Valley Program for Aging Services and its Maury River Senior Center will present “An Evening of Music to Benefit Meals on Wheels” on Friday, December 4. A family-friendly concert of folk, seasonal and humorous tunes by The House Mountain Group, with special guest Jim Connor, will begin at 7:00 pm at the American Legion, 1953 Magnolia Avenue, Buena Vista. Admission is $10 per person, with tickets available at the door. Due to the generosity of an anonymous local family who has covered all overhead expenses, 100% of admission receipts will be used to support Meals on Wheels.
The House Mountain Group includes Ray Blouin (5-string banjo, 6- and 12-string guitars, dobro and vocals), Harold Conklin (6-string guitar and vocals), Patrick Mayerchak (electric and acoustic guitars, guitadrum and vocals), and Dan Newhall (bass, harmonica, digereedoo and vocals). The group, which has been performing together for over 20 years, plays primarily at private events; this benefit concert will be a rare public appearance.
Presenting an eclectic approach to music and comedy, House Mountain Group’s range of songs runs from folk, country, bluegrass, early rock, and novelty tunes to original material. Their performances are laced with humor where very little is sacred.
House Mountain's Ray Blouin, who is also Maury River Senior Center assistant director, notes that the group is so fully committed to the success of this fundraising performance that they have worked for months to incorporate significant amounts of new material into this concert, while retaining their most-requested songs.
Special guest Jim Connor, “John Denver’s banjo man”, will travel from his home in Charlottesville to perform in the concert. Perhaps best known for composing John Denver’s mega-hit song “Grandma’s Feather Bed,” Connor was raised in the Appalachian Music traditions around Gadsden, Alabama. Connor has toured dozens of countries and performed hundreds of shows with John Denver, The Kingston Trio, The Wayfarers, Judy Collins, and Barbra Streisand. He appeared twice on the Grand ol’ Opry, where stars Grandpa Jones and Earl Scruggs touted Connor as the “best old-time-style 5-string banjoist [they] had ever heard.”
Connor recently completed another tour starring in the John Denver Tribute show, and continues to write and record. “The good Lord gives us gifts, and we are supposed to share these with others,” Connor says.
Maury River Senior Center director Jeri Schaff explains that about $3,000 must be raised in the next few months to continue delivering breakfast foods to about 20 homebound seniors at very high nutritional risk. The program is partially supported by Federal stimulus funds, and a gift from the Washington and Lee Community Grants Fund has made up the difference in 2009. According to Schaff, if additional funds are not raised, the program will either be ended in July, or the number of clients served will be reduced by half.
“The frail, homebound seniors we serve with Meals on Wheels are among our most vulnerable clients,” Schaff says. “Without both the nutritional support and the regular personal contact that our drivers deliver, many of these elders would not be able to continue living in their own homes.”
The December 4 concert will include drawings for winners of five raffle prizes and will also feature refreshments at intermission prepared by participants at Maury River Senior Center. More information is available by calling MRSC at 261-7474.
|  | House Mountain (back l-r) Dan Newhall, Pat Mayerchak (front l-r) Ray Blouin, Harold Conklin
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