Madison County Arts Council
90 S Main St, Marshall, NC 28753

2:00 – 2:45PM Steve Davidowski & Friends
3:00 – 3:45PM Russ Wilson’s 10 Kings of Jazz

Steve Davidowski & Friends
This seasoned instrumental outfit delivers a compelling, genre-spanning blend of progressive jazz fusion, improvisational rock, and classic rhythm and blues. The music features a highly dynamic, sophisticated sonic texture driven by intricate keyboard layers, syncopated rhythms, and soaring instrumental solos. This versatile style transcends rigid jazz boundaries, anchoring spontaneous, high-energy live jams that focus heavily on tight group interplay, technical mastery, and seamless transitions between structured compositions and free-form musical exploration.

Russ Wilson’s 10 Kings of Jazz
With over 44 years of experience as a professional musician, Russ Wilson is a celebrated drummer, vocalist, and conductor who has released 11 albums as a bandleader. His versatile career spans hundreds of studio recordings, Broadway pit orchestrations, symphonic works, and tours with blues and roots legends like Levon Helm, Hubert Sumlin, and Charlie Musselwhite. As a dedicated amateur music historian, Wilson maintains an archive of over 8,000 vintage orchestrations. He has successfully founded and directed numerous acclaimed ensembles, notably debuting a full concert orchestra for a landmark performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Most recently, Wilson headlined the Asheville Sessions Centennial Celebration, leading his band to historically recreate and preserve the first commercial jazz tracks ever recorded in North Carolina.

Mad Co. Brew House
45 N Main St, Marshall, NC 28753

4:30–5:15 PM: Firecracker Jazz Band

This explosive regional favorite delivers an energetic, revitalization-focused blend of early New Orleans Dixieland, traditional street-parade jazz, and raw, roots-driven blues. The music features a bright, raucous sonic texture characterized by polyphonic brass interplay, driving washboard or snare syncopation, and booming tuba basslines. This vibrant style transcends typical museum-piece folk preservation, anchoring fiery, highly interactive live sets that focus heavily on carnival-like energy, joyful collective improvisation, and a celebratory, footprint-stomping second-line swing.

Zadie’s at the Old Marshall Jail
33 Baileys Branch Rd, Marshall, NC 28753

5:00–5:40 PM: White Rock Revival
6:00–6:45 PM: Carol Rifkin & Friends
7:15–8:15 PM: Sheila Kay Adams, Donna Ray Norton, Debbie Chandler Norton, & William Ritter

White Rock Revival
This dynamic Appalachian ensemble delivers a hard-driving, highly rhythmic blend of traditional string-band music, old-time mountain dance tunes, and driving roots revivalism. The music features a thick, percussive acoustic texture driven by interlocking clawhammer banjo lines, twin-fiddle melodies, and a pulse-quickening acoustic bass rhythm. This high-octane style transcends quiet folk frameworks, anchoring intense, foot-stomping live sets that focus heavily on community dance energy, breakneck instrumental tempos, and the raw, unpolished spirit of rural mountain gatherings.

Carol Rifkin & Friends
This revered traditional collective delivers a deeply authentic, story-driven blend of historic old-time mountain music, traditional Appalachian ballads, and classic bluegrass. The music features a warm, heritage-rich sonic texture layered with acoustic guitar, clawhammer banjo, and beautiful, high-lonesome vocal harmonies. This enduring style transcends simple folk preservation, anchoring deeply reverent live performances that focus heavily on historic regional storytelling, carrying forward deep-rooted musical lineages, and fostering an intimate, porch-side atmosphere on the festival stage.

