Presley Barker Archives - Bluegrass Today

Benefit concerts for western North Carolina

Over the course of the next few weeks, Wilkes County, NC will be hosting a series of benefit concerts centered around helping the relief efforts going on in western North Carolina.

On October 5th, the First Baptist Church of North Wilkesboro will be hosting a concert featuring Isaac Hickerson, Scott Patrick, Carolina Detour, and Newfound Gap. It will be held at the church located at 510 D St., North Wilkesboro, NC, 28659, and will run from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

The organizer, Matt Carver, provided these details on the show…

“This started with my daughter, who plays in one of the bands [Carolina Detour]. She was thinking about something for the youth to do at church to help with the relief efforts. We were brainstorming and came up with this bluegrass fundraiser called Bluegrass for the Blue Ridge. We’re giving away free hotdogs, doing a silent auction, and receiving donations throughout the evening. The plans for all the donations are to give them to drop centers that really need the extra supplies. The music will go from 4:00-7:00 p.m., and it will be a float style with people dropping by, hanging out, donating, and making bids for the silent auction. At the end of the day, it’s just all coming together for one cause, and hopefully we can help someone in the mountains.”

Another benefit show happening October 5th is the Presley Barker concert at the Alpha and Omega Corn Maze located at 1129 Cheek Rd. Hamptonville, NC, 27020. The concert begins at 6:30 p.m., and they are asking that attendees bring non-perishable food items, baby formula, and bottled water to be donated to hurricane relief efforts in the western part of the state.

Then on October 19th, Alex Key will be hosting a concert in Downtown Wilkesboro, NC, at the Wilkes Communications Pavillion. The show begins at 12:00 noon, and features Alex Key, John PayCheck, Matt Bizzell, Taylon Hope, Holy Water, and will include others acts that have yet to be determined.

Alex says…

“I’m incredibly proud to call western North Carolina home, and it has been so heartbreaking to see the destruction and pain that Helene has brought, and continues to bring, to our beautiful community.”

“People need help and they need it quickly. We have made the quick decision to host an Appalachian Aid Music Festival in downtown Wilkesboro, NC, in cooperation with the town of Wilkesboro and Musicians Mission of Mercy. 100% of ticket sales will go to relief efforts needed in the area. Stay strong NC.”

Tickets can be purchased online. If you want to help but can’t attend, you can always simply purchase a $20 ticket, which will certainly be welcome.

Alex is also running several food drives and donation events in Wilkes. For more information about these events, follow his pages on Facebook and Instagram.

If you can come out to any of these shows to help, please do so. #AppalachiaStrong.

Salty Dogs tear it up on Little Big Shots

The Salty Dogs, a group of pre-teen bluegrass all-stars, brought down the house and delighted millions of television viewers on last night’s edition of Little Big Shots with Steve Harvey. The hit show follows the tried-and-true formula of pairing cute and talented young people with the wit and presence of Steve Harvey, one of America’s most beloved celebrities.

This wasn’t the first time that Harvey has featured young grassers on his show, having helped make Fiddlin’ Carson Peters a star in a previous episode of the program. But this time, the kids were highlighted pickin’ and singin’ for the audience, who were clapping and stomping along to the bluegrass beat.

Here’s video of their performance on Sunday night…

The band includes future phenoms Presley Barker on guitar, Mason Ruble on banjo, Giri Peters on mandolin, Braden Chunn on fiddle, and Kyser George on bass. They don’t perform together as a rule, given the distances between their homes in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kansas – and the fact that none of them can drive – but were assembled in this form through the work of the International Bluegrass Music Association and others in Nashville.

Paul Schimiger, Executive Director of the IBMA, says that it all started with a call from an NBC casting director almost two years ago, before Little Big Shots had even been accepted for air. She was looking for young kids who played bluegrass, likely as a result of the sensation that Mountain Faith had created on America’s Got Talent that summer. The concept for the show she was pitching was to feature outstanding young folks twelve and under.

Paul reached out immediately to Kim Fox and Deanie Richardson with the IBMA’s Kids On Bluegrass program, who put together performance opportunities for exceptional young musicians, and they assembled a group and filmed a video of them together at The Station Inn and submitted it to NBC. For whatever reason, there was no response from NBC for that first season, but the casting director contacted Schiminger again for season two.

They were determined to find something special for the show, so Kim and Deanie got Presley, Giri and Kyser back together from the first band they had assembled, and set out to find a fiddle and a banjo. Braden’s parents are dancers on the Grand Ole Opry, so some Nashville folks knew that he had a great stage personality. The IBMA put the word out to their membership for help finding a suitable banjo picker, and Warren Yates with Yates Banjo brought Mason’s name to the fore. The Salty Dogs were set.

