Watermelon Wednesdays - 2024 Concert Series

For 25 years and counting, Watermelon Wednesdays has brought renowned and diverse musical acts to a rural setting, with intimate performances at the historic West Whately Chapel and Whately Town Hall. 
July 10th - Cory Pesaturo, accordion, and Drew Tucker, vibraphone (West Whately Chapel
July 24th - Larry & Joe (West Whately Chapel)
Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry worked construction to make ends meet. Joe's acclaimed "latingrass" band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants. Then Larry met Joe.

Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, maracas, guitar, upright bass, and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.
July 31st - Lonesome Ace String Band (West Whately Chapel)
The trio’s sound is anchored in the fiddle and clawhammer banjo of John Showman and Chris Coole. They are joined by a rotating cast of extraordinary upright bassists (including founding member Max Malone, James Mceleney, and Lotus Wight). The band moves freely between a sound so commanding it doesn’t seem like it should be coming from a stringband, to a sparse fragility that draws the listener closer.  Whether singing about climate change, modern love, BBQ techniques or life's inevitable existential crises, the band cuts to the core. They can also turn and churn out a tune with so much verve that it will make your heart spin and set the dance floor swirling.
August 7th - The Sensational Barnes Brothers (Whately Town Hall)
The Sensational Barnes Brothers are a musical blend of old and new, a  real gem in the gospel/soul scene. As PopMatters states, “The brothers  run through a spectrum of moods and modes in their gospel soul, often  bridging the gap between, say, the Soul Stirrers and Stax, all the while  keeping a local flavor.” The brothers can dive deep into their roots,  creating a sound that reflects the music of their history, all the while  drawing in a modern-day audience.  They are a truly crossover band (there are the two brothers and five backup personnel).

The Sensational Barnes Brothers are featured on vocalist Don Bryant’s  Grammy-nominated album "Don't Give Up on Love," and you can also hear  them on several tracks from the album XOPA by Latin Grammy-nominated  Making Movies. The band has also recorded with the lead singer of The  Black Keys, Dan Auerbach.  They are also featured performers at Bluegrass festivals such as Telluride and Merlefest, showing off their incredibly tight and melodic vocals.

August 28th - Rayna Gellert and Kieran Kane (West Whately Chapel)
Kieran Kane’s seminal work in The O'Kanes and Kane Welch Kaplin, as well as co-founding the independent label Dead Reckoning Records, laid the foundation for the contemporary world of Americana music. A successful solo artist, collaborator, and songwriter (with songs recorded by Alan Jackson, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, and many more), Kieran is a musician's musician: his playing is always understated, always groove-oriented, and always serving the song.

If Rayna Gellert seems a preternaturally gifted songwriter, it’s because she’s seen farther into the old songs than most. Growing up in a musical family, she turned to Appalachian old-time music at a young age, becoming a prodigious fiddler and leading a new revival of American stringband music through her work with the acclaimed roots band Uncle Earl. An in-demand collaborator, she has toured and recorded with artists such as Scott Miller, Abigail Washburn, Toubab Krewe, and Robyn Hitchcock.
Kieran and Rayna tap sap from the trees of country, old-time, Bluegrass, folk, Americana and boil ‘em down to a rich and sweet (but not too sweet) syrup that you have to taste to believe.
September 11th - Mister Sun (West Whately Chapel)
Legendary fiddler Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent, and is a member of the original "nuclear" generation of pickers who extended Bluegrass, Jazz, and Classical music to find their common ground; Mr Sun is the latest iteration in that legacy. Joe K. Walsh is one of the foremost contemporary mandolinists, with 4 award-winning years in the Gibson Brothers, 3 solo recordings, and a Berklee professorship. Grant Gordy is a standout in the crowded field of Acoustic Guitar Wunderkinds. Grant's work was quickly recognized for its kaleidoscopic excellence and startling emotion, fusing Jazz, R&B, and Bluegrass concepts to an unprecedented degree. The group recently added the masterful bassist Aidan O'Donnell, a Brooklyn, New York (by way of Scotland) jazz veteran.