Curly Seckler will be honored at the 13th Annual Leon Kiser Memorial Tribute Show to take place at the Paramount Centre for the Arts in Bristol, Tennessee, on February 28. Seckler will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, Musician Category, for his contributions to bluegrass and old-time music. He will also perform several of his signature songs during the show.
Seckler was in a reflective mood on hearing the news ……….
“I am honored to be chosen to receive the Leon Kiser award. I appreciate all the great work that my friend Tim White and the ACMA are doing to preserve and promote bluegrass music in the Bristol area. I was based at WCYB in Bristol a number of times early in my career. I first joined the Foggy Mountain Boys there in 1949, and also worked there with Mac Wiseman, Charlie Monroe and the Sauceman Brothers. I’ve played dozens of theaters, schoolhouses, and festivals around the Bristol area over the years and I always look forward to going back and being with all the fine folks up that way. They’re some of the nicest people I could ever hope to meet, and they love their bluegrass music!”
The show is sponsored by the Appalachian Cultural Music Association and proceeds from ticket sales go to the Benny Sims Scholarship Fund at East Tennessee State University.
Others honored at the same time as Seckler are the late Clarence “Tom” Ashley who was born in Bristol in 1895 and spent most of his early years in Mountain City, Tennessee, and south-western Virginia native Larry Blevins, who has been playing bluegrass music since the 1950s throughout Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and beyond.
In addition to Curly Seckler, there will be several other great bands performing on the show, including the Kiser Family, the ETSU Bluegrass Band, Beth Stevens and Edge, Jeff Orr and Wildwood Rhythm, Breaking Tradition, Kody Norris, the Holston Mountain Boys, Tim White, Larry and Mike McPeak, Kenny Price and the Virginia Mountain Boys.
Further details can be found by visiting either the Paramount Centre or Appalachian Cultural Music Association web sites.
