Kilby Spencer & the Crooked Road Ramblers at Carter Family Fold

Saturday, October 22nd, 2022, at 7:30 p.m., the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, will present a special concert by Kilby Spencer & the Crooked Road Ramblers – an old time band. Admission to the concert is $10 for adults, $2 for children 6 to 11, under age 6 free. Tickets are available at the door. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

The Crooked Road Ramblers play traditional old time dance music from the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. Most members of the band are second and third-generation musicians who now play old time mountain music influenced by their families and communities. The Ramblers have played at Houston Fest, the Albert Hash Memorial Festival, the Wayne Henderson Festival, and of course at the Fold. They have won first place in the old time band category at Ashe County, Alleghany County, Laurel Bloomery, Fries and the Union Grove Fiddlers Convention in addition to being named the old time instrumental group of the year at the 2014 Blue Ridge Acoustic Uprising.

Kilby grew up in a musical family. His parents are Emily Spencer and the late Thornton Spencer of the Whitetop Mountain Band – a band that has performed for over four decades. He’s been playing old time music most of his life, learning from his parents. Whitetop is one of two original bands who have played at the Carter Fold since shows began in the A.P. Carter Store in 1974. Kilby counts Johnny Miller, Dean Sturgill, Otis Burris, G. B. Grayson, and the recordings of Albert Hash as influencing his career. He has collected and digitized rare local recordings for many years and serves on the board of the Field Recorder’s Collective whose mission is to preserve and release rare field and home recordings. Kilby started the Ramblers in hopes of carrying on the driving southwest Virginia “big” band sound that makes everyone want to hit the dance floor. Seeing Kilby fiddle will bring back fond memories of Thorton’s fiddling. He’s every bit the strong, mountain fiddler his father was.

Kelley Breiding propels the band forward with her clawhammer banjo playing and high-powered vocals. Kelley has won many blue ribbons for her banjo playing and also leads her own traditional country music group, Kelley and the Cowboys. The Cowboys are making quite a name for themselves and opening for some big country acts.

John Perry plays guitar and sings. He grew up playing with his brothers Buck and Arnold in a band called the New River Ramblers – which also featured Thornton Spencer, Jerry Moretz, and James Burris. They were frequent prize winners and they were favorites of dancers throughout the region for most of the 1970s until they later disbanded in the late 1980s. John’s guitar style gives the band much of its’ unique, driving sound. “High Lonesome” describes John’s singing very well.

Donald Hill is one of the foremost rhythm guitar players in the Blue Ridge in addition to being a wonderful vocalist. Growing up in a musical family, his father was Leon Hill, a well-known guitar player who played with the Whitetop Mountain Band, Fred Cockerham, Glen Smith, and many others. Donald took up playing at an early age and has passed his talent on to his two sons. Donald’s rhythm is like a wall of sound, and he makes it easy to play for any musician he backs up.

Karen Carr plays bass and sings for the band. She has won the Barbara Poole Memorial Bass award for best old time bass player at Galax twice and has rock solid rhythm in addition to wonderful runs. She comes from a musical family; Karen is a descendant of old time fiddlers Fred Cockerham and Wilson Ramey, both legends from the Low Gap, North Carolina area. Karen is always in high demand to play bass with both old time and bluegrass musicians and makes any band sound better when she steps in with her strong rhythm.

Wayne Dye plays mandolin and sings for the Ramblers. Wayne can play pretty much anything with strings on it, and he sings many vocal parts. He also grew up in a musical family. His father, Scott Dye, was a well-known banjo player who could play both clawhammer and bluegrass style banjo. Wayne, his father, and Trigg Fields were members of the Russell County Boys, a very popular band at dances and at fiddlers’ conventions. The Russell County Boys played the Fold the first weekend in 2006 after Janette Carter’s death.

Don’t miss Kilby Spencer and the Crooked Road Ramblers at the Carter Family Fold. It will be an evening of down-home entertainment. Bring along your friends and your dancing shoes! Kilby literally grew up playing on the stage of the Carter Fold, and he knows exactly what Fold audiences expect. He delivers just that in the style his family always has. Kilby is actually one of the best old-time fiddlers around. For information on the Crooked Road Ramblers, go to their site at https://crookedroadramblers.com/.

Come on out and visit one of the few places you can take your entire family for wholesome Appalachian Mountain entertainment in the area. You and everyone else you bring will leave with the assurance that mountain tradition, warm welcomes, good food, and the wonderful welcoming, loving people we are blessed to call neighbors and friends are waiting to greet you. We look forward to having you join us.

Carter Family Memorial Music Center is a nonprofit, rural arts organization established to preserve traditional, acoustic mountain music. The center is a familyfriendly, drug and alcohol-free venue. In addition to the performance area, we also maintain the Carter Family Museum and the A.P. Carter birthplace cabin. Both are historic landmarks and are open from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and later at performance intermission on Saturdays. For more information on the center, go to our site on the internet –www.carterfamilyfold.org/. Partial program funding for shows at the Fold is provided by Virginia Tourism Corporation. We can be found on Facebook – page Carter Fold – and Twitter – @carterfoldinfo., and now Instagram. To speak to a Fold volunteer staff member, call 276-594-0676. If we don’t answer you right away, we’ll get back to you in 24 hours. The Fold is run by all volunteer staffing.