Posted By BethM on September 3, 2010
This Saturday’s concert at Cook Park will begin at 2:30 (or so) instead of 2:00.
Wayne & Helen will be playing at the Albert Hash Memorial Festival in Whitetop, VA, on Saturday morning, and can’t get to Todd in time for a 2 PM start.
But they’ll play until 4:30, so we’ll have a full two hours of their wonderful music. Come on out for the last TCPO concert of the 2010 series. Hope to see you there!
Posted By BethM on August 30, 2010
Wayne Henderson & Helen White
This Saturday, Sept. 4, two of our favorite performers will return to the stage at Cook Memorial Park for a couple of hours of outstanding music. Wayne Henderson and Helen White will bring their fabulous guitar picking, banjo strumming, fiddling, and singing to Todd for the last concert in TCPO’s Summer Music Series.
Admission is only $5, and there will be food and t-shirts and other good things, along with the music (and Wayne’s jokes). Bring a chair or a blanket, and a friend! Hope to see YOU there.
Posted By BethM on August 22, 2010
Todd’s concert today (8/21) was full of diversity, virtuosity, and, yes, water. All in all, it was a very special day for everyone, from volunteer ticket-takers to the rapt audience for the Forget-Me-Nots, The Tillers, and Doc, Richard, Charles Welch, and Joel Landsberg,
We started the day in the familiar late-summer fog and drip. We thought it would burn off by noon (Ray Russell said so!), but it didn’t. Philip Zanon (Double Time/Kruger Bros. sound tech) set up the sound in the morning, then added tarps over the big speakers as the drip became a drizzle and then a real rain.
In the meantime, people came to Cook Memorial Park and set up their chairs in concentric rows in front of the stage, leaving to find a meal or a place to browse before the concert began. Many covered their chairs with tarps or plastic, in expectation of more moisture to come. A few brought canopy tents and picnicked.
And they were wise: By the time the Forget-Me-Nots, three wondrous young fiddlers from Watauga County, were half-way through their opening set, the drip had become rain. Amid the cheers for the F-M-Ns could be heard the sound of umbrellas being deployed. But no one left.
Then, The Tillers, who had never played in Todd before, came on stage — again, three young musicians (from Ohio, the Appalachian part) — to play and sing absolutely wonderful old-time, old country, and old American music to an enchanted audience. (Afterwards, their CDs were the hottest item for sale at the TCPO tent.)
But the rain persisted, becoming a steady downpour by The Tillers’ second set. People started to give up and leave the park — maybe for their cars, maybe for good. The volunteers in the TCPO and Ruritan Club tents were discouraged, but T-shirt and CD sales, along with Walt’s burgers and dogs, kept things moving.
And the music continued, as Doc Watson, with friends, took the stage and immediately riveted everyone’s attention: This was the reward for enduring the previous two hours of rain. As they played and sang, the western sky lightened, and eventually the rain stopped — as it has many times when Doc plays in Todd — bringing the afternoon to a calm, cool close. Wet underfoot, yes, but at least not getting wetter.
All in all, a great concert in Todd, for the Forget-Me-Nots, for The Tillers, for Doc & Friends, and especially for the folks who came to Cook Park for a special chance to hear live music at its best. Those who endured the rain were thoroughly satisfied.
And, at a smaller gathering after the park was (mostly) cleaned up again, and after food, Aaron, Sean, and Mike (The Tillers) joined Jack Rielly, Sparky, and Nathan in a traditional jam circle in the parlor of a 100-year-old farmhouse to just play. And what playing it was: banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and Sean’s bass; they can do it all. The listeners were all “dancin’ sittin’ down,” if not singing along. When this volunteer left at 10:30, the music was going strong.
So the tradition of home-made music persists here in Todd. Whenever there is an opportunity to play or hear music played just for the playing of it, we take it. Yes, we go to concerts when we can (even in the rain!), but perhaps the best music of all happens when we’re just sitting around the living room or on the porch, together. That’s how it all started, after all.
But today, we must give thanks to TCPO for a wonderful concert. And thanks to the many volunteers who made it possible, including the planners, ticket takers, car-parkers and shuttle drivers,Todd Ruritan’s tent and TCPO’s food and T-shirts enterprises, and especially those who set things up and then cleaned up afterwards. For all, the reward is the knowledge that they make Walter and Annie Cook Memorial Park a prime venue for traditional music, in a beautiful setting. Even in the rain.
Posted By BethM on July 26, 2010
The eighth annual Todd community benefit concert featuring Doc Watson & Friends is set for Saturday, Aug. 21, from 3 to 7 PM. The Tillers and The Forget-Me-Nots will also be featured at the concert.
Tickets to the concert are $15, $17 for credit card purchases. Children under 12 are admitted free. Only 1,500 tickets will be sold, that number being the capacity of Cook Memorial Park in the middle of Todd’s historic district.
Tickets are available at the following outlets:
If any tickets are left by the 21st, they will be available at the gate. For more information, call 336-877-5401.
Doc’s concert will again be dedicated to the memory of James Parsons, who was part of music in Todd from its very beginnings in the 1990s. Although James is now gone, the James “Crow” Parsons Memorial Fund is being built to finance future summer concerts at Cook Park. A pickle jar in the Todd Mercantile Bakery collects change and dollars for the fund, and the pickle jar is passed around during the Saturday afternoon concerts to help the memorial fund grow. TCPO, the nonprofit community organization, also seeks larger contributions to permanently endow the fund to provide dependable financing for the music series that James Parsons helped bring to Todd.
But the Memorial Fund, and James Parsons’ surviving family, benefit primarily from the sale of tickets for Doc’s concert. TCPO and the Todd community are forever grateful for Doc’s support and for his incomparable music.
This year’s Summer Music Series and other events at Cook Park are also supported by a grant from The Conservation Fund’s Creating New Economies Fund. In addition to the grant and ticket sales, sponsors have come forward, helping to underwrite some of the concert expense and leaving more for the memorial fund. Among this year’s sponsors are the West Jefferson TDA, local businesses, and several members of the Todd community.
Posted By BethM on July 26, 2010
Madison County master musicians Laura Boosinger and Josh Goforth will return to Cook Park on Saturday, July 31, for the last of the Todd Summer Music Series concerts.
Widely celebrated individually, these two are dynamite together. You don’t want to miss them!
Come to Walter and Annie Cook Memorial Park, in the middle of Todd’s Historic District, at 2 PM for a couple of hours of outstanding Appalachian music. Bring a chair or blanket and a friend.
Posted By BethM on July 18, 2010
The not-so-worthless Americana band Worthless Son-in-Laws return to Todd this Saturday, July 24, for another rousing concert at Cook Park from 2 to 4 PM. Bring a chair or a blanket and a friend!
TCPO’s Summer Music Series, offering free Saturday-afternoon concerts through the end of July, is supported in part by a grant from The Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program, and by sponsoring groups like Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corp., the West Jefferson TDA, RiverGirl Fishing Co., Elkland Handwerke, and members of the Todd community.
Posted By BethM on July 18, 2010
Cedar Creek Performing \”Fiddler\’s Anthem\” in Cook Park
It was an awesome afternoon in Todd. Thanks to Eric Ellis, David Johnson, and the rest of the band for coming up to Ashe County.
Posted By Jim on April 5, 2010
This rendering shows the new Castle Ford bridge which will replace the existing low water structure. Construction could begin as soon as March 29.
Construction signs will be sprouting soon along Railroad Grade Road in anticipation of the start of work to replace the Castle Ford Bridge at Todd Island Park.
Last month, the North Carolina Department of Transportation awarded a $1.5 million contract to Dane Construction of Mooresville to replace the existing low water bridge. The existing bridge structure, built in 1966, will remain in place and carry traffic until the new bridge is completed, slated for Dec. 31, 2011.
The project has been on the books for nearly 10 years and was made possible by the infusion of federal funding through the Obama Administration’s economic recovery package. The NC DOT held a series of community meetings to gather input on the new bridge’s design. Unlike traditional new bridges, the structure will feature an 8-ft-wide pedestrian walkway on the north side, stamped concrete abutments, rust-colored guardrails and bridge rails.
While DOT has rented a portion of the Todd Island Park parking lot for use during construction, the park will remain open to the public during construction. DOT has agreed to build a temporary driveway access into the parking lot.
Posted By Jim on January 26, 2010
Softened by more than three inches of rain on Sunday night, a small section of Railroad Grade Road collapsed into the New River on Monday morning. The flooding incident drew mention in Tuesday’s edition of the Winston-Salem Journal. The DOT tells the Journal that the section was about 8 feet wide and 20 yards long. The incident occurred near the Todd Island Park, at the Panorama Drive turn off. Workers reinforced the roadway on Monday and it is again passable.
Posted By Jim on January 17, 2010
Two inches of rain caused the ice on the New River to break up and dam on Sunday morning. Within a few hours the ice dam broke and left behind tall stacks of ice along the banks.
The ice which has covered miles of the New River for the last 10 days broke free Sunday morning after two inches of rain overnight, causing some flooding along Railroad Grade Road. The ice was caught at the first low-water bridge below Todd until about 9:30 when the dam gave way. Water and millions of tons of ice heaved downstream, pushing the river out of its banks and slamming chunks of ice into everything in its path. The ice hit utility poles with such force that the electrical service was yanked from the roof of a house on the banks of the river. The ice then dammed at Castleford Road, causing the waters to rise more than 10 feet within a matter of minutes. The 10-acre Todd Island Park was submerged under several feet of muddy water as the ice and water piled up behind the bridge. Trees were pulled from the ground and wildlife scurried for higher ground. Owners of one home along the river scrambled to pull valuables from the lower floor of their home as the water rose higher.
But, almost as quickly as the water rose, the dam gave way from the weight of the ice and water around 11 a.m., and the river of ice and water rushed downstream, pulling trees, stumps and brush with it. The ice appeared to flow freely for several miles downstream and there were no reports of additional damming downstream. Huge sheets of ice were deposited along the banks of the river, some stacked more than 5 feet high.