Join the debut of Earth & Arts OBX, a celebration of Earth Day and the official opening of Nags Head’s new soundside boardwalk on April 22.

The event, hosted by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, is scheduled to kick off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. at the Soundside Event Site, 6800 S. Croatan Highway.

There will be live music by Brooke & Nick and HotSauce, a curated marketplace featuring environmentally conscious artists and makers, hands-on children’s activities, and opportunities to interact with local nonprofits that focus on conservation and sustainability.

“We’re excited to share this incredible new gathering spot with the community,” Outer Banks Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lee Nettles stated in a release. “This event is an opportunity to experience the new Soundside Boardwalk while connecting with the people and organizations dedicated to preserving the character and environment of this special place for generations to come. The views from the boardwalk are spectacular and give us all yet another way to experience the natural beauty of the Outer Banks.”

The event will wrap up at sunset.

Performances by a newly formed youth choir made possible, in part, with funding from a Dare County-based public charity, have been lined up well into the New Year.

The Outer Banks Youth Choir will perform at the 10:30 a.m. worship services at St. Andrew’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Church on Feb. 22, March 22, and May 10.

The choir, which continues to accept new members ages 9-19, is also scheduled to hold a spring concert on June 7.

The youth choir, which received a grant from the Outer Banks Community Foundation, or OBCF, performed its inaugural Yuletide Concert on Dec. 14 at the church and led by Dare County Schools music teacher John Buford.

In 2023, St. Andrew’s Rector Nathan Finnin approached Buford about directing a youth choir at the church. But the idea was put on hold while Buford battled cancer, according to a foundation release.

Upon his recovery, Buford revisited the idea, this time proposing that the choir be opened to children across the Outer Banks, “fulfilling his goal of leading a group that included all of the ages that he loves to teach,” the release states.

“There’s something about a child’s voice that’s so pure and beautiful, so when you combine it with the older voices, it sounds really good and it works wonderfully,” Buford stated in the release.

“Being able to partner with OBCF not only showcases the good work they do, but it gives us a wider audience because now, people who are plugged into the work of the Outer Banks Community Foundation, are able to learn about us,” Finnin stated in the release. “It’s really a mutually beneficial relationship.”

The choir practices once a week at the church and provides worship music during Sunday services once a month. Additional information, including how to join the choir, is available at https://sites.google.com/view/outerbanksyouthchoir/home. 

Grants from the foundation help fund local needs in Dare County as well as across all Outer Banks communities, from Corolla to Ocracoke Island.

OBCF encourages nonprofits to visit the foundation’s website for guidelines, eligibility criteria, and the application portal. Staff may be contacted at 252-423-3003.

The foundation’s next grant application is for Community Enrichment Grants. The application deadline is Jan. 30.

Early submissions are encouraged to allow time for review and feedback.

A musical performance by the Raleigh Civic Symphony set for this weekend will share what organizers call a musical vision of conservation for the American red wolf and other threatened species.

Composer Stephanie Ann Boyd’s “Carnival of the Nearly Extinct Animals and other works focused on our relationship to the natural world” is at 4 p.m. Sunday in the North Carolina State University’s Stewart Theatre at 2610 Cates Ave. in Raleigh.

The performance is part of the university’s NC State LIVE season.

The concert, conducted by Peter Askim, will feature the world premiere of a new movement in “Carnival” honoring the endangered eastern red wolf population in northeastern North Carolina.

The performance will feature images of the remaining red wolves in North Carolina by wildlife photographer Aspen Stalls.

Organizers call the work, “a kaleidoscopic, aural presentation celebrating a menagerie of animals (including coral) faced with the dismaying possibility of being the very last of their kind; some have already ceased to exist except in memory. Leading with a powerful message, the work will also serve to delight, educate, and empower the audiences who meet it.”

Boyd said she had already chosen the animals to be features when Askim advised her that an important addition was needed.

“He said, ‘Well, Stephanie, we really need to talk about the red wolf.’ And he told me about it, and we, I don’t know. I mean, I spent most of the summer working on this piece and just crying because the subject matter is so difficult to parse through,” Boyd told Coastal Review Wednesday.

She said that telling difficult stories is a big part of what activism is in a way that connects, rather than other tactics that may not.

“There’s a lot of shaming and anger, and I understand that, but for me, the thing that I’m here to do is bring love and inspiration, because those are the highest sort of vibrations we can have in emotion, in our emotions.”

Boyd said that in working with NC State LIVE on a new, extra movement for the red wolves meant that she got to spend more time exploring bluegrass and other musical traditions important to North Carolina.

“And I’m just gobsmacked that this is all just actually happening,” said Boyd.

A preshow “info fair” is scheduled for 3 p.m. in the theatre lobby with students and organizations presenting about their work in wildlife conservation and sustainability.

After the performance, audiences are invited to stay for a conversation with composers Boyd and Ryan Lindveit, wildlife researcher Dr. Roland Kays and researchers exploring how creative expression can deepen public engagement with conservation and climate awareness. NC State Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs Dr. Rob Dunn will moderate the discussion.

Tickets are $25-30, $10 for NC State students and $25 for faculty and staff and are available online or at the box office, the only authorized source. “Tickets obtained from unauthorized online sources may be stolen, counterfeit and/or extremely overpriced,” university officials warn.

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Fingerstyle guitarist and vocalist Noah Cobb, 18, of Greenville, performs Saturday at the New Village Brewery in Oriental as part of the Pamlico County village’s two-day Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival, which was free to attend and brought together folk, Americana, bluegrass, country, gospel, blues and jazz performers on numerous stages sited within walking distance of one another. Photo: Mark Hibbs

Update Oct. 10: Duck officials announced Friday afternoon that the 2025 Duck Jazz Festival slated for this weekend has been canceled due to expected weather conditions.

Original post dated Oct. 3: Get ready to immerse yourself in the sounds of swing and rhythm at this year’s Duck Jazz Festival, a free, two-day event showcasing regional and local jazz musicians.

The town-sponsored festival now in its 16th year will kick off with a Concert on the Green-style event from 4-6 p.m. Oct. 11 featuring guitarist, producer and composer Adam Hawley on the main stage, 1200 Duck Road, in Duck Town Park. Hawley has performed with the likes of Natalie Cole, Lalah Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez and The Manhattan Transfer.

Several artists will be showcased on two different stages during a full day of music Oct. 12. Gates open at 10 a.m.

Vocalist Shayna Steele will kick things off at 11 a.m. on the main stage followed by a lineup to include:

• First Flight High School Honors Jazz Band at 12:10 p.m. on the amphitheater stage.
• Gerald Veasley at 1:10 p.m. on the main stage.
• David Esleck Trio featuring Jordan Garrett at 2:20 p.m. on the amphitheater stage.
• Brass Queens at 3:25 p.m. on the main stage.
• The Hot Lanes with Bobby Jasinski at 4:30 p.m. on the amphitheater stage.
• Tito Puente, Jr. at 5:25 p.m. on the main stage.

