Students from the ETSU Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music Program are currently touring England and Scotland to promote the Southern Appalachian region.
Their concert performances during this 12-day tour are providing support, on behalf of this region’s business community, for efforts to attract tourists from the United Kingdom to Appalachia.
The ETSU Bluegrass Band tour members are Aaron Jackson of Quitman, Texas, on mandolin and guitar; Jessica Ball of Rogersville on fiddle; and Daniel Boner of Bridgeton, N.J., on guitar, fiddle and banjo. Both Jackson and Boner are heard on the album Appalachian Shamisen, which features the bluegrass talents of Takeharu Kunimoto, who was an ETSU Visiting Bluegrass Scholar in 2004, as well as other ETSU bluegrass students. The album, released on the Now and Then label of ETSU’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Services, is available at the CASS office in 209 Warf-Pickel Hall.
The ETSU group is presenting a series of six concerts at major holiday and travel shows in Manchester, England, and Glasgow, Scotland.
They are also conducting a workshop for students at the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow, which was arranged by Dr. Joseph Sobol, director of ETSU’s Master’s Degree Program in Storytelling.
“Their performance at the Academy will not only showcase exciting music but will also highlight the deep connections between Scotland and Appalachia,” said Raymond McLain, assistant director of the ETSU Bluegrass Program.
The tour was initiated through an invitation from MountainSouth USA of Asheville, N.C., in consultation with the Johnson City/Jonesborough/Washington County Chamber of Commerce.
The Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music Program is a division of CASS, a state Center of Excellence.
For additional information, call the ETSU Bluegrass Program Office at 439-7072.

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