Locally Grown is a summer long series of free live concerts and outdoor movies featuring local entertainers and family friendly activities in Downtown Chapel Hill.  Locally Grown aims to promote the downtown community by encouraging people and families to come downtown to shop, eat and be local patrons for businesses throughout the downtown district.

"I thought that, in the spirit of being locally grown, it would be nice to highlight some of the organizations that operate behind the scenes in the local community," said Glenn Booth, owner of Local 506, who recruited the Foundation for this concert. 

 

"Music Maker has been doing a lot of work for the blues community and there is definitely quality to the artists they work with," he said.

Music Maker Relief Foundation helps the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs.  The Foundation presents these musical traditions to the world so American culture will flourish and be preserved for future generations.

Big Ron Hunter, of Winston-Salem, NC, has just released his second album.  He began playing guitar in the 1960s with various local bands where he developed his own unique style under mentor and bluesman Guitar Gabriel, all while raising his own family and working a day job.  Now retired, Hunter is breaking into the blues scene as a promising new artist.

Boo Hanks, who began playing guitar 75 years ago, is an acoustic blues guitarist with roots in the Piedmont string band and blues tradition.  He showcases his virtuosity in the driving time and delicate finger-style guitar of the classic Piedmont Blues made famous by Blind Boy Fuller.

 

The concert will be held at Wallace Plaza atop the Wallace Parking Deck at 150 East Rosemary Street beginning at 7:00 pm until 9:30 pm.

For more information on the artists or the Foundation, please visit the Music Maker website at www.musicmaker.org.

 

For more information about the Locally Grown Summer Entertainment Series, please visit www.townofchapelhill.org.

Photo opportunity:
Blues concert featuring Ron Hunter and Boo Hanks
Thursday, July 23, 2009

7:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Wallace Plaza atop Wallace Parking deck, 150 E. Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill