Grand old-time music concert to be held at Tivoli to raise funds for Cumberland Trail

From left, Stuart Duncan, Thomm Jutz, Jerry Douglas, John Gardner (on drums) and Mark Fain play at a "Crossing the Cumberlands" event at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center in May. A similar show with other artists will come to Chattanooga Saturday. (Photo by Peter Koczera via Tennessee State Parks).
From left, Stuart Duncan, Thomm Jutz, Jerry Douglas, John Gardner (on drums) and Mark Fain play at a "Crossing the Cumberlands" event at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center in May. A similar show with other artists will come to Chattanooga Saturday. (Photo by Peter Koczera via Tennessee State Parks).

Old-time music and folklore will fill the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday night for one last grand concert series in Chattanooga to honor the Cumberlands and raise funds for its growing trail.

"It will paint a picture of this region," said Cumberland Trail Park manager Bob Fulcher, who is arranging the event. "It's not paint; it's notes, sounds, lyrics, the poetry of very traditional lyrics that become attached to people and families and new lyrics that people write from their own experience but can become captured in tradition and stay in currency for generations and decades."

The Friends of the Cumberland Trail will present the ''Crossing the Cumberlands'' event Saturday at 7 p.m. to raise money for the Cumberland Trail and share the heritage that has shaped much of the region for hundreds of years.

Funds will directly benefit the maintenance and protection of the 300-mile–long corridor, from Cumberland Gap to the edge of Chattanooga.

"Chattanooga is like the gateway to the Cumberland Trail," Fulcher said. "This community has been more supporting of the trail than any other entity we could think of. They have the greatest number of volunteers; the greatest amount of trail construction has come from the community, organizations and foundations here. Chattanooga is a Cumberlands city."

The concert will encompass sounds from 200 years of Tennessee music with a range of instruments and styles. A similar event was held in 2013, also at the Tivoli, when the Friends of the Cumberland Trail presented the Cumberland Trail Suite Appalachian Music Festival.

However, there may not be another event like this in Chattanooga.

"It's too hard to do," Fulcher said. " ... We cannot do this very often; we have support from National Endowment for the Arts, Riverview Foundation based here in Chattanooga, and Rock/Creek outfitters. They're here behind us, and that makes a difference."

Some of the music will be played by descendents and proteges of Tennessee families who have kept the music and culture alive for generations. People such as the Hicks family, who were recognized by the Library of Congress for their work, and Clyde Davenport, 97, who passed down the music for decades.

Former Signal Mountain resident Joseph Decosimo, 36, will return to Chattanooga for the concert. He is now on tour in Australia. Decosimo studied under Davenport before earning a master's degree in folklore and a doctorate in American studies.

"The history of Chattanooga is complicated and has all these wrinkles," he said. "Within that, it's reflected in the music in a way that's surprising. It ends up making the music really rich and layered."

Other artists will include renowned bluegrass artist and banjo player Tony Trischka. He will play a piece in honor of former local fiddler and businessman Fletcher Bright, who died on Christmas Day last year at age 86.

Bluegrass singer-songwriter Sierra Hull, 27, also will perform. The mandolinist was raised in the Cumberlands and held a top position on music charts with her last album.

"We are proud that the Tivoli remains very accessible to the community, both through the shows we host but also for great nonprofits to have the ability to take advantage of the Tivoli for an event like Crossing the Cumberlands," said Nick Wilkinson, executive director of the Tivoli Theatre Foundation.

Tickets can be purchased online at tivolichattanooga.com and will be available at the box office before the show. Prices range from $36.50-$96.50. Two one-hour workshops will be held earlier in the day for ticket holders for an additional $10 fee: a presentation of the Hicks family ballads and history at 1 p.m. and "Cumberland Fiddle Styles" at 2 p.m.

Contact staff writer Mark Pace at mpace@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @themarkpace and on Facebook at ChattanoogaOutdoorsTFP.

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