BUTCH ROSS: WORKSHOPS AND CONCERT 10/21/19

BUTCH ROSS RETURNING HOME TO PERFORM WORKSHOPS AND CONCERT

            Area native Butch Ross, a nationally known performer on mountain dulcimer, will conduct two workshops and perform in concert,

Monday, October 21, at Christ Lutheran Church Multi-Purpose Room. Christ Lutheran is located at 875 Sunflower Drive, just off Maple Ave., in DuBois.

            The workshops are:

•             3 p.m. – A different way to strum. Learn simple but very effective techniques that lead to a smoother, more concise and more interesting player. Advanced and beginner players both can learn from these techniques.
•          4:15 p.m. – Songs of the 60s and 70s. Learn a handful of tunes from the golden age of rock and pop music. These are chord/melody arrangements but there will also be strum and sing versions too.

Ross will perform in concert at 5:45 p.m. open to everyone. Cost for the day is $20 for one workshop; $35 for two workshops. All price levels include admission to the concert. A pass the hat is scheduled for walk-ins to the concert.

Advance reservations may be made by e-mail at ginnyschott@gmail.com or by telephone at 814-371-4627.

Ross, born in Meadville and raised in Falls Creek, graduated from DuBois Area High School in 1986.

Now based in Chattanooga, Tenn., Ross has tackled everything from Radiohead to Bach and come away with a renewed appreciation for what the humble dulcimer is capable of. No genre is off-limits, nor is there a limit to what Ross has envisioned for this specific instrument.

The dulcimer is an unassuming thing, with a handful of strings and a history that feels embedded in the lineage of countless Appalachian musicians. But Ross has taken it and

Ross became intrigued with the instrument when he was given a mountain dulcimer as a birthday present. At first, the instrument was a curiosity but before too long it became his instrument of choice. A chance meeting with musician, author and producer Robert Force (himself a dulcimer iconoclast) led to the 2005 release The Moonshiner's Atlas and a complete change of focus.

Since then Ross has become an in-demand performer at folk and dulcimer festivals throughout the US and Europe. He's performed at such festivals as Kentucky Music Week, the Central Ohio Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, the Lancaster (UK) Music and the prestigious Philadelphia Folk Festival.

Ross' most recent release is called "Found Objects." It's a collection of original compositions, outside-the-box covers, original tunes, mashups and thoroughly unexpected arrangements of traditional songs. It’s an eclectic mix that led Times-Free Press reporter Joshua Pickard to call it “a sound both experienced and timeless, a result of its celebrated past and boundless future.”