Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road at Zoograss 2026 – photo © Sandy Hatley
The third annual Zoograss, a three-night bluegrass concert series, returned to Asheboro, home of the North Carolina Zoo, this past week. Held downtown in the historic Sunset Theatre, the mini-festival was made possible through a collaboration of the City of Asheboro, area music instructor Tim Moon, and the Sunset.
Moon, who served as MC for the event, stated, “This is our third year of Zoograss. We do three nights in a row every September. We try to bring traditional and modern bluegrass and gospel and have all ages involved.”
This year featured Authentic Unlimited on Wednesday, September 16; Lonesome River Band on Thursday, September 17; and Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road on Friday, September 18. Honored guests included promoters, Milton Harkey of Bluegrass First Class and Jeff Branch of Big Lick Bluegrass Festival.
Authentic Unlimited guitarist, Colton Baker, began the first night with a confession, “Here’s a little different version of Authentic Unlimited.”
The award-winning band offered an energetic and highly entertaining set of music that deviated from the norm. Jerry Cole, one of their primary vocalists was under the weather, and only sang on one song all night.
“Nobody wants to hear a bull frog,” Cole teased as he stayed in the background playing bass for his band mates to handle the vocals.
Banjoist, Eli Johnston, joked, “He’s so full of medicine that if he coughs, he’ll cure the whole front row.”
Their set featured some of their older material as well as some the band had never performed on stage. At one point, Baker did a solo and presented a jazzy version of the classic song, Tennessee Waltz.
On Thursday, Lonesome River Band went back into their 44-year repertoire and resurrected some old numbers, many of them from their classic 1991 Carry the Tradition album, including their encore, Sitting on Top of the World.
Shelor praised the enthusiastic crowd, saying, “Some of the best audiences we play for are in North Carolina.”
On Friday, Jordan’s band featured some twin fiddling with Matt Hooper and Adam Burrows. They were filling in for Carolina Road fiddler, Warren Blair, who is recovering from a stroke.
“It takes two fiddlers to replace Warren,” Jordan jibed.
Her show also included guest spots by the Burrows Brothers, Adam, and his brother, Jake, of Nick Chandler & Delivered, on banjo. A tribute was given to their mother who passed away suddenly at Bluegrass in The Smokies last November.
Plans are already underway for next year’s fourth annual Zoograss.
Moon concluded, “We want to continue to bring the area professional bluegrass and gospel bands.”