The festival will be held rain or shine. Chairs are available for rent onsite from Just for the Beach and attendees are invited to bring food, coolers, chairs, blankets, and well-behaved dogs.

Food and soft drinks will also be available for purchase from Duck eateries.

Umbrellas and tents are not permitted and video recording is prohibited.

The park is smoke-free and plastic, aluminum, and glass recycling receptors are available onsite, but guests are asked to consider taking glass containers home to recycle for the safety of the event’s volunteers.

A children’s story time and rhythm play, movie on the green, community concert on the green and a live jam at the Bluepoint will be hosted Oct. 10.

For further details, including the environmental policy for the event, visit the town’s website. “As part of the Town’s vision, a commitment to environmental stewardship is one of our unifying principles,” according to the website.

Live music and other special activities will be taking place at Duck businesses around town.  For event updates, follow Duck Jazz Festival on Facebook and Twitter.

THE EDGE of the sea is a strange and beautiful place. All through the long history of Earth it has been an area of unrest where waves have broken heavily against the land, where the tides have pressed forward over the continents, receded, and then returned. For no two successive days is the shore line precisely the same.

From “The Edge of the Sea” by Rachel Carson.

Countless reviewers and critics have noted through the decades how Rachel Carson’s words above, first published in 1955, were written from the point of view of a scientifically sophisticated observer.

Carson had the knack for describing the various aspects, patterns and lifeforms — many invisible or unknown to all but the most familiar – found on the world’s three types of ocean shore, all three of which, she noted, are found along the East Coast.

Reared in Springdale, Pennsylvania, just northeast of Pittsburgh, the scientist and writer is best known for her 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” which stirred controversy and raised awareness about pesticides’ harmful effects when used indiscriminately. Her book is often credited as the spark that ignited the environmental movement.

In the years just prior, Carson, a marine biologist with a long career in federal service, had written a trio of bestselling, highly praised books about seashores and sea life, culminating in 1955 with “The Edge of the Sea.”

“Miss Carson, thanks to her remarkable knack for taking dull scientific facts and translating them into poetical and lyrical prose that enchanted the lay public, had a substantial public image before she rocked the American public and much of the world with ‘Silent Spring,’” according to Jonathan Norton Leonard’s report of her death as published April 15, 1964, in the New York Times.

Carson was 56 when she died.

Among the many still enchanted with Carson are Bland Simpson, a distinguished professor of English and creative writing at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, songwriter and pianist for The Red Clay Ramblers; Jim Wann, a theatrical writer, musician and leading man; and Don Dixon, a highly regarded record producer, songwriter and musician.

Together, these three form the Coastal Cohorts, whose collaborative comedic musical, “King Mackerel and the Blues Are Running; Songs and Stories of the Carolina Coast,” is now in its 40^th year.

Tickets are on sale for this year’s performances Oct. 24-25 in Morehead City. The scheduled shows were announced earlier this spring.

The musical presents aspects of coastal life through song and onstage hilarity, but also conveys, more subtly, environmental themes, without lecturing or moralizing. The loose plot involves our fishing-buddy “Cohorts” who set out to help save their favorite destination and its proprietor from the wrecking ball as wielded by prospective condo developers.

The production debuted Dec. 8, 1985, at Rhythm Alley in Chapel Hill. While much of that original performance remains part of the show, the Cohorts have continued over the years to write and perform new songs, weaving them into the show. This most recent song, a reverent homage to Carson, “Edge of the Sea,” that took two decades to develop, may work best as an epilogue, according to the Cohorts.

The song was inspired in particular by Carson’s research in North Carolina in the late 1930s and 1940s, Simpson recently told Coastal Review. That research informed her book “The Edge of the Sea” and its chapter about Bird Shoal in what is now the Rachel Carson Reserve just south of Beaufort.

“We just happened to have pulled it together when one of the very things that Rachel Carson caused to come into being, the Environmental Protection Agency and the laws that it worked under, when those things are being just taken part,” Simpson said.

The song’s development began with a staging of “King Mack” at East Carolina University, Simpson explained during a recent video call with Dixon, Wann and Coastal Review.

“Well, Don and I were playing ‘King Mackerel’ in East Carolina on one of those literary homecomings that (distinguished ECU English professor) Margaret Bauer was sponsoring every year for about 10 or 12 years,” said Simpson. “And there was a little workshop, and they asked us to maybe bring in something new we were working on. And I don’t know how we determined Rachel Carson, but we each brought in a verse. It wasn’t a complete song.”

Wann was unable to be at that particular event, but when he was told about the project, he let his fellow Cohorts know that he had already begun working on his own song about Rachel Carson.

“Jim kind of took the lead, and it grew over some time,” Simpson said.

And grow it did. The song clocks in at 8 minutes, 29 seconds, commencing with ocean sounds and a lush choir of female voices. Those are the voices of Dixon’s wife Marti Jones, as well as Rebecca Newton of North Carolina’s own Rebecca & the Hi-Tones, Durham educator Pattie Le Sueur, and Simpson’s fall 2024 songwriting students at Carolina, Madeline Lai and Maggie Thornton. The Cohorts provide the rest, including lead vocals, with Dixon on bass and guitar, Simpson on piano, and Wann on guitar.

“We went up to Chapel Hill where we were in a studio with those women singers Bland had recruited from his class, and then Rebecca and Pattie, who I knew, and Don was mentoring us from Ohio, through the magic of modern technology,” said Wann. “It was very much a stage-by-stage process to arrive at what we’ve got now.”

In its early development, Wann’s working title was “Kayaking with Rachel,” because, he said, “I read that she used to kayak, you know, when she was in her time around the North Carolina shores. And I thought that was interesting, because that was before — the song says, ‘She was kayaking before kayaking was cool,’ and that kind of was my jumpstart into the song.”

Dixon, at some point, had noted the need for an intro to set up the rest of the song, specifically referencing Carson’s own words: “The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place,” said Wann.

“And you just kind of tossed that out,” Wann said to Dixon, “So I just adapted some of her phrases, those words, and that’s how that came into being.”

The song elevates her words “in this kind of Greek chorus sort of thing,” which is the way Dixon, the track’s arranger and producer, said he was hearing it.

And the story contained in the song is one of triumph over challenges, also reflective of Carson’s life. She was a hero, “not just of environmentalism, but the history of humanity,” Simpson said.

“She was a saint and really gave her life,” Simpson continued. “She was dying of cancer when she went to Congress and was put upon, pushed upon. She did not give — she didn’t give an inch.”

Wann said those aspects of her personality, her history and her quiet, solitary life are woven into the song’s first chorus. “That was kind of the first stage,” he said.

“This is creation, don’t let indifference take it away from you
This is your water, don’t let complacency take it away from you.”

— “Edge of the Sea” by the Coastal Cohorts, © 2025 Wann/Dixon/Simpson

Simpson said the above chorus is a call to action. There will always be forces working against the clean and the pure, he said.

