine Tuned Sessions event open at 10:30 a.m. May 4, and music will play from noon to 7 p.m. Tickets are $65 and $25 for children 16 and under. Concert and weekend camping passes are also available.

For more information, visit https://rarebirdfarm.org/performingarts/fine-tuned.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Spring Creek event space to host lineup of Madison County musicians