October 6th – 7th
This year’s Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival will feature the Tony Award-winning Red Clay Ramblers, and Dom Flemons, The American Songster, plus 25 other varied groups and solo artists performing on the porches of 16 Oriental homes and businesses. The Red Clay Ramblers, the nationally known North Carolina string band, will play on the Main Stage across from Lou Mac Park at 3 pm on Saturday, Oct. 7. Admission is free.
The festival opens at 4 pm on Friday, Oct. 6, with music on five porches around the small harbor town, followed by a special Friday evening concert at The Old Theater, 609 Broad St. Grammy winner Dom Flemons will perform starting at 7:30 pm. Tickets for this special event are $20 per person and are available at Nautical Wheelers and Mariner Realty, or by calling 252-671-4643.
All porch performances and Main Stage concerts are free. The music this year ranges from folk, Americana, and bluegrass, to country, gospel, blues, and jazz. Some favorite regional and local groups are returning to the festival this year, including Saltwater Gold, who will perform on the Main Stage on Saturday, Moore’s Creek Bluegrass, Honey Magpie, Dennis Cash, Green Creek Bluegrass, Harbor Sounds, Salty Paws, and The Gospel Ensemble.
Several performers who have not played the festival before will appear this year, including world-renowned guitarist Mojo Collins, Canadian Alt-Country singer-songwriter Melissa Plett, Brittany Jean, and Mahalojazz. For more information about this year’s performers, go to OlFrontPorchMusicFestival.org.
The Red Clay Ramblers play old-time mountain music, bluegrass, country rock, jazz and gospel. They have appeared on national television and radio, including “A Prairie Home Companion,” the NBC “Tonight Show,” and CBS “This Morning,” and have toured North America, Europe and the Middle East. In 1999, their musical show Fool Moon enjoyed a five-week run at the Kennedy Center and later received a Special Tony Award at the Gershwin Theater in New York.
Dom Flemons is a founding member of the Grammy winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. A native of Arizona, Flemons now lives in North Carolina, sings and plays guitar, banjo, bones, harmonica, fife and jug. The Carolina Chocolate Drops, with whom Flemons performed until 2013, “extended the tradition of African-American string bands of the 1920s and ‘30s,” according to National Public Radio. The band won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2010. Flemons’ first solo album, Prospect Hill, reflects his interest in old-time music, blues, early jazz and R&B.
“We are thrilled to be able to bring all these fabulous performers to Oriental and the Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival,” said Dottie Osmun, chair of the Festival board of directors.
The Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival will also feature a Village Market showcasing dozens of local and regional artisans and crafters, and a Food Park where local nonprofit organizations are teaming up with local restaurants to provide festivalgoers a wide selection of “grab and go” meals. The Village Market and Food Park will be located in and around Lou Mac Park on South Avenue.
Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival, Inc., a nonprofit organization, receives support from the Pamlico County Arts Council and the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
For more information about Oriental’s annual Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival, please visit OlFrontPorchMusicFestival.org.
Submitted by: Dottie Osmun, Chair, Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival, Inc.