Last night, KHS visitors and staff experienced a real treat at our Bill Monroe Centennial Kick-Off Concert! It was an absolutely splendid performance by former Blue Grass Boys Jim Smoak and Danny Jones, and master bluegrass musicians Hoot Hester, Steve Cooley and Larry Raley! The way that they played together, you would have thought they’ve been in a band together for years.
Now, as awesome as last night’s performance was, I would be seriously remiss to go on and on about it and not to talk about our Voices of Kentucky Concert that happened August 26th. So now that I’ve teased you with the bluegrass concert, I let you know how the Voices of Kentucky Concert went. You’ll just have to wait until next week to hear the samples from last night’s concert.
We had the spectacular female trio of the Johnson Sisters, along with Don Rigsby and the fabulous Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers. We’ve worked with them before at our Made to Be Played concerts, and thought that it would be wonderful to get them all together on stage again. Here they are performing at Made to Be Played:
Each group sang individually until the very end, when they all performed together in what was a very harmonious rendition of “Swing Low.” Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not all that familiar with gospel harmony, but I do know a bit about a cappella performances, and they really blew me away. So, to share the experience, clip the player below to hear Don Rigsby and co, The Johnson Sisters and the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers perform “Swing Low:”
The concert was a great success, and as last night’s were as well, we hope to have many more to come. Keep tabs on the Kentucky Historical Society’s frequent special events and Thursday night programming for more exciting opportunities to listen, learn and experience Kentucky’s incredible culture and history.
-Alisha Martin
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