Sandburg Music Festival Offers Mountain and Blues Music and Square Dancing

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site celebrates the annual Sandburg Music Festival on Saturday, June 8, 2024, from 10am to 3pm. This free festival, supported by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara, the Arts Council of Henderson County, and America’s National Parks (park store manager), offers live music at the amphitheater and barnyard. The festival highlights the Pulitzer Prize winning poet’s other legacies as music collector and children’s author and the Sandburg family’s love of square dancing.

 

Visitors may bring lawn chairs, food, and non-alcoholic drinks. Light snacks and water will be sold in the Park Store/Visitor Center in the Sandburg Home. Due to expected large crowds, pets will not be allowed at performances. In case of severe weather, the event will be canceled. Check the park’s Facebook page and website for updates.

 

10a.m: Jennifer Armstrong kicks off festivities with storytelling for kids of all ages, to honor Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories, which were tales written for his daughters.  Jennifer has spent her life writing, singing, and making music with fiddle, bagpipe, banjo, and words.  She was a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival and has been heard on NPR.

12p.m: Laura Boosinger celebrates the music of Appalachia through old-time banjo, guitar, Appalachian dulcimer, and fingerstyle Autoharp.  Laura attended Warren Wilson College in the 1970’s, where she learned clawhammer banjo, called Southern Mountain Square dances, and attended Shaped Note Singing School with North Carolina Folk Heritage Award winner Quay Smathers.  Laura is a Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina consultant and the voice of their podcast, “Down the Road on the Blue Ridge Music Trails.” In 2017, Laura was inducted into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame.

 2p.m: Mac Arnold plays the Blues with Austin Brashier and Max Hightower.  At age 24, Arnold joined the Muddy Waters Band, shaping the electric Blues sound of the 1960’s and 70’s.  Mac has shared stages with Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, and Big Mama Thornton.  In 2012, Mac was nominated for the Blues Foundation’s Traditional Blues Male Artist Award and also received a Blues Blast Music Award Nomination for “Traditional Blues Recording of the Year,” with Plate Full O’Blues.  In 2014, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from USC Columbia.  In 2017, Mac was inducted into the Alabama Blues Hall of Fame. In 2023, he received the South Carolina Entertainment and Music Hall of Fame Award.

Austin Brashier is a guitar slinger and vocalist.  He grew up listening to Blues, and eventually took his band on the road.  He has had the privilege to open for Blues players such as B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Tinsley Ellis, Derek Trucks, and Nappy Brown. 

Max Hightower started his music career at age 12 when he bought his first Blues cassette tape, “Muddy Mississippi Live by Muddy Waters.”  He plays keyboard, guitar, bass, and sings. Harmonica is his instrument of choice. Max is a founding member of Plate Full O’Blues and has shared stages with Hubert Sumlin, Willie Smith, and Leon Everette.

10:45am to 12pm: Walter Puckett calls Mountain Circle Square Dances. A festival first, to celebrate the Sandburgs’ love of square dancing! Come dance! When he was just nine years old, Walter called his first dance at a PTA event with his third-grade class. Walt has traveled with the Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers and the Stoney Mountain Cloggers, winning many awards. Walt also had the ultimate privilege to dance at the Grand Ole Opry. 2024 marks his 80th birthday!

12pm to 2pm: Henderson County natives Steve and Jean Smith play mountain dulcimer and hammered dulcimer.  They perform regularly at Carl Sandburg Home.  They have taught dulcimer at festivals and workshops nationwide.  In 1984, Steve won the National Hammered Dulcimer Championships at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. He returned to win the 1985 National Mountain Dulcimer Championships at Winfield, only the second person to win both Championships.

Parking, Shuttles, and Accessibility
Parking is limited. Please carpool or take a ride share or taxi. Three parking lots will have shuttle service. Approximate shuttle times will be posted in all parking lots with shuttle service. Visitors with mobility concerns are strongly urged to take a shuttle.

Parking lot without a shuttle: The hikers’ lot (located ½ mile drive from the main lot). Park and then walk .4  to .7 mile through the park to festivities.

As part of Music Fest, free Sandburg Home tours will be offered at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets are first come, first serve in the Visitor Center/Park Store (on the Sandburg Home ground floor) beginning at 9:30 a.m. (To reserve tickets on non-festival days visit www.recreation.gov).

 

Visit https://www.nps.gov/carl/planyourvisit/musicfest.htm for all festival, accessibility, shuttle, and parking information.