Beloved, smeared

In 1962, when Carson’s “Silent Spring” was published, chemical and pesticide manufacturers attacked her, funded disinformation campaigns and labeled her a likely communist. But Carson’s books had already endeared her to the public.

“That book ‘Silent Spring,’ and even her first ocean books sold in the millions,” Dixon said. “She was beloved by certain people; she was just vilified by industry. It was definitely a smear campaign.”

Those trying to smear Carson may, to many, resemble the evil Greed Heads threatening the coastal environment and culture in the “King Mack” storyline.

Wann noted that some in Congress tried to dismissed her, as well.

“They just said that her science was wrong and that she wasn’t telling the truth,” Wann said. “The truth did prevail.”

In 1963, when Carson went before Congress to advocate for federal controls on pesticide use during hearings on pollution, she explained how chemical poisons had contaminated the environment humans depend on — water, soil, air and vegetation.

“It has even penetrated that internal environment within the bodies of animals and of men,” Carson said in her remarks on June 4 that year. She cited numerous sources: radioactive waste and waste from laboratories and hospitals, fallout from nuclear explosions, municipal wastewater and chemical waste from homes and industry.

“When we review the history of mankind in relation to the Earth we cannot help feeling somewhat discouraged, for that history is for the most part that of the blind or short-sighted despoiling of the soil, forests, waters and all the rest of the Earth’s resources. We have acquired technical skills on a scale undreamed of even a generation ago. We can do dramatic things and we can do them quickly; by the time damaging side effects are apparent it is often too late, or impossible, to reverse our actions,” Carson told Congress. “I have pointed out before, and I shall repeat now, that the problem of pesticides can be properly understood only in context, as part of the general introduction of harmful substances into the environment.”

Simpson noted that there are echoes of those times in the current political environment, in which “radical capitalism” is threatening to undo regulations that were based in science.

“It’s an irony, a terrific irony, that the Environmental Protection Agency having been created in no small part because of the wisdom and intelligence that ‘Silent Spring’ brought forth, that the EPA is now, under the new administration, is now being run by undoers, deregulators and representatives of the chemical industry and so forth, and so we’ve sort of come full circle and back to status quo, antebellum and before Rachel’s work helped cause the EPA,” Simpson said.

But, Simpson added, the new song is as uplifting as Carson’s writings.

“Rachel Carson’s spirit is anything but depressing,” Simpson said. “She found miracles in every speck of anything she ever picked up on the beach. And that’s why we love her so, because her heart informed her science about the value and the interconnectedness of all these things. ‘One creature tied to another,’ I think, is Jim’s lyric.”

Wann said he didn’t recall “making anything up” in writing the song, aside from minor paraphrasing of Carson’s words.

“Pretty much all those words are in the preface of ‘Edge of the Sea,’ the very first few pages of the book,” Dixon said.

Dixon acknowledged the song is a celebration of Carson, but is also it’s “sort of a cautionary tale,” especially for those unfamiliar with her work, the fragility of fish and wildlife, and how her advocacy led to a ban on the pesticide DDT.

“They don’t realize she spawned the environmental movement as we know it today,” Dixon said. “And it really was kind of just her doing. I mean, she was very solitary. She was not part of a big group of people working on this problem that she recognized.”

Carolina connections

Carson’s connections to coastal North Carolina were made when the region looked quite different. In 1947, during her tenure with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, she was tasked with writing a visitor brochure for Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde County. Simpson said it was “very unlike the standard flat, elemental tour guide.”

It reflected the way she saw the world. “She clearly devoted herself to science writing and everything she did,” he said.

“When we first wrote the show, I don’t think we fully appreciated the light touch as far as environmental matters,” Simpson explained. “In terms of culture, we were looking at our memories of, you know, the old-style hotels and everybody eats at a long table. It wasn’t a world of high-rises and condos and all that.”

“King Mackerel” follows the Cohorts’ efforts to preserve that era and help their fictional friend, Miss Mattie, save her beachfront hotel and pier. The conflict is outlined in “Corncake Inlet Inn” from the original soundtrack.

“We put the contrast in the lyrics: ‘Greed Head sees a barrel of bucks … Cohort sees the geese and the ducks that won’t come back in the fall,’ the change of environment. That’s all true,” Simpson said.

It’s a contrast that’s meaningful to two area nonprofit organizations that have for decades hosted the Cohorts’ performances in Carteret County.

Todd Miller, who in 1982 founded the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, understood that meaning early on – perhaps, according to Simpson, before the Cohorts had fully grasped it themselves. The Coastal Federation works to protect, restore and preserve coastal water quality and habitats, which are critical to the way of life here.

“Their music and stories are beautifully aligned with our mission — capturing why people love and cherish our coast, even as that love can sometimes lead to its overuse and degradation,” Miller said. “They first performed for the Coastal Federation in the mid-1980s, and since then, we’ve all together become part of a larger coastal cohort. Their appeal runs deep, touching the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life — those of us whose lives are enriched by a coast that is a wonderful place to live, visit, work, and play.”

It’s all those things and a deep culture going back centuries, said Karen Willis Amspacher, director of the Core Sound Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

“It’s everything we stand for,” Amspacher said. “Corncake Inn is all about place and tradition and memories and holding on to youth and the beach and the wildness of it all.”

She said the connections ring even truer now than years ago.

“The Greed Heads have multiplied,” she said.

Wann said he was recently thinking back on the Cohorts’ 40-year journey, the connections made and the introduction of new songs along the way.

“It’s been just really especially rewarding that there’s still this growth element to it,” Wann said. “Even doing the show, it doesn’t feel tired or old, because partly, I think we’ve heard so many times that someone will come up and say to us, some young person will say, ‘We used to listen to your music on the way to the beach. It was the only music that my parents and us kids could agree to listen to.’ Now we’ve met the third generation, parents and grandparents who know about ‘King Mackerel’ and at some point, someone said to us, ‘You know, you started out singing about the culture here, and now you’re part of the culture.’”

Updated to correct the name of Miss Mattie’s Fish Camp.

An afternoon of environmental education and activities are planned for Wilmington’s 35th annual Earth Day Festival set for noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 26, at Long Leaf Park.

Hosted by Wilmington Earth Day Alliance, there is no charge to attend the festival themed “Our Power, Our Planet.”

“It’s a fun-filled afternoon of live music, good food, environmental information and activities for the whole family,” organizers said. “More than 50 environmentally-minded exhibitors and vendors will be there, explaining issues that affect our environment and illustrating how you can get involved.”

Attendees can enjoy live entertainment by “old school” rock band, Au Naturales at noon, indie rock band, Tercel at 2 p.m. and reggae band, the Righteous Roots at 4 p.m.

The “Rapping Red Oak” will lead the children’s Nature Brigade Parade at 1:30 p.m. and perform children’s songs.

Anyone is welcome to join the community drummers and dancers drum circle at 3:30 p.m.

