On the first Saturday of each month the old Baptist church in this North Georgia village ROCKS. The pews are filled with a mixture of locals, folks from the metropolis of Atlanta and tourists from out of state. Music, good stories and great humor come from the stage and goodwill permeates the clear, clean mountain air. It’s not a revival, but Dahlonega, Georgia’s Folkways Center of the Georgia Mountains “Mountain Music and Medicine Show,” the award winning live radio program that proves if you truly entertain, they will come.

It’s a little “Louisiana Hayride,” a bit of “The Ozark Jubilee,” and since it’s in a former church (which Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium once was), there’s something reminiscent of “The Grand Ole Opry.” Actually, with the two-hour format, jokesters, superb music and the broadcast to the mountain homes, you do think about Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.”

But, this is pure North Georgia, a production that honors the music and art forms indigenous to the southernmost Appalachians, and it’s fabulous entertainment.

To set the stage: flashing "On the Air" signs and nostalgic, radio-style "commercials" remind us that the show is broadcast live on radio and taped for re-broadcast on a local TV channel (although there's nothing quite like being there in the flesh!) while outstanding visionary and outsider art - another focus of the Folkways Center - graces the walls of the former church.

Original artworks by the immortal Reverend Howard Finster, Georgia’s global legend, the visionary artist whose remains lie in the clay of these same mountains, hang beside those of Missionary Mary Proctor, an African American artist who uses discarded Coca-Cola cans in her folk art constructions. Symbolically, they remind us of the importance of cultural diversity and the need to recognize and honor it.

Bluegrass is the dominant music and fairly so. Bluegrass has mountain roots as far back as the first white settlers from England, Scotland and Ireland who settled here well before the American Revolution. Gospel and country music, Bluegrass’ sister forms, are expertly presented in solo and quartet variations, in between folk humor and farce.

The Mountain Music and Medicine Show, which won the Georgia Association of Broadcasters’ Best New Radio Show award in 2002, "clicks" because it is genuine. This is a grassroots production put together and presented by locals who have lots of heart and a dogged determination to preserve their cultural heritage. So far, they are succeeding.

Like every symphony, museum and live theater in the region, this company along with its parent, the Folkways Center of the Georgia Mountains, is strapped for cash. While they take pride in being amateurs and do not have a profit mission, they are almost wholly dependent on the small but growing mountain community for funds. And, popularity alone won’t generate enough to pay even ordinary bills, much less allow for an expanded folk art museum.

The Dahlonega Mountain Music and Medicine Show and The Folkways Center which created it are treasures for Georgia. Few communities in America have anything half as good. What makes it even more remarkable is that the show is an outstanding bridge builder between different generations and vastly different cultures.

Before the show in picturesque Dahlonega, I enjoyed a very yuppie dinner with a bottle of outstanding French wine, walked through an alley near the first U.S. Mint and entered this old church building across the street from the historic Smith House. Sitting near me were families representing a cross-section of the New South. We all enjoyed the music of Bill Monroe and Hank Williams, even sang some songs together, and left vowing to return next month.

 

 

WHAT ELSE DOES THE FOLKWAYS CENTER OF THE GEORGIA MOUNTAINS HAVE IN STORE?

The Dahlonega Mountain Music and Medicine show on the first Saturday of each month is just one of the Folkways Centers regular productions (see below). As well as being the venue for live musical events, however, the Center offers "place based" education projects and classes, a museum and shop featuring art and custom mountain crafts - and will in time offer even more. Indeed, a Museum of Outsider Art is in the planning stage as part of the Center, depending on the availability of funds, with items on loan or donated due to the largesse of a prominent collector of folk art.

 

 

The 2nd Saturday of each month features an OLD FASHIONED SQUARE DANCE (novices and tyros both welcome!), with music provided by live string bands; the 3rd Saturdays are open for special shows and community events. Call 706-867-6710 for information on use of the hall.

The Music Hall hosts performances of acoustic 'roots' mountain music every 4th Saturday under the name FOLKWAYS MOUNTAIN MUSIC REVUE concert series, not to be confused with the Mountain Music and Medicine Show (above), although it also features old-time, Bluegrass, Gospel and other seminal music styles unique to Southern Appalachian musical traditions.

 

Contact the Folkways Center to learn more, or to support this worthy endeavor
Phone: 706-867-6710; Website: www.folkwayscenter.org; Email: folkways@alltel.net;
Mailing Address: PO Box 1415 Dahlonega, GA 30533

Some of the images on this page are property of the Folkways Center of the Georgia Mountains,
to whom we are grateful for their use.

 

 

Remember - North Georgia is fertile ground for some well-respected vineyards. Follow this arrow to read about one of them

 

 

The Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce can point out some other attractions while you are in the area.

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