A! Magazine for the Arts Archive

Luthiers

Webster's Dictionary defines "luthier" (pronounced LOO-ti-er) as a maker of stringed instruments, a task that requires intimate knowledge of materials, an eye for a pleasing shape, an ear finely attuned for tone, and a deep appreciation for the place of t

In This Issue

• Luthiers: Festivals Showcase Instrument Makers During the recent Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon, Capo's Music Store featured several area luthiers.
• Luthiers: Parsons Mandolins Will Parsons built his first fiddle when he was only 14; it won first place at a state-wide woodworking competition and second place in the follow-up national competition.
• Luthiers: Sheppard Guitars In 2003 Gerald Sheppard left a successful job in the engineering division at Eastman Chemical in Kingsport, Tenn., to build some of the finest high-end acoustic guitars in the world.
• Luthiers: Along Virginia's Crooked Road Instrument making is an art form, not usually learned from books, but from someone who learned it from a relative or apprenticed under a professional luthier.
• Book Review: McCrumb's The Ballad of Tom Dooley... Sharyn McCrumb's new novel, The Ballad of Tom Dooley, is perhaps the best work in her Ballad series and her best novel in many years.
• Youth Spotlight: Russ Hicks Russ Hicks is a poet, an actor, and a dancer.
• A! Magazine says Goodbye to Ann McIver Goodpasture A valuable member of the A! Magazine team of volunteers has relocated to Asheville, N.C.

A! Extra

• Look for OCT. A! Magazine on Wed, SEPT. 28 Please forward this message to your friends and ask them to email their contact information to artsmagazine@aame.info so they can receive our email blast, too.
• Artistic Storefronts Stop Traffic Congratulations to the winners of the BRRR 2011 Wells Fargo Rockin' Stroll window decorating contest.
• Battered Marquee 'Back to Beautiful' The colorful marquee of the Paramount Center received some much-needed enlightenment Tuesday, thanks to donations by two area lighting companies.
• Review: Barter Theatre's Road to Appomattox Leads Home Like many, if not all, violent confrontations, the American Civil War should never have happened, nor, in Catherine Bush's magnificent play The Road to Appomattox at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, should the battle between a young couple teetering o
• In Sync: Rhythm & Roots Reunion Welcome to the 11th annual Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion. Set to embark on Sept. 16 and roll through Sept. 18, like cities on a map of musical genres Rhythm and Roots won't visit them all but it sure will offer a wide view of American music.
• Encyclopedia of Appalachia Music Section Now Online An expanded and updated version of the music section of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia is now available online.
• BCMA seeks $2.2 Million from Tobacco Fund Newly approved contributions from both Bristols will provide matching money for the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance to secure additional funding to build its proposed heritage center.
• Artist-in-Residence: Barter Theatre Partners with Abingdon High School An Artist-in-Residency program is beginning its second year at Abingdon High School (AHS) and is funded in part by a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Barter Theatre.
• Bristol More Than Guitars and Bluegrass In this land of bluegrass and country, they just want to do one thing – lay down a beat.
• Mountain Music Museum joins The Crooked Road The ACMA Mountain Music Museum in the Bristol Mall has been named an official Crooked Road Affiliated Venue.