Food trucks expected to be on-site are Johnny Cheesehead, A&M’s Red Food Truck, all-vegan food trucks Well Fed Ed and Arabelle Cookin’ and chocolatier, Chocolate and S’more. Fermental Beer & Wine, Good Hops Brewing, Wilmington Brewing Co, Bill’s Brewing Co. Noni Bacca Winery and Panacea Brewing Co. will be selling beverages.

Culligan Water will provide drinking water, and guests are encouraged to bring their own reusable water bottles.

Great Outdoor Provision Co. donated a Hurricane-brand kayak that will be raffled off.

There is no charge to park on-site, or at the New Hanover County Senior Resource Center to take a shuttle to the festival.

Leashed pets are welcome in the grassy areas but not inside the tents or in the food area. Only trained service animals may accompany their humans on the WAVE Transit bus.

Ocracoke is celebrating the planet April 11-13 with its family friendly Earth Day Weekend Celebration.

In its second year, organizers said there will be a variety of indoor and outdoor activities designed for all ages, including nature walks, history talks, nature crafts, live music, stargazing, a beach cleanup, stargazing, music and storytelling, a fish house tour and a traditional square dance.

Attendees can listen in on discussions about fireflies, dark skies designation, composting and organic farming, trash survey, invasive plants, and climate change.

The event will conclude with a community beach bonfire at Ocracoke’s lifeguard beach.

The full, detailed schedule for the festival is online.

The Ocracoke Earth Day Weekend Celebration is sponsored by Ocracoke Alive, with financial support from Ocracoke occupancy tax revenues, the North Carolina Art Council, Pony Island Inn, and John and Sarah Saunders, longtime supporters from the Charlotte area.

The Outer Banks Community Foundation announced this week that it had awarded $71,992 in Community Enrichment Grants to 10 nonprofits, funding projects that support youth, preserve history and bring arts and culture to communities across the Outer Banks.

The total was for the first grant cycle of the year, according to the Manteo-based foundation committed to fostering philanthropy and supporting local causes.

“Our Community Enrichment Grants are all about investing in the nonprofits that strengthen and serve our community every day,” said Chief Operating Officer Nandy Stuart. “This cycle reflects our commitment to uplifting the organizations doing innovative and meaningful work right here at home.”

The Don and Catharine Bryan Cultural Series received funding to host Ghana’s Saakumu Dance Troupe for a weeklong residency in partnership with Dare Arts, Children & Youth Partnership, and Dare County Schools.

“This vibrant celebration of Ghanaian music and dance will enrich our schools, festivals, and community spaces, bringing cultural diversity and global perspectives to residents and students across Dare County,” said Bryan Cultural Series President Bob Muller.

The Secotan Alliance received a grant for In the Spirit of Wingina 2: Our Women… Our Words… Our Water, a two-day event in May highlighting indigenous history through lectures, panels, music, and poetry.

Newer nonprofits Hatteras Island Community Strings and Hatteras Island Futbol Club were awarded grants to expand youth music and soccer programs.

“This upcoming spring and summer season would not be possible without the support of OBCF,” said Futbol Club President Ian O’Neal.

Water’s Edge Village School in Corolla will use its grant to install essential computer network infrastructure in its new school building, opening this fall.

OBX Go Far received support to celebrate its 15th anniversary with a youth-focused event at the Pioneer Theater following their annual 5K race and fun run.

Grants to Pea Island Preservation Society Inc., Outer Banks Lighthouse Society and First Flight Society will fund educational programming and community events ranging from historic storytelling to lighthouse education and aviation celebrations.

The North Carolina Aquarium Society received funding for a special bilingual night at the aquarium this fall, featuring guided tours and animal encounters in English and Spanish.

Nonprofits interested in applying for funding are encouraged to explore the new Focus Grants, which provide up to $50,000 for initiatives addressing healthcare access, affordable housing, and child care. Applications are due April 25, 2025.

For more details, visit obcf.org/grants or call 252-423-3003.

“An Evening of Jazz: Celebrating Max Roach,” set for 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, in Elizabeth City honors the jazz drummer and Pasquotank County native a week after what would have been his 100th birthday.

Being held in the Museum of the Albemarle‘s Gaither Auditorium, Douglas Jackson, professor of music at Elizabeth City State University, is set to speak about the life and accomplishments of Roach.

Also during the celebration, there will be a performance by Elizabeth City native Thomas Taylor and his mentor David Albert, who played a significant role in his music education, and accompanying musicians.

“Roach was a master percussionist whose rhythmic innovations defined bebop jazz,” according to the museum.

Roach was born Jan. 10, 1924, in Newland, a township that borders the Great Dismal Swamp, and died Aug. 16, 2007, in New York, New York. During his career, he performed with music greats Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz and others.

The National Endowment for the Arts calls Roach “one of the two leading drummers of the bebop era (along with Kenny Clarke) and was one of the leading musicians, composers, and bandleaders in jazz since the 1940s.”

The program is supported by Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle, North Carolina Museum of History Associates, The Elizabeth City Foundation, and Southern Bank of Elizabeth City.

Live music, a vintage surfing contest, environmental education and an “Oysterpalooza” are highlights of Ocean Fest in Surf City scheduled for later this month.

Taking place at Soundside Park, the oyster event is to take place 4-10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, and the music festival 3-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21.

Tickets range from $25 to $70 per person, depending on the event, and can be bought online.

The $25 ticket for Oysterpalooza includes live music, and a kids zone with Sturgeon City Environmental Education Center based in Jacksonville. The $50 ticket comes with a dozen local oysters. Food trucks, drinks and exhibitors will be on site.

The surfing contest has participants riding vintage mid-length surfboards from the 1960s and 1970s. Before each heat, contestants are to be randomly assigned a board from a curated collection of more than a dozen retro surfboards. Open heat registration is on the website.

The music festival is to feature eight performances, educational exhibits and vendors. The lineup as of late August includes Blue Footed Boobies, Of Good Nature, Will Overman, The Midatlantic, Oceanic, Tyler Mckaig, Justin Cody Fox, The Fontanelles, and Beht Manning.

Children under 10 are free with ticketed adults. Children attending Oysterpalooza without a ticket do not receive oyster tokens.

Three Surf City surfers founded Ocean Fest in 2019 to share their “love for the ocean, celebrate the pure joy of surfing, and, most importantly, give something meaningful back to Mother Ocean,” according to the website. “With that in mind, Ocean Fest strives to educate the community about ecological threats to our precious marine environments and teach how we can better protect those environments.”

BEAUFORT — Yard games, sailboat rides and other nautical fun will be offered during Maritime Day, set for 11 a.m. to 2 pm. Saturday on the Gallants Channel grounds off West Beaufort Road at the foot of the high-rise bridge.

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort’s Friends of the Museum organization host the annual Maritime Day event on the second Saturday in June. The day celebrates the maritime industry and stems from National Maritime Day, which was created by Congress in 1933 and is observed annually on May 22.

