On Wednesday, May 31st, David Joe Miller Presents WORD! at the McKinney Center in Jonesborough, TN. Featuring Abby The Spoon Lady, Asheville’s most loved busker, along with her band The Fly By Night Rounders.
This will be the fifth “Abby” show that David Joe Miller has produced. The four previous shows have been presented to sold out audiences in Asheville, NC.
Abby Roach is affectionately known as “The Spoon Lady” and with the coaching of storyteller/producer, David Joe Miller, she developed a show called “Salvation In Steel” where she tells the stories of her adventures and struggles of “hoboing” across America for eight years, busking from city to city to make ends meet. She finally landed in Asheville, NC. (by mistake) and has become a permanent fixture in the downtown street music scene referred to as busking.
Three years ago Abby created the Asheville Buskers Collective in an effort to bring the busking community together and address concerns of downtown merchants and the Asheville police department regarding some of the busking acts becoming a hinderance to pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic in the congested and narrow, downtown Asheville streets. With Abby’s guidance, acting as a liaison between the buskers, merchants and city officials, compromises were reached in forming new regulations for buskers that help to make the street entertainment experience safer for pedestrians and more palatable for downtown retailers.
Abby is not only a great bridge builder, she’s an extremely talented percussionist, playing the spoons and bells while accompanied by Vaden Landers and Chris Rodriquez on guitars and banjos as well as some incredible vocals. Their style of music is best described as “Old Timey Jug Band” as many of the songs they perform are from the 1920’s-1940’s and Vaden is happy to tell stories of those songs before they perform them. Don’t be surprised though, if you hear a current and more familiar tune mixed in with other older ones.
Abby is one of a very few professional spoon players in the United States and has been a professional street performer for well over a decade. She studied American folk percussion and music while traveling the country, by both foot and rail. She’s now an internationally known street entertainer who has recently began playing in more traditional settings such as festivals and event venues in the southeast.
Abby’s stories are raw, heart felt stories of her life on the road when she traveled from town to town, riding the rails and playing the spoons for a living. The name of the show, “Salvation In Steel,” references the connection that the steel spoons and steel railroad tracks had in saving her from a life of despair, then setting her on a nationwide adventure that helped her to find music, rhythm and peace in playing the spoons for a living.
Abby makes her home, just outside of Asheville in Weaverville, NC. but she can be found most every weekend, and most seasonable weekdays, on the streets of Asheville, NC. playing her spoons and attracting a large crowd of listeners and onlookers. You can learn more about Abby at: www.spoonladymusic.com.
David Joe is honored to bring Abby The Spoon Lady and the Fly By Night Rounders to the Storytelling Capital of the World. The show will take place at The McKinney Center, 103 Franklin Ave, just off East Main Street, in Jonesborough, TN. on Wednesday May 31st at 7pm. Doors will open for seating at 6:30 and tickets will be 12.00 online or 15.00 at the door. Tickets can be purchased in advance, online at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/word-with-abby-the-spoon-lady-and-the-fly-by-night-rounders-tickets-33777956778.
For more information, contact David Joe Miller at davidjoetells@yahoo.com or visit http://www.storytellingcalendar.com/.
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