Ashland is a tiny magnet for a giant range of music / Town and surroundings play host to Beethoven, bluegrass, folk and blues
March 24, 2006 (Clark Bustard, Richmond Times Dispatch)
In a metro area with about 1 million residents, a town with a population under 7,000 may seem an unlikely cultural center. Ashland and nearby points, however, form one of the most active performing- arts scenes in central Virginia.
The Ashland Theater, Hanover Arts and Activities Center and several of the town's nightspots are magnets for bluegrass, folk, blues, gospel and other kinds of acoustic music.
Ashland Coffee & Tea, which presents live music most Thursdays through Saturdays, "is the only restaurant and listening room other than The Birchmere [in Alexandria] in Virginia," said Kay Landry, co- owner of the coffeehouse and eatery.
ACT, as it's popularly known, presents "Americana, jazz, folk, bluegrass, some rock and acoustic blues," Landry said, "and our regular clientele comes in from Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Northern Virginia, even some people from North Carolina."
For information on ACT attractions, call (804) 798-1702.
Ashland also is the site of one of the Richmond Symphony's fastest-growing series, Sunday afternoon chamber-orchestra concerts at Randolph-Macon College's Blackwell Auditorium. This season, the series focused on Mozart; in 2006-07, Beethoven will be the composer in the spotlight, and the schedule will grow from three to four concerts.
For information, call the symphony box office at (804) 788-1212.
Randolph-Macon also plays host to visiting artists, speakers and concert attractions, and the college has a resident theater troupe and chorus. Most performances are in Blackwell Auditorium, the Cobb Theatre and other on-campus venues, and most are free.
For updated cultural schedules, call R-MC's special events hot line at (804) 752-3600.
The Hanover Arts and Activities Center, in the former Ashland Baptist Church at 500 S. Center St. alongside the railroad tracks, presents four outdoor shows in the Bluemont Concert Series of acoustic music events in August.
The Hanover Concert Band and Ashland Community Chorus, both volunteer groups, rehearse and stage performances at the center. They also sponsor the biennial Ashland Musical Variety Show. The next one is scheduled for 2007 at R-MC's Blackwell Auditorium.
For more information on the center and its activities, call (804) 798-2778.
The Ashland Theater, the town's 1940s-vintage movie house, is used by various presenters for concerts, comedy shows, film series and other events. It is operated by the Hanover Humane Society, which sponsors some events and rents the venue to other promoters.
The theater's events are listed on the society's Web site, www.hanoverhumanesociety.org For information on renting the theater, call (804) 227-2290.
The Barksdale Theatre, founded in the 1950s at Hanover Tavern in Hanover Courthouse, about 5 miles east of Ashland, has returned to its old home this season for selected productions and plans to continue staging some shows there.
For information, call Barksdale's box office at (804) 282-2620.
The Gospel Chickenhouse, which boasts the area's longest-running series of Southern gospel shows, is presented on Saturday nights. It is in Montpelier, about 10 miles west of Ashland.
For more information, call (804) 883-6487.
A more venerable brand of Southern religious music, congregational singing from "The Sacred Harp," a shape-note hymnal first published in the early 19th century, still resonates in Ashland. Each month on a Saturday afternoon, the Richmond Sacred Harp Singers gather at St. James the Less Episcopal Church. New voices are welcome.
For more information, call (804) 266-1102.
-- Contact staff writer Clarke Bustard at cbustard@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6362.
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
MEMO: SPECIAL SECTION: EXPLORING ASHLAND
Credit: Times-Dispatch Staff Writer