Playing free concerts at the Union Power Stage in Oakboro this week:

July 1 (Tuesday)
GMC Praise Band

July 3rd (Thursday)
Too Much Sylvia

July 4th (Friday)
Blake Wise

July 5th Saturday)
Jim Quick & Coastline

For more information on the July 4th week(end) in Oakboro visit their website.

A great summertime event is just around the corner. The first annual Lake Tillery Music Festival kicks off in Norwood, NC with a full lineup of musical guests including:

• Clifford Curry
• Sammy Obanion & The Mardi Gras Band
• Billy Scott and The Party Prophets
• Bobby Donaldson
• Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
• The Spongetones

The musicians names are, where possible, linked to MySpace pages where you can listen to a sample of their music.

In addition to a low $15 festival admittance fee there is a BYOB policy wherein bags will be checked at the door. A $1 charge will be assessed for beers and $5 for each bottle of wine. Food will be sold on premises and no single item will be more than $6.

This is a fantastic lineup of music with artists performing songs that you will no doubt recognize. Check out the Lake Tillery Music Festival website for more details.

If you like live music then the Central Park region is a great place to visit. There are events year-round with bands and live music but there are also smaller, more discrete venues that are attracting talent from far and wide.

The Rooster's Wife is one such venue. Thusfar I've heard two fantastic singers thanks to this organization. One of the singers, Victoria Vox is so talented and fun on stage that I'm amazed more people haven't heard of her. Victoria plays a mean ukulele and makes trumpet noises with her mouth that are extremely realistic and fantastically musical. It sounds ridiculous if you haven't heard such a phenomena in live music before but trust me, it's a hoot.



The other, Bill Staines I had not heard before this weekend but had a great time listening-to on Saturday night in a beautiful old home in Aberdeen. Bill has an interesting history that includes writing songs for Peter, Paul, and Mary and winning the national yodeling championship in 1975. One of his songs had a refrain about black flies that got me thinking about time spent in the Adirondacks - his music had a nice way of transporting you somewhere else.

The Rooster's Wife has a cool summertime series called Summertime on the Porch" with a new lineup of musical acts every two weeks. Victoria Vox will be among them so if you missed her the first time then you might catch her again.