Barbra & Pirkle to Lead Off Hot Summer Nights at Blount County Library
Hot Summer Nights Starts With Barbra & Pirkle at Library
 Jeff Barbra and Sarah Pirkle grew up here in Blount County, where the influence of the Tennessee Smoky Mountains sculpts their lives and their music. Together, in various groups with other musicians and solo, this husband and wife duo continue to write and perform their interpretations of tunes that reflect the mountains, the culture and the people of this community. In fact, Pirkle just released her first solo recording, “Walking Tall Through High Weeds.”
Barbra and Pirkle will perform together on Thursday night, August 5, to lead off the 9th season of Hot Summer Nights concert series at the Blount County Public Library. Their program will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the library’s Reading Rotunda.
For Thursday night’s concert, Barbra and Pirkle will play original acoustic music – Jeff on guitar and mandolin and Sarah on fiddle – that echoes their roots in bluegrass, classic country, old-time and folk. Two singles (“The Piney Rose” and “When I Come Home”) went national in 2001 from their independent album, “Dog Years,” in 2000.
Other Hot Summer Nights concerts will be
-
Thursday, August 12 – Michael Bethea – contemporary Christian, jazz and standards.
-
Thursday, August 19 – Lake Terrace Trio (two violins and a cello – Erin Archer, Katie Hutchinson and Katie Middleton) playing a variety of classical, popular and standards.
-
Thursday, August 26 – The Mountain Folk Reunion – a trio (Walker Johnson, Bobby Wilson, Kelley Massey) who play 1960s folk era tunes.
-
Thursday, September 2 – Knoxville Opera Company Preview of 2010-11 season by two singers with commentary by Brian Salesky, Executive Director/Conductor.
In addition to their performances together, Blount County residents may have seen Jeff and Sarah perform with other local bands: Pirkle as part of The Naughty Knots and The Maid Rite Stringband; Barbra with The Drunk Uncles.
According to Pirkle, writing and creating tunes was a hobby that she and Jeff had in common and “explored together when they began dating. A lot of those first dates were gigs!”
Jeff and Sarah are first place winners of the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest where they performed their winning song, "When I Come Home," for a crowd of 50,000+.
According to Pirkle, they also wrote the score to the original play, "Measured In Labor, The Coal Creek Project" for the Actor's CO-Op In Knoxville, TN, in 2004. Then they toured with the company and played their original music live with the play, both in Knoxville and on the road tour.
On the radio, they were the hosts and producers of the "Behind the Barn" concert series,
which was heard on 89.9 WDVX in the East Tennessee area, andstreamed live on the web at WDVX.com every Wednesday night from 9:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. EST for nearly 5 years and featured a performance by Jeff and Sarah as well as a different regional or national act every week.
Read more:
|