“Maritime Day is a fun, family-friendly, community event that brings people together on the beautiful Gallants Channel waterfront,” said Friends Director of Operations Brent Creelman.

Activities include sailing in the museum’s fleet of traditional wooden boats, cane pole fishing, kite flying, kids’ activities and games. There will also be educational displays, live music and more along the Gallants Channel waterfront. All activities are offered at no charge, though donations are appreciated.

“Free traditional sailboat rides are very popular,” Creelman said. “There will also be lots of yard games on the Great Lawn, so come ready to play.”

Food and beverages will be available for purchase, or feel free to bring a picnic lunch. Maritime Day will wrap up with a celebration to specially recognize those who have purchased bricks for the courtyard by the flagpole.

Maritime Day is taking place where the new Maritime Education Center will be located. The groundbreaking is expected this summer with the facility up and running in early 2026.

For more information on the museum, visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com. For more information on Maritime Day or the Friends of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, call 252-728-1638 or visit maritimefriends.org.

The Elizabeth City State University Choir recently lifted their voices in song during a performance honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in the First Flight High School auditorium in Kill Devil Hills.

The trip to Kill Devil Hills Jan. 14 was not a long one, an hour at the most, but it was in keeping with the choir’s long tradition of traveling to perform for as many eager audiences as possible.

It is a tradition that dates to the choir’s founding in 1933 by Dr. Evelyn Adelaide Johnson. In her book, “History of Elizabeth City State University: A Story of Survival,” published in 1980, she wrote about the choir’s custom of traveling to perform.

“There are few churches in the area, black and white, in which the choir has not appeared … The choir has sung for local clubs, societies, fraternal organizations, banks, the navy, general assembly celebrations, and for other groups in other states,” she wrote.

More recently, Dr. Walter Swan, director of choral activities for ECSU, described an upcoming spring tour.

“We do take annual tours since we’re now back from COVID and we’re able to travel,” he said. “This year’s tour will take us as far south as South Carolina, potentially Georgia and will take us up to D.C.”

It may seem remarkable that through wars, the Great Depression and civil rights turmoil, a choir from a relatively small, historically Black university in a small city in northeastern North Carolina would be able to continue to tour and perform.

Perhaps more remarkably, though, in the 90 years since Dr. Johnson came to the school, there have only been three choral directors.

When Johnson arrived on campus in 1933, ECSU was still a State Normal School with a two-year course of instruction. It would not become Elizabeth City State Teachers College until 1939 when it was able to award its first baccalaureate degrees in elementary education.

“Many students who entered the school between 1934 and 1939 were almost poverty stricken,” Dr. Johnson wrote. “They entered sometimes with less than five dollars, brought their few belongings in a burlap bag or some other nondescript luggage.”

Teachers, she mentioned, were on half-salary.

“It took ten years to recover salaries in vogue during the 20s, before the depression,” she noted.

In her book, she lists the regular events that she scheduled for her choir, community Christmas carols at the homes of respected Black and white citizens, a choir scholarship fund and annual choir tours during the school year.

She retired in 1975, and Clarence Lewis, who sang in the choir for two years in the early 1970s, recalled clearly what it was like.

“It was an experience. And if you didn’t know how to read music, you couldn’t be in a choir,” he said.

At the time Lewis was fresh out of the military and spent two years at ECSU. Then, in his words, “I … made the decision that I wasn’t ready for college. I went back into the military,” where he spent 21 years, retiring as a master sergeant.

The two years he was at ECSU included giving performances across the country and internationally.

“We sang in quite a few places in the United States. Major cities like New York and Delaware and places like that. Okay, so we also toured overseas in Belgium,” he said.

ECSU is a tradition in many families and Lewis’ daughter Michelle sang in the choir when she went to college. Billy Hines was her choral director and like Dr. Lewis, he demanded his choir know their music.

“If you loved to sing, and you had some ability, professor Hines was willing to work with you. But you had to put in the same time that everybody else did,” she said.

Everyone was expected to know their part, she added.

“If someone was singing off-pitch in a section, if he couldn’t tell who it was right away, everybody had to stand up and sing the part a capella, one by one,” she said. “There was this one time where I didn’t know the part. It was me and I knew it was me … I kind of hoped I’d figure it out before he got down the line to me … it was my turn … and I couldn’t sing it.”

Not being able to sing the part seems to have left an indelible memory.

“I can still sing it to this day,” she said.

Attention to detail and knowing how to perform to the highest standards are things that ECSU graduate Tshombe Selby, who is now performing with the Metropolitan Opera of New York, remembered.

“I would not be where I am without Mr. Hines and the ECSU choir … Mr Hines’ attention to the music and acceptance of nothing less than your best are the teachings that are my foundation in classical music and my performance career. He was more than an instructor, he was Mr. Hines,” Selby wrote when asked about Hines.

Swan has been the choral director since Hines retired in 2009 after 34 years. He was already teaching vocal performance at ECSU when, as he describes it, “I was ushered in.”

Other traditions that were established in 1933 continue. The choir is made up of music lovers, but they do not have to be music majors.

“We do have good musicians, but because we’re not solely music majors, we are taking people who are music lovers who come from other choral programs from high school,” Swan said.

Like Johnson and Hines before him, he sees his role as more than an instructor of music, and is especially aware of the importance of ECSU as an historically Black college and university.

“I think (there is) pride that comes with HBCUs, especially being a product or coming through that rake of being a graduate of Alcorn State University. I understood the importance of this particular lay of the land from Mississippi. Also being educators and knowing that there is a greater purpose beyond self,” he said.

Yet if he is aware of the traditions that have been created over 90 years, he sees that as a path forward for the school and choir, and not something that will slow the path to the future.

“I don’t have large shoes to fill, I have to only walk in my own, create my own footprint,” he said. “You don’t ever leave something like you found it. Always try to leave it better. I think that’s what Evelyn did, and that was trying to create something better. What Billy did was to capitalize on Evelyn and (what I’m) doing is to capitalize on Billy.”

The Coastal Cohorts will breeze into homes beginning Wednesday when they stream a recorded Public Broadcasting System version of their timeless-as-the-tide, beloved, down-by-the-sea musical, “King Mackerel and the Blues are Running” to raise money  for area environmental and coastal culture organizations.

Although anyone can stream the music live for free, the Cohorts are urging folks to buy the music or video online, and the proceeds will benefit the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island Wednesday; the Wilmington- and New Bern-based North Carolina Coastal Land Trust Thursday; the Durham-based North Carolina Nature Conservancy Friday; and Coastal Review Online publisher the North Carolina Coastal Federation, based in Ocean near Newport Saturday.

It’s the 35^th anniversary of the first performance of “King Mack,” which writers Jim Wann and Bland Simpson debuted with Don Dixon in Rhythm Alley in Chapel Hill in 1985.

They first performed the musical in Carteret County as a fundraiser for the Coastal Federation in June 1986 and it has since been performed live on Broadway and in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., among countless other locales up and down the East Coast.