Nashville videographer Bill Filipiak volunteered his time to shoot and edit a video, and all the kids trekked in to town for a shoot at Carter’s Vintage Guitars, with financial support from the Foundation For Bluegrass Music. They sent a tape off to NBC, and this time they loved it. The hardest thing for the kids was staying quiet about it until the show finally aired last night. They had all flown out to Los Angeles to film the show, but were sworn to secrecy until just last week. Not an easy task for a bunch of boys this age!

Schiminger is proud of these talented young pickers, and of his organization’s role in helping them get on TV.

“IBMA always wants to represent the music properly, and The Salty Dogs did just that. A real treat for us is that not only are they amazing musicians, they are amazing young men as well.

We’re here to promote the genre, and to help hand the music off to the next generation. What better way to do that than with such talented young people? It was a bull’s eye for us.”

Their appearance last night was an instant hit, and the Internet is abuzz with talk about those cute young boys on TV last night. Social media in particular has adopted these young fellas as instant stars.

But David George, Kyser’s dad, says that distance between where all the kids live is likely why they won’t be out touring together as a band. All the parents are working folks, and driving the kids to shows just isn’t in the cards right now.

“The logistics make it nearly impossible for the various families to get the kids together to perform as a group. Maybe once a year at a major festival they could do it, but it would be an expensive proposition.”

David also mentioned that Kyser was just a bit nervous about seeing himself on national television.

“He got a little anxious coming up to show time. He was pretty quiet until it came on, but he wanted to watch it over and over again after we first saw it.”

Hats off to everyone involved in assembling this fine band and getting them on TV. It was a moment these young men will never forget.

Just Ten – Presley Barker

When I see young children hailed as musical prodigies in the bluegrass world, I usually wonder if their early technical skill will translate into a true superstar career, with not just the knowledge to arrange notes in a complicated manner, but to play with heart and feeling, and to add their own stamp to a musical style steeped in tradition. Ricky Skaggs is perhaps the best illustration of the latter type of musician, while Chris Thile and Sierra Hull might be good, more recent examples.

There’s no doubt that Presley Barker, an eleven-year-old guitarist from Traphill, North Carolina, has the technical part down pat. His mentors and teachers have included frequent contest champions Steve Lewis and Wayne Henderson, and his accomplishments include winning first place in the guitar competition at the 2015 Galax Fiddlers Convention at the ripe old age of ten. Around the same time, Barker recorded an album, appropriately named Just Ten, featuring some of his favorite contest tunes and bluegrass standards. Joined by a full band including Steve Lewis (guitar and banjo), Scott Freeman (mandolin and fiddle), and Josh Scott (bass), Barker is given plenty of room to show off his knowledge of the guitar.

The album opens up with a skillful version of Alabama Jubilee featuring guest guitarist Wayne Henderson. Barker’s reading of the old fiddle tune is very obviously inspired by Henderson’s style, and will likely be a big hit at contests for years to come. Freeman’s energetic and enjoyable mandolin and fiddle add a bit of liveliness to the tune. Henderson also guests on Steel Guitar Rag, which is performed here as an acoustic guitar showpiece – Henderson and Barker on lead guitars, with Lewis and Scott offering support on rhythm guitar and bass.

Grey Eagle has a nice bounce to it, though it’s a bit mechanical, while Black Mountain Rag is solidly performed and shows off a Doc Watson influence. There are a couple of other Watson numbers included; Nothing to It is one of the most enjoyable tracks on the album, with a smoother and more melodic feel than some of the other tunes, while bonus track Nashville Pickin’ was the song Barker performed at Galax last year. Reflecting that contest environment, it features simply Barker on lead guitar, Lewis on rhythm guitar, and Scott on bass.

Three songs feature vocals – My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darling, Sunny Side of the Mountain, and the hymn Just a Closer Walk with Thee – and Barker sings lead on each of them. These numbers are arranged more like regular, full-band performances, though Barker is still given the opportunity to highlight his guitar skills in a solo. Sunny Side of the Mountain is probably the best of these, with a fun, lively feel. Barker seems to channel the high lonesome, first generation style of singing. He has good control over his voice, and his phrasing and tone will likely continue to develop as he grows older.

Now 11, Barker is certainly to be commended for his dedication to acquiring skill on his chosen instrument, and he has obviously listened and watched closely to his mentors, particularly Lewis and Henderson. His playing style will serve him well as he continues to enter competitions, and hopefully he will keep expanding his repertoire to learn more about all of bluegrass music’s most prominent guitarists and their command of rhythm and melody.

For more information on Presley Barker, visit his Facebook at www.facebook.com/presleybarkermusic. His new album is available from several online music retailers.