Larry Keel

The Mountain Music Family Circus happens Dec 31, 2008

Featuring:

• Larry Keel & Natural Bridge,
• Steve McMurry & Friends
• The Mad Tea Party
• David Via

The Grey Eagle Music Hall
185 Clingman Ave
Asheville, NC
(828) 232-5800

Tickets are now on sale for an event billed as “the biggest and longest running New Year’s Eve blowout in all the Carolina hills.”

The Mountain Music Family Circus is set once again to ring in the New Year with kindred mountain spirits here at The Grey Eagle Music Hall in Asheville, N.C. The show kicks off at 8 .m. and is hosted by Larry Keel & Natural Bridge.

Other performers include Steve McMurry & Friends, The Mad Tea Party and David Via.

Tickets, at $30 each, are on sale at www.thegreyeagle.com.

Keel fronts his band on vocals and guitar. Other members are Jenny Keel, bass, fiddle and vocals; Mark Schimick, mandolin and vocals; and Jason Flournoy, banjo and vocals.

McCurry, known as “Big Daddy,” is one of the Keels’ closest friends. He has been a staple in the acoustic music scene in the Asheville area for several years ans affiliated with the Mountain Music Family Circus sinces its inception. He’s known in the area for his inspiring vocal work and flatpicking guitar skills.

While the circus’s other acts are acoustic, Mad Tea Party plugs in and serves up rock ‘n’ roll, retro-pop and honky tonk sounds. The group’s vocal harmonies, according to promotional material for the New Year’s Eve bash, “glide over electrified ukulele, juke-joint guitar, scratchy fiddle and pulsing foot percussion.”

David Via is a three-time winner of the Merlefest Songwriter’s Award, From the mountains of Patrick County, Va., Via is currently finishing his third album, which features Ronny Bowman, Wyatt Rice, Alan Bibey, Sammy Shelor, Tim O’Brien, Vince Herman, Rob McCoury, Woody Wood and Billy Cardine.

As a part of the circus’s Good Tidings Food Drive, organizers are asking that each person attending the show bring a two-can food donation for the Asheville Manna Food Bank. Every year, the Mountain Music Family Circus has a canned food Drive to help spread holiday blessings to those in need.