Sheila Kay Adams, Donna Ray Norton, Debbie Chandler Norton, William Ritter
This distinguished multi-generational circle delivers an unmatched, historically pure blend of unaccompanied traditional ballad singing and historic Western North Carolina love songs. The music features a stark, deeply haunting sonic texture focused purely on the raw power of the human voice, occasionally punctuated by traditional solo fiddle or banjo. Centered around eighth-generation mentor Sheila Kay Adams, this lineup showcases an artist decorated with virtually every major folk accolade in the nation. Her preservation work earned her the NEA National Heritage Fellowship—the highest honor in American folk arts—as well as the North Carolina Heritage Award and a 2026 United States Artists Fellowship. Additionally, Adams is a celebrated author whose collection Come Go Home With Me won the North Carolina Historical Society’s historical fiction award, complementing her music with deep, prize-winning regional storytelling. This pristine style transcends commercial acoustic formats, anchoring rare, deeply vulnerable stage sets that focus heavily on ancestral oral histories, the unbroken lineage of Madison County balladry, and preservation of ancient modal melodies

Marshall High Studios
115 Blannahassett Island Rd, Marshall, NC 28753

5:00–5:45 PM: Glass Harp Orchestra: The Sound of Things
6:30–7:15 PM: Pierce Edens
8:00–9:00 PM: Shake It Like a Caveman

Glass Harp Orchestra: The Sound of Things
This innovative avant-garde project delivers a mesmerizing, ambient blend of experimental sonic art, microtonal music, and ethereal new-age textures. The music features an otherworldly, crystal-clear sonic texture created entirely by the friction of wet fingertips sliding across custom-tuned glass vessels and singing bowls. This hypnotic style transcends standard melodic boundaries, anchoring deeply cinematic, immersive soundscapes that focus heavily on acoustic resonance, slowly evolving harmonic overtones, and a meditative, deeply atmospheric live listening experience.

Pierce Edens
This powerhouse North Carolina artist delivers a gritty, deeply compelling blend of dirty folk-rock, alternative Americana, and raw, blues-soaked storytelling. The music features a heavy, stomping sonic texture driven by his ferociously raspy, gravel-and-honey vocals, thrashing acoustic rhythm guitar, and foot-pedal percussion. This high-energy style transcends polite singer-songwriter boundaries, anchoring explosive, emotionally turbulent solo sets that focus heavily on dark Southern gothic lyricism, raw emotional catharsis, and a fiery, rock-and-roll stage presence.

Shake It Like a Caveman
This relentless one-man touring phenomenon delivers a primitive, high-octane blend of electro-acoustic delta blues, stomp-box rock, and raw, low-fidelity hill country boogie. The music features a primal, driving sonic texture built entirely around overdriven slide guitar, synchronized foot-drum grooves, and booming, distorted vocals. This hypnotic style transcends standard acoustic blues, anchoring sweat-soaked, trance-inducing live sets that focus heavily on relentless dance grooves, raw garage-rock energy, and a heavy, hypnotic rhythmic pulse.

Mal’s
64 N Main St, Marshall, NC 28753

6:30–7:15 PM: Laura Boosinger & Mike Compton
8:00–9:00 PM: Las Montañitas

Laura Boosinger & Mike Compton
This master-class acoustic duo delivers an impeccably crafted, highly virtuosic blend of traditional old-time string music, early commercial country, and foundational Monroe-style bluegrass. The music features a bright, incredibly precise sonic texture that pairs her driving, rhythmic clawhammer banjo work with his legendary, percussive mandolin-chopping and bluesy string-bending. This definitive style transcends casual regional picking, anchoring brilliant, highly cohesive duet sets that focus heavily on technical string accuracy, historic preservation, and soulful, tight-knit vocal harmony.

Las Montañitas
This vibrant pan-Latin folk ensemble delivers a rich, celebratory blend of traditional Andean music, Afro-Colombian rhythms, and contemporary acoustic Latin-pop fusion. The music features a multi-layered, colorful sonic texture woven together by classical nylon-string guitars, indigenous woodwinds, and syncopated hand percussion. This joyful style transcends geographical boundaries, anchoring high-energy, rhythmically infectious live sets that focus heavily on cross-cultural dance beats, rich Spanish vocal choruses, and an uplifting celebration of immigrant identity and community resilience.