Numerous Carteret County performances have sold out over the years at Carteret Community College as fundraisers for the federation, for which Simpson has been a board member.

Dixon, who’s also known as a solo rock artist, producer and as one half of a performing duo with his wife, Marti Jones, grew up in South Carolina, near Charlotte.

As a producer, Dixon crafted REM’s early records as well as others in the booming college rock genre in the 1980s and ’90s. He grew up visiting and reveling along the North Carolina coast, and preserving its natural environment remains dear to his heart, despite his now longtime Ohio residency.

He spent summers at an aunt’s house in Bath on Pamlico Sound, and soaked in the feel of the Outer Banks and the inland waterways, as well as the nearby ocean.

“It still means a lot to me,” Dixon said of the coast, “and so does the show,” which is near and dear to the hearts of many coastal residents who’ve seen and heard it.

“Jim had success with Broadway musicals (including the Tony-nominated ‘Pump Boys and Dinettes’),” Dixon said. But none of the three expected “King Mack” to catch fire and become a cultural touchstone.

Dixon understands why. It celebrates coastal values and preservation, he said, “and it’s just fun,” with songs in a variety of styles, ranging from rockers to sentimental, heart-wrenching love ballads and crazy tales to which many can relate.

It’s rollicking and roots-ish, with a screen behind the trio showing footage of hurricanes and other things familiar to coastal denizens. The show features songs about fishing trips that turned into disasters, devastating hurricanes, ghosts, lost loves, wild ponies, bad-outcome joyrides on the beach in “borrowed” cars and life “on the soundside.”

A recorded version isn’t the same as being there, but Dixon, whose musical career dates back to the seminal Chapel Hill-based band Arrogance, is happy new folks will get to see it, and especially happy to help raise money for worthy coastal groups.

Simpson, a northeast North Carolina native, long a member of the famous Red Clay Ramblers and a UNC professor of creative writing, recalled its accidental origins.

A lawyer who represented the beach music band the Embers had seen Wann’s “Pump Boys” show and wanted to see if Wann and Simpson could write something beachy that his clients could turn into a show.

“So,” Simpson said, we just started making a list of coastal things, like pier fishing, night fires on the beach, things that were kind of universal experiences at the coast. Then it turned out the Embers couldn’t do it, so Jim and I kept going anyway.”

After the debut in Chapel Hill, UNC graduate Todd Miller, founder and executive director of the Coastal Federation and a fan of the show, called and asked the Cohorts to perform it live as a fundraiser in Carteret County in 1986.

That was the start of its climb to cultural phenomenon status on the coast.

The Cohorts performed it numerous times through about 1988, but Wann and Dixon moved out of the state. It kind of died.

But Miller, Simpson remembers, wouldn’t let it remain buried.

Finally, in spring 1994, Miller called and asked them to perform the show at then-Gov. Jim Hunt’s “Year of the Coast” convention in Wilmington.

“King Mack” was reborn, Simpson said, and he’s happy it was.

“We love each other and we love doing it,” he said.

It was amazing, he said, to play it for more than a month in the Kennedy Center, where the show’s lighting director lived on a houseboat and arrived for shows on a 14-foot boat after a long run down two rivers to the famed theater in Washington, D.C.

“It was so “Cohort-ish,” Simpson said. “That’s an adjective we use a lot.”

The last live performance was in January 2019 on Tybee Island, Georgia.

Simpson said that for the show’s 35^th anniversary, they wanted to raise money for their usual good causes. But with the coronavirus pandemic raging, staging “King Mack” live and touring as planned weren’t feasible.

Streaming the classic PBS show at no charge gives everyone a chance to see it again, and the Cohorts hope folks will net some copies to bring the organizations some cash at the end of the year, a traditional time of charitable giving.

The show’s plot is that a hurricane blew down Miss Mattie Jewell’s pier and guest house at North Carolina’s Corncake Inlet, which hasn’t existed in decades. The Cohorts set out to save the business so she wouldn’t have to sell to the “Greedhead” developers.

The show opens with the rousing theme song, “King Mackerel and the Blues are Running,” which features Simpson talk-singing the weather forecast.

“I thought that would be fun,” Simpson said. “It was. But it was hard to do it at speed, over chord changes. I think I probably rehearsed it a thousand times before I got it.”

From there the show unfolds with more songs and tales, spoken and acted.

Wann attributes “King Mack’s” continuing appeal to the lure and beauty of the coast — and to timing.

“When we started writing it, I guess in ’83 or ’84, there really hadn’t been any major hurricanes to hit the Carolinas coast in a long time,” he said. “Then there was Hugo, and after that, they started picking up.”

That’s still the case, and coupled with concerns about climate change and its impact on the coast, the theme remains relevant.

And, of course, there’s the timeless, universal nature of the songs about things people have always done along the shore.

People care about the coast, Wann said, because of those memories, but also because it’s always beautiful and always changing.

As for the Cohorts, Wann said music brought them together as friends in the early 1970s, and it keeps them together.

“In the beginning,” he said, “the music made the friendship, but now the friendship makes the music. It’s been a great way to walk through life.”

Wann also cherishes the connections they’ve made to people through the Coastal Federation, the Core Sound Museum and other organizations “King Mack” has helped support.

He hears from fans.

“People will tell me they lost their cassette tape of the original recording and ask if we can send them another one,” he said.

They obviously can’t do that, but “King Mack” lives on CDs and increasingly in digital form for download.

But it’s great, he said, that people who first had the music on a cassette tape still love it and want it.

It’s been remarkable,” he said of “King Mack’s” longevity, but also of his friendship with Dixon and Simpson and the connection to the state’s coast and its culture.

For the past three years, Mike Dianna and his Bearded Face Productions have organized the Mustang Rock and Roast in Corolla.

Held the third weekend in October, the event is filled with rock music, oysters and roast … barbecue, along with an opening performance by the kids from the Mustang Outreach Program, a nonprofit organization established in 2012 with the mission “to encourage and cultivate children’s creativity and individualism through music.”

But not this year. Organizers announced on Oct. 12 plans to cancel the Oct. 17-18 event because of state restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“We held out on making this announcement as long as we could, but unfortunately things have not improved enough for us to comfortably move forward with Mustang Rock & Roast 3,” said Dianna in a statement. “The safety and well-being of our fans, musicians and staff is our top priority. We are looking forward to hosting our Mustang events in 2021 with hopes of gathering people together again, but right now we ask everyone to show some love to the Mustang Outreach Program.”

In May, the similarly conceived Spring Jam that offered music without the oysters and barbecue, which the kids opened for as well, was canceled due to COVID-19.

More than 80% of the income needed to keep the program running comes from the two festivals and community concerts. With these events being canceled this year, the organization lost the bulk of its funding, organizers said.

