Special Folklife Concert Celebrates Tennessee Musical Traditions
Nashville — The Tennessee Arts Commission Folklife Program, in partnership with the Tennessee Folklore Society, invites the public to a special concert on Saturday, April 26 at the Buffalo Valley Community Center, in Buffalo Valley, Tennessee. This free event is a celebration of Tennessee folklife traditions and marks the culmination of the 2025 Tennessee Folklife Institute. Some of Tennessee’s most decorated young tradition bearers will share their musical talents on the same historic stage that Grand Ole Opry stars Flatt and Scruggs, the Carter Family and Roy Acuff, among others, visited in the 1940s.
Concert performers include:
Trenton “Tater” Caruthers (22), of Cookeville, is a champion fiddler, banjoist, and buck dancer, as well as a two-time master artist in Tennessee’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program who has worked to preserve the music styles of the Cumberland Plateau.
Daniel Rothwell (32), of Smyrna, is a champion banjoist, fiddler, square dance caller, and previous participant in Tennessee’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. He is the grandson and frequent collaborator of buck dancer Thomas Maupin, an NEA National Heritage Fellow.
Jordan Judkins (21), of Smithville, is an award-winning banjoist and fiddler, and previous participant in Tennessee’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
Emma Tinch (18), of Cookeville, is a talented fiddler player, award-winning singer in the Appalachian style, and previous participant in Tennessee’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
The Tennessee Folklife Institute, presented by the Tennessee Arts Commission Folklife Program in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, is an immersive training workshop designed to encourage and increase the documentation, preservation, and presentation of our state’s folklife traditions. Four workshop sessions were held at the Buffalo Valley Community Center from January to March. Ten participants from across the state completed the workshop. Dr. Bradley Hanson and Evangeline Mee led in-depth sessions on fieldwork techniques, documentary arts, and the fundamentals of collaborative, community-based research. Participants also learned about archival research, exhibition creation, audio storytelling, documentary film, and much more from the state’s leading culture workers. From January to April, the participants conducted individual fieldwork projects in their communities.
Please plan to attend this festive celebration of Tennessee folklife and musical traditions both past, present, and future. The concert will begin at 2:00 p.m.. The Buffalo Valley Community Center is located conveniently off exit 268 on Interestate-40 at 2717 Buffalo Valley School Road, Buffalo Valley, Tennessee. For more information contact Evangeline Mee at Evangeline.mee@tn.gov or Dr. Bradley Hanson at Bradley.A.Hanson@tn.gov.
