And the Beat Goes On is a monthly music meries that showcases the art of songwriting by featuring known and less familiar singer/songwriters who demonstrate the unique emotional power of song.
2022 Singer/Songwriters
- May 7 – Chad Elliot (Blues), 8:00 pm, $25.00. Midwest singer-songwriter Chad Elliott blends folk roots, swampy blues and soulful writing to deliver an original Americana sound. His live performances have been honed over a decade of being on the road performing more than 200 shows each year. Lauded as “Iowa’s Renaissance man” by Culture Buzz Magazine, he has penned more than 1,500 songs in his career while also cultivating his skills as a painter, sculptor, illustrator and author (Wilderman’s Treetop Tales; Rumble & Flash).
- June 11 – J. Jeffrey Messerole (Blues, Alt. Country), 8:00 pm, $25.00. Multi-award winning songwriter J. Jeffrey Messerole is an Americana musician from Iowa’s capital city. From the depths of his Iowa roots, Messerole masterfully blends the sounds of his guitar with engaging lyrics, and often a harmonica, to tell gritty American tales that are bound to evoke emotion from all of his listeners. The motifs of his songs can vary as greatly as the wild flowers in the native tall grass. Messerole does frequently write about that flora, as well as the fauna of the region. Not to mention all of it’s wild life. Not one to shy away from subject matter, the songs can frequently meander across the lines between love and loss, success and failure, or life and death. J. Jeffrey Messerole has garnered awards and distinctions that have landed him in the same company as John Prine, Jason Isbell, and John Hiatt. Fans of the aforementioned artists will find satisfaction in his songs as well. Messerole is happy to share his original folk, blues, and alternative country music that’s cultivated right here in the heart of the Great Plains.
- July 9 – Wild Ponies (Old time), 8:00 pm, $25.00. Although they’re based in Nashville, Wild Ponies have always looked to Southwest Virginia — where bandmates Doug and Telisha Williams were both born and raised — for inspiration. There, in mountain towns like Galax, old-time American music continues to thrive, supported by a community of fiddlers, flat-pickers, and fans.
- August 13 – Caleb Caudle (Country/Rock), 8:00 pm, $25.00.
September 10- Jane Kramer, 8:00 pm, $25.00. With deep roots in the musical traditions, culture and lore of her beloved Appalachia, Kramer’s songs are introspective, gracefully gritty and fiercely memorable. They elegantly sweep listeners down the gravel roads and southern coastal highways, midnight truck stops and lonely motel rooms of “hard learning” and lead home to the wooded Blue Ridge Mountains with moving acceptance of our flawed human experience. - October 8-9 – The Blue Ridge Opry (Early country), 8:00 pm Saturday, 2:oo pm Sunday, $25.00. A fun filled country music variety show hosted by Kelly and the Cowboys, and featuring an array of musical guests, comedy and more. If you love Patsy cline, Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, and the golden era of country music, this show is for you!
- October 22 – Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert (Bluegrass), 8:00 pm. Kieran and Rayna first met, fittingly, at San Francisco’s celebrated Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, which led to their cowriting songs for Kieran’s recent album, Unguarded Moments (Dead Reckoning). They joined forces again for Rayna’s 2017 release, Workin’s Too Hard (StorySound Records), which they also co-produced.
- November 12 – Presley Barker & Paige King Johnson (Old time, Bluegrass), 8:00 pm, $25.00.
- December 17 – Bluegrass Christmas featuring the Blue Ridge Girls, 8:00 pm, $25.00.
