Molly McGinn, RiverRun, Mary Poppins, Surry Old Time Fiddler's Convention, and Present Continuous

Molly McGinn

Last August, musician and writer Molly McGinn released Postcards from the Swamp, a six-song series.

As Molly says, "the record is an immersive, multi-media experience that combines blogging, music, video, and Instagram photos." She drew her inspiration from the Great Dismal Swamp and more specifically, the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Bland Simpson and their depictions of this place. 

As she does with multi-media, McGinn also weaves together creation myths, poems, and fairytales with her own interpretations to create a modern story about one of North Carolina's wildest places.

You can hear Molly perform live once a month at the Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen in Greensboro. On April 10th, she'll be at Scuppernong Books for Eddie Huffman's reading from his new book about John Prine. And April 23rd, she'll be at the Down Home Supper for RiverRun International Film Festival.  

Molly joined Bethany to discuss the inspiration behind Postcards from the Swamp, how to re-write a story, and the research that went into her six-song series.

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RiverRun International Film Festival

For film lovers in North Carolina the 17th annual RiverRun International Film Festival is hard, if not impossible to beat.

The eleven-day festival kicks off on Thursday April 16th in Winston-Salem with screenings of the French Surrealist film Reality, and a documentary on urban fashion called Fresh Dressed.

Over the ensuing days 165 films will be shown - that's 74 features & 91 shorts, from a sampling of 35 countries. There will also be parties, panels, and Free Saturday morning cartoons for the entire family.

RiverRun Executive Director Andrew Rodgers stopped by WFDD and he and Eddie Garcia began by talking about how RiverRun chooses its films. 

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Twin City Stage: Mary Poppins

Twin City Stage is celebrating its 80^th season with their production of Mary Poppins the musical. It's a wonderful blend of Disney's popular 1964 film and P.L. Traver's book series. Twin City's biggest production of the year features a cast of nearly 30, eight sets, 101 costumes, dozens of musical numbers, and, of course, magic! Remember Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Who could forget it! Certainly not TCS director Maureen Daly, and actors Ashleigh Cooper who plays Mary Poppins, and Dru Billings who plays Bert.

Mary Poppins the musical opens Friday, March 27^th and it'll run through April 12^th at the Arts Council Theatre in Winston-Salem with evening shows at 8 and Sunday matinees at 2. 

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Surry Old Time Fiddler's Convention

The annual Surry Old Time Fiddlers Convention rounds out the month of March with award-winning musicians, free workshops, great food, and lots of dance. There'll also be luthier displays, band competitions, and outstanding live performances by the Round Peak Ramblers, Slate Mountain Ramblers, and New Ballard's Bogtrotters. Acclaimed guitarist Buck Buckner from the Back Step Band, and Chairman of the Surry County Planning Board is joined here by bass player and Surry Old Time Fiddler's Convention Organizer Tammy Sawyer.

This year's Surry Old Time Fiddlers Convention is Friday, March 27 – 28, at Surry Community College, Dobson, NC. Friday night's dance will feature Round Peak Ramblers, Slate Mountain Ramblers, and New Ballard's Bogtrotters. On Saturday it'll be competitions with a Master Artist Awards given to outstanding local musicians.  They're open to old and young alike keeping this cultural style of dance and music thriving into the future. There'll be free workshops on Saturday too.

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UNCG's Present Continuous

If you want to find good contemporary music performed by some of the finest young musicians in the country you needn't look any further than the University of NC at Greensboro's new music ensemble Present Continuous.

UNC at Greensboro composition student Anna Meadors has long been fascinated by things like mixed meter, pulse music, bass clarinet, and bands like King Crimson. All of those influences find their way into her own music, and they'll be on full display tonight during her Graduate Composition Recital featuring a unique performance ensemble: Present~Continuous. We're sampling from Anna's composition work right now. She's joined by UNCG Associate Professor of Composition and Electronic Music, Mark Engebretson.

In today's show, we sample from Anna's music performed live earlier this week by Present~Continuous. The concert was Wednesday night, March 25^th

Eddie discusses an article from The Kernel (The Daily Dot's Sunday magazine) about Spotify and how it might consider redistributing artists' royalties.

Bethany thinks you should check out The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina. To celebrate the anthology, the MFA Writing Program at UNCG presents a reading at Scuppernong Books on April 1st at 7:00pm. The reading will feature Martin Arnold, Steve Cushman, Terry L. Kennedy, Jeff Miles, Tracey J. Nafekh, Valerie Nieman, Rebecca Warren, and John Thomas York.