GRAFTON — The River Singers, led by Mary Cay Brass, will hold their spring concert on Saturday, May 28, at 7:30 p.m., at The White Church.
The 90-singer ensemble will perform soulful, thrilling music from the Balkans, South Africa, Rwanda, and the Republic of Georgia, with a special focus this session on old-time country music with guest musicians Emily Miller and Jesse Milnes joining the choir for a special joint concert, according to a news release.
Milnes and Miller perform country and old-time music, singing close harmony with Jesse's unique finger-picked guitar style and a healthy dose of old-time fiddling.
Emily was raised playing and singing Louvin Brothers and Stanley Brothers songs with her parents while they traveled the world as journalists. She is a lead singer and twin fiddler in the country band, the Sweetback Sisters, and spends much of her time on the road. When she's home in West Virginia, Emily is musical director for the Davis & Elkins College Appalachian Ensemble's string band, which recruits talented instrumentalists and dancers from around the country for a high-level student performance ensemble.
Jesse grew up in the world of West Virginia old-time music, learning from masters like Melvin Wine and Ernie Carpenter as well as his father, Gerry Milnes. He regularly plays for square dances around West Virginia when he isn't on the road playing as a duo with Emily. They also teach harmony singing workshops around the country with Emily's mother, Val Mindel.
Jesse and Emily live in central West Virginia. They have taught the choir seven songs in the tight harmonies of the country old-time tradition. There are both a cappella songs and tunes accompanied by string band spiced with many solos from the choir, according to the news release.
The River Singers always sing a set of songs from various Balkan countries. Brass, their director, spent two years on a Fulbright in ethnomusicology in the former Yugoslavia and regularly leads Village Harmony singing camps in Macedonia and Bosnia.
The concerts will feature a Bosnian “sevdalinka” or love song from an urban Muslim tradition, a Serbian dance song and a lively Macedonian love song in 7/8 rhythm - all accompanied by the choir's own Balkan band - Brass on accordion, Walter Slowinski on clarinet, Annie Guion on percussion, and Mary Lea and Laurie Rabut on twin fiddles, with guest bassist Steve Cady on bass.
A cornucopia of beautiful songs from many traditions rounds out this season's concert.
For the first time, the choir will sing a hauntingly beautiful setting of a traditional folk song from Syria in the Arabic language, as well as a Georgian toasting song, a South African song and dance, American folk hymns, and a Rwandan spiritual with the dynamic Appolinaire William from Rwanda as soloist.