“The fans and musicians are not the only ones who have suffered from the cancellation of both Mustang 2020 events,” said Dianna. “If you were planning to attend Mustang Spring Jam or Mustang Rock & Roast this year, we would deeply appreciate you donating your ticket cost or a portion of your ticket cost to the program. Your generous donations will save this special program and allow us to help the kids keep making music.”

Samantha Pugh plays lead guitar and sings in her Mustang Outreach Cinco Mustangos band. She misses the shows and performing.

“A few weeks ago, we would have had the Rock and Roast, and that was definitely one of my favorite events of the year,” she said. “My all-time favorite event of the year was the Spring Jam, which I was so sad we missed that last spring. That was, it’s so much fun going to and then playing and then being able to stay back and listen to the bands that are real bands that are have established themselves.”

Started in 2012 by the nonprofit’s music directors Ruth Wyand and Mike Dianna, the Mustang Outreach program works with kids to hone their onstage musical performance skills.

Sam Wills was one of the first musicians to become a part of the program, playing lead guitar with a group of friends that eventually became the Side Project. He’s in his senior year at Clemson University now, majoring in mechanical engineering. Looking back on his time with Mustang Outreach he sees it as invaluable to helping him get to where he is today.

“It was definitely a confidence booster in general to see if I’m kind of on the path to go and do this and I can be working alongside everybody … getting in and actually doing,” he said.

Wills always showed a flair for the music he was playing, but for the first two years when he was performing, his expression never changed and he never moved.

“I was terrified. I was trying to ignore the fact that there were people there watching,” he said.

Ruth Wyand has had a career in professional music for 40 years. Pre-COVID-19 — and probably after — she performed in northeastern North Carolina as Ruth Wyand and the Tribe of One.

Even before she began the Mustang Outreach Program, she was giving music lessons and many of the first kids in the program were her students.

“Some of those kids I had since they were 8 years old, now they’re seniors in college,” she said.

Suddenly everything came to a halt.

“It was disappointing because I saw the progress after working with them, the brand new kids from last September to March,” Wyand said. “Seeing their progress, and they’re finally getting it, they’re finally clicking together as a little band and then all of a sudden it’s like you pull the plug.”

Until spring of 2019, Mustang Outreach had struggled to find a permanent home. The instruction continued, the bands kept playing, but the rehearsal spaces had limitations.

Then local store Jubilee Music outgrew its space in Kill Devil Hills. An area contractor donated labor to build soundproof rooms and a handicap accessible restroom, giving the program a permanent home with options for instruction that it had never had before.

“It was really, really set to grow leaps and bounds over this next year. We had a lot of plans in the tank,” Dianna said. “We had that space built out and had a half a year under our belt. We kind of started thinking, ‘We could do this, we can do that,’ and there was a lot of excitement about what we were gonna be able to do this year. But it (COVID-19) killed all that.”

The effect has been devastating.

“I felt like everything I worked for with Mustang in the past few years has just been pulled out from under me,” Wyand said.

Dianna, whose son is in the program, has seen the effect on the kids as well.

“I know they miss having things to do. They miss social engagement. That’s a big thing. They don’t really want to admit it but they do miss the social engagement.”

The devastating impact has been more than psychological. The program is facing significant financial headwinds.

“The music program has almost gone broke because a big portion of our income was from tuition from the kids, and from Mike Diana’s Festivals. (We have had) neither has for six months,” Wyand said.

Wyand had been able to handle the overhead at the their Kill Devil Hills location through an innovative use of the space. Realizing that the cubicles that had been set up as lesson and rehearsal rooms could have another use, she got a grant from the Outer Banks Community Foundation to convert the space into a tutoring center.

“I took everything out and put it into private tutoring rooms. And also put up the drum baffles as Plexiglas baffles for study pods to help kids with online learning,” she said.

The kids are going back to school, though, so the tutoring will slow down, but Wyand is making plans to bring her Mustang Outreach kids back.

“As of Nov. 9, we’ll be starting to do the bands again. Just one band,” she said. “(We) set up the room where everybody’s going be in their own (Plexiglas) station. I’ve had 23 families whose kids that want to come back. We’ve made it possible for them to come back in a safe way.”

For the kids who will be coming back, there’s a feeling of friendship and camaraderie that they’re looking forward to renewing.

Kira Walters has been playing keyboards with Pugh since they first entered the program, and as the music becomes more challenging, the time together with bandmates has become more fun.

“I really like the environment when we’re practicing together,” she said. “It’s really more fun now than it used to be, just because we all feel more comfortable together.”

And after a few years of playing together, the musical challenges have grown as well.

“We started to take on the challenge of ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ by Guns and Roses and that has been definitely a project,” Pugh said.

Reprinted from the Ocracoke Observer

Many talented musicians have stepped forward over the years to help those in need.  George Harrison and Ravi Shankar did in 1971 with their Madison Square Garden concerts for Bangladesh.

One of the most famous and successful was Live Aid in 1985, a world-wide effort that raised money and conscientiousness to the famine in Ethiopia. The concert has been immortalized in the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The musical trio Craicdown, in conjunction with the Carolina Theatre in Durham, has organized a benefit concert to support the Ocracoke community that was ravaged Sept. 6 when Hurricane Dorian struck the remote island.

The fundraising concert is at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, in the historic theatre’s Fletcher Hall. Tickets, $27.50, went on sale Tuesday and are available at the venue’s box office, at carolinatheatre.org and at Ticketmaster.com.

Proceeds from ticket sales will be given to the Outer Banks Community Foundation disaster relief campaign for Hatteras and Ocracoke Island.

Performers include Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba, Jonathan Byrd and the Pickup Cowboys, Chatham Rabbits and Joseph Terrell and Libby Rodenbough of Mipso.

“We’re just really thrilled that we have a time open, that it wasn’t too far off,” said Rebecca Newton, the theater’s executive director.

Craicdown’s Rob Sharer came up with the idea for the concert after hearing from those on the island and seeing news reports on the damage the hurricane wrought. For several days, the island was without power and the water had to be boiled before drinking. Most homes, businesses and vehicles were badly damaged or destroyed when a seven-foot storm surge suddenly overtook the village after dawn.

“Friends of mine were in their upper stories, watching their yards, and their houses completely fill up with water,” Sharer said. “It was physically painful to watch. Livelihoods and homes and possessions getting destroyed in real time. It was almost like I could feel the water coming in my own house.”

In particular, he was concerned about a beautiful 1908 Steinway piano that Marcy Brenner and Lou Castro had on the first floor of their house on Sunset Drive that he is love with and plays every time he visits.

“I waited a day or so because I didn’t dare ask, and when I did, Marcy said it got wet and the keys are swelling together, so that might be it for the piano,” he recounted. “She sent some pictures, and I just started freaking out.

“The piano just seemed so emblematic of what was going on down there. You know, things that I love, were getting destroyed. And I wrote to her and I said, ‘Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to come down and bring you a dehumidifier, or anything like that?’ And she said, ‘Oh, sweetheart, just play some music.’

