Joe Newberry is a Missouri native and North Carolina transplant who is highly regarded as a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. As an instructor, he's taught all over the country, including seven years as Old Time week coordinator at the Augusta Heritage Workshops that emanate from Elkins, W.Va. every summer. This segment was recorded as part of the 2018 Augusta Heritage Festival that caps off the summer of instruction.
You'll hear Newberry on banjo interpreting a traditional number "Cherry River Lane," and his vocal prowess shows in the a capella rendering of "Piney Mountain," a "sad song" written by Craig Johnson for a fiddler who lost his fingers in the "Galax Mills."
We hear the remarkable story about how "Singing As We Rise" found its way back to the Missouri church where Newberry grew up, when an unknowing preacher wrote to Newberry to see if he could sing it in their service. "I said 'Pastor, if you look back in that third pew on the left, that's where everybody in this song sat,'" Newberry says, "It's a true song. Every word."
"The Marks" is a beautifully written ballad by Newberry and Tim Stafford of Blue Highway. The song describes with vivid imagery a grandfather's guitar, in a way that will resonate deeply with anyone who has ever loved an instrument. Newberry is joined on "The Marks" by guitarist Darin Aldridge, who appeared later in the show with his wife Brooke Aldridge and their band.
Newberry often plays in a duo with mandolin icon Mike Compton and performs with the dynamic fiddler and step-dancer April Verch.
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