ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: out & about
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS
Listen!
Hear the merry cackling of that mandolin? The mournful moaning of the fiddle bow? The soft thump-thump-thumping of the stand-up bass?
Yep, we're in bluegrass heaven.
The Bluegrass Cardinals - one of the premier bluegrass groups since 1975 - will visit Floyd County High School on Saturday night for a concert with David Parmley, Scott Vestal and Continental Divide.
In addition to producing 15 albums, the Cardinals are regulars at The Grand Ole Opry. The group has appeared many times on ``The Ralph Emery Show'' and even performed at the White House during Jimmy Carter's presidency.
David Parmley, one of the founders of the Bluegrass Cardinals, sang lead vocals for the group until 1992. He has since recorded two solo projects and started a new band, Continental Divide, with banjo player Scott Vestal.
The International Bluegrass Music Association awarded the 1995 Emerging Artist Award to Continental Divide. The band held the top spot on Bluegrass Unlimited's national music charts from November 1995, until February. Just this month Alison Krauss' ``Oh, Atlanta'' replaced the group's ``Wing and a Prayer'' at No.1.
In addition to Parmley and Vestal, Continental Divide includes Jimmy Bowen, Aubrey Haynie and Mike Anglin. Collectively, the five musicians have performed and recorded with the best in bluegrass music. In fact, they're counted among the best in bluegrass music.
Continental Divide plays hard-driving traditional tunes, as well as softer contemporary bluegrass songs.
The bands will be playing Saturday to benefit Floyd County High School's Sports Foundation. Members hope to raise money for a new weight room at the school.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. in the school auditorium. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students. Kids under 6 get in free.
VELCOME TO MY HOUSE: The Baron Victor Von Frankenstein is having a few friends over this weekend.
Castle Frankenstein is where you'll find a zany cast of characters from Playmakers & Company's latest production, ``The House of Frankenstein.'' They'll be singing, dancing and chasing each other from chamber to chamber.
Led by Joe Tice as the Baron, the cast includes Tyler Barden, Craig Hixon, Dee Davidson, Andy Davis, Jane Browning, Jessica Bennett, Ken Crank, Kendra Atkins and Korey Mercier. Dan Davidson is the director.
The comic horror show plays today and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Playmakers' Playhouse inside Blacksburg's University Mall. The production continues next weekend.
Tickets - $6 for adults or $4 for students and senior citizens - are available at the Weight Club in the mall. For reservations, call 382-0154.
AMERICAN ART: Audrey Flack stands out as a trailblazer in contemporary American art.
She was one of the founders of ``photorealism,'' a painting style developed during the women's movement of the late '60s and early '70s. Also called ``sharp-focus realism'' and ``superrealism,'' the style depicted ordinary scenes and people through flat images and barely discernible brush strokes.
Flack received international recognition as one of America's most accomplished artists before she threw the art world a curve ball.
In the 1980s, she gave up painting for sculpting. She turned her attention to larger-than-life figures.
Flack's 35-foot-tall statue of Queen Catherine of Portugal (namesake of Queens, N.Y.) will be unveiled this year. Another of the artist's large-scale public commissioned pieces already has been installed in Rock Hill, S.C.
Flack will visit Radford University tonight to talk about her past and present work. Her free lecture begins at 7 in Preston Auditorium and will be followed by a reception at 8 in Flossie Martin Gallery.
Flack's talk coincides with the opening of ``Andy Warhol: Early Portraits,'' a gallery show on loan from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
An exhibit of Flack's sculptures, prints and paintings is on display through May 19 at the Art Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke.
PUT YOUR LEFT FOOT OUT ... and move it to Virginia Tech on Wednesday. The university's own Highty Tighties will perform in concert at 8 p.m. You can catch the band at Squires Student Center's Haymarket Theatre.
Tickets are $2 and will be sold only at the door Wednesday.
GREAT GOSPEL! ``Rise and shine and give God the glory,
For the year of Jubilee.''
The Martin Family will sing praises at the 11th anniversary gospel sing tonight and Saturday. They start at 7 both evenings at Auburn High School.
The local group will perform with two guest artists, The Brazells of Martinez, Ga., and The Easter Brothers of Mt. Airy, N.C. This is your chance to hear some inspirational sacred music.
Tickets for both performances are on sale for $10. One-night admission is $8 for adults or $5 for children, 5-12. Kids under 4 are free.
For more information, call 382-1954 or 381-1137.
WAR STORIES: The Jessie Peterman Memorial branch library in Floyd is the place to meet two well-known local Civil War experts. James I. Robertson Jr. and Nancy Scott Anderson are participating in the library's ``Meet-the-Author'' series this spring.
Robertson, a Virginia Tech history professor, is the author of several books about the Civil War, including the 1988 Pulitzer Prize nominee, ``Soldiers Blue and Gray.'' His ``Civil War: America Becomes One Nation'' was the 1993 winner of the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Readers Award.
Anderson is the author of ``The Generals: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.'' The dual biography was selected as a main alternate selection by the Book of the Month Club.
Robertson will give a program at the library in Floyd this Monday. Anderson's presentation is scheduled for April 22.
Both programs will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception and time for book signing. Books by the featured author will be available at the library.
Series tickets, available at the library's circulation desk, are $8. Admission at the door is $4.50 for each event on a first-come, first-served basis. Proceeds will go to the library's endowment fund.
LENGTH: Long : 115 linesby CNB