“What could that mean? That could mean lots of different things. I mean, just sending vibes out there. No, let’s do something more. So really, that was the genesis of this benefit concert.”

Sharer and the trio’s other two members, David DiGiuseppe and Jim Roberts, have a spiritual connection to the island. Craicdown has performed at the Ocrafolk Festival for the past 11 years. The festival, which began in 2000, takes place annually on the first full weekend in June. Craicdown has also given musical workshops at the school over the years.

“So, it really is like the spiritual home of the band,” Sharer said. “It’s our home away from home. We’ve written songs and made great friends out there. And it’s just a magical, enchanted place that I look forward to going to every year.

“The very thought that something terrible has happened to the place and to the people that we love so much, how could you not do something? So, this was thing that I thought I could do. You know, I can’t hold the waters back, but I can organize a concert.”

On the stage that night will be Jonathan Byrd, a seventh-generation Carolinian. He is a preacher’s son and sang “Amazing Grace” solo in church when he was a young boy. He has recorded many albums, with his most recent “Pickup Cowboy.” His songs are about strong characters, tough times and filled with powerful lyrical imagery.

The performers Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba, Chatham Rabbits and Joseph Terrell and Libby Rodenbough of Mipso have all performed at the Ocrafolk Festival in the last several years.

Will Ridenour is the percussionist for Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba, a high energy rhythmic dance band that can also do soothing story songs.

“Every time we go to Ocracoke, we’re just met with a really amazing community,” he said. ”And so, yeah. When I found out that they were hit hard by Hurricane Dorian, you know, the first thing you as a musician to think is ‘I want to put on a benefit because I to share my music to help raise money.’ So when Rob asked us, it was hands down, ‘Yes, right away.’”

Diali Cissokho (first name pronounced “jelly”), originally from Senegal, West Africa, is the band’s lead singer and master of the kora, a 21-string instrument. He has taught students about African music during arts week at Ocracoke school that takes place every spring for the past several years.

Chatham Rabbits are a husband and wife duo, Sarah Osborne McCombie and Austin McCombie. From Bynum in Chatham County, they took their name and music inspiration from the original Chatham Rabbits, a local mill string band of the early 20th century.

Joseph Terrell (guitar and vocals) and Libby Rodenbough (fiddle and vocals) are part of the music group Mipso. Defined as an indie Americana quartet, their music has been described as “full of wistful beauty, hopeful undercurrents, and panoramic soundscapes,” and combining classic folk-rock and modern alt-country sounds mingling easily with Appalachian tradition.

Also on stage will be Marcy Brenner, who with her husband Lou Castro, are the recording artists, Coyote. She is a former director of the Outer Banks Community Foundation. In addition to the piano casualty, their Coyote Den, located on the dock at the Community Square also suffered substantial damage.

Not listed officially as performers, it wouldn’t be surprising if Craicdown, in some fashion makes it to the stage.

If you cannot  attend and still want to support the musicians’ efforts, you can donate directly to the Outer Banks Community Foundation. In the donor information line, add Music Folk for Ocracoke.

OCEAN — Warning: May cause toe tapping.

A coastal high school jazz band is joining the ranks of a group of internationally acclaimed, award-winning musicians for a concert that is sure to be an audience pleaser.

North Carolina’s own legendary The Red Clay Ramblers are making a special appearance with the Croatan High School Band jazz ensemble Saturday, March 17, at the school in Carteret County.

“The idea of being able to get involved in such a community-oriented performance on our fortieth anniversary is exciting,” said Bland Simpson, the Rambler pianist and a member of the N.C. Coastal Federation’s board of directors.

This is a rare collaboration for the Tony Award-winning string group, hailed for incorporating theatrical elements in their music.

“We don’t have a long history of performing with high schools,” Simpson said. “This is really exciting. This is something we’d like to do more of around the state. Since we haven’t done a lot of performing that involves high school performers we truly appreciate the effort the high school has given and we are really looking forward to putting on a good show.”

Last spring, the Ramblers played a series of numbers with Chapel Hill High School’s string ensemble, a concert Simpson said was, “a ton of fun.”

“This will be a little bit more elaborate than what we did with the string ensemble,” he said.

The family-oriented event will include a lot of novelty tunes offering a “pretty good variety show,” he said.

Audience members will enjoy a short-set performance by the jazz band – about 25 minutes long – followed by a short intermission. The Ramblers will then perform a long set between 75 and 90 minutes long, Simpson said.

“Sometime in there, we’ll bring the [high school] chorus up,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty strong variety of instrumentation. It’s a very strong but very simple blue grass tune we do as a finale.”

The Ramblers include Simpson; Jack Herrick on bass, trumpet, guitar, bouzouki and whistles; Clay Buckner on fiddle, mandolin and harmonica; Chris Frank on guitar, accordion, tuba, trombone and ukulele; and Rick Good on banjo. Good plays clawhammer style, a highly rhythmic style where the musician picks downward as opposed to upward, which is the traditional picking method.

They will be paired with the eight-member jazz band for the first time on the day of the concert following a performance at N.C. Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount the night prior.

Simpson said the group has sent some arrangements it performed with the North Carolina Symphony in 2009 to the jazz band, which has been preparing for the performance, said band director David Parker.

“We’re just honored to be a part of this performance,” he said.

Since forming in 1972, the Ramblers have entertained audiences across the country and Europe with their eclectic style that incorporates old-time mountain music, bluegrass, country, rock, gospel and Zydeco music. They’ve entertained audiences on Broadway and made several national television appearances, including Jay Leno’s “Tonight” show, CBS-TV’s “This Morning” and ABC’s Candice Bergen(cqtt) “AM-America.”

The band’s latest CD, Old North State, was released in 2009.

Their numerous accolades include composing and performing scores for two ballets with the Atlanta Ballet in 2003 and North Carolina Ballet in 2004 and 2008.

Such performances aside, the March 17 concert will be a first for the Ramblers. They’ve never played with a high school jazz band.

“I have a long and strong and very deep relationship with the [federation] and the other fellas in the band know that and they’re coastal types too,” said Simpson, who joined the board of directors in 2001 and is a professor in the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Simpson said the band is looking forward to the opportunity, adding that he’s pleased to help promote the N.C. Coastal Federation.

The March 17 concert will be one of numerous fundraisers and benefits the Ramblers have enjoyed performing over the years. Simpson is also affiliated with another band, the Coastal Cohorts, which has performed the musical King Mackerel and the Blues are Running several times in the coastal region to benefit the federation.

“The fund raising aspect and performing with the school band, these are things that are meaningful,” he said.

Concert proceeds will be used to support the school’s band booster program. Ticket prices begin at $15 for rows A-H. Open seating is $10 and $7 for students in grades K-12.

The Federation, which is co-sponsoring the event, will sell raffle tickets and offer discounted rates on membership. Membership applications will be on the back of tickets. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the high school’s auditorium, 3355 N.C. 24 in Ocean.

Tickets may be purchased by calling 252-393-8185 or by visiting clicking here.