Each year we offer "Christmas in July" [and August] by offering 1/2 price memberships for the rest of the current year. Starting in September we offer folks a chance to become members through next year. Join now at full price and be a member now through 12/31/11. Great deal. Details here.

The Charlotte Folk Society is bringing to Charlotte the only 3-time winner of the National Flatpicking Championships, Steve Kaufman, at 7:30 PM on Friday, September 10th, in the Great Aunt Stella Center, 926 Elizabeth Avenue. You will find that there might not be many (or any!) genres that Steve can't bring to life with a flatpick. Expect to hear bluegrass, Celtic, country, Old Time, maybe some Texas Swing, Traditional Appalachian, funny songs and fast pickin', soulful ballads and waltzes. Sorry; that might be all we can fit in an hour.

Full story and song samples here.

The Great Aunt Stella Center, a beloved downtown landmark located at 926 Elizabeth Avenue (map here) on the edge of downtown Charlotte, was originally designed as a church. The former sanctuary offers a warm and beautiful performance space with seats for 400.

Admission. Please enter through the front doors only, which will open @ 7:00, after the sound check is done.

Handicapped Access. There is a handicap accessible entrance and an elevator for those who need it through the ground floor side door on the right side of the building (looking at the building from the parking lot).

Parking. Free surface parking is available adjacent to the Stella Center. The arm of the nearby parking deck goes up for the weekend at 8 PM. So, you can grab a ticket on the way into the parking deck but you will not have to pay on the way out if you leave after 8 PM. A GoogleEarth picture showing how to get from the Elizabeth Ave entrance to the parking deck is here.

Folk Society Gatherings are family-friendly, open to the public, and free. Donations, which support the series in part, are greatly appreciated. The hour-long concert will be followed by refreshments, a Song Circle, a Slow Jam and fast jams. Visitors are also invited to the Charlotte Appalachian Dulcimer Club meeting after the concert.

Our Gatherings are made possible, in part, with funding from the Arts & Science Council and the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources, and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

Steve Kaufman, will be having a 3-hour mandolin workshop and a 3-hour guitar workshop the day following his performance at our September 10 Gathering. The mandolin workshop will be Saturday Sep. 11 @ 10:30 - 1:30 and the guitar flatpick workshop will be 2:30 - 5:30 at Myers Park Baptist Church 1900 Queens Road, Charlotte NC. Space is limited. Info on the workshops and registration is here.

Thanks to the generosity of Glen Alexander and David McGuirt, proprietors of The Violin Shoppe, Inc., Charlotte Folk Society will again raise funds through instrument raffles this year. Glen and David have donated an Ivan Dunov Prelude Model 140 Violin by Eastman Strings and a Kentucky A-Model Mandolin KM-140 by Saga.

Full details, buy tickets, here.

The Charlotte Folk Society and Jennifer Stanton are offering traditional music fans a rare opportunity to hear Mary Z. and Bob Cox perform lively old-time and bluesy folk tunes in an intimate house concert at 7:30 PM on Friday, September 17th. The next day, CFS and The Violin Shoppe are co-sponsoring two workshops (banjo and mountain dulcimer).

Full details on the house concert are here. Full details on the workshops are here.