First Fridays Listening Room Concert Series
The 2024-25 First Fridays series is underway! This popular concert series features a variety of performers from within and around the New River Valley on the First Friday of each month beginning in September. Each Listening Room session is free to the public ($5 suggested donations are welcomed) and include light refreshments and a cash bar. These concerts take place in the Edna B. Love Gallery at the Fine Arts Center, located at 21 West Main Street in the Pulaski Historic Commercial District. We kicked off our 2024 - 2025 series on September 6th with Amelia Empson on guitar and vocals, and special guest, ‘cellist Kaily Schenker.
Our Upcoming May 2025 Listening Room
American Roots is father/son guitar and vocal harmony duo Fred and Jon Benfield who have performed around the New River Valley for about 30 years. They’ll close out the Fine Arts Center’s First Friday Listening Room 2024-25 season with a performance on Friday, May 2.
Based in Blacksburg, American Roots’ repertoire includes the roots of Americana music from the "Carter Family to Gershwin”. They are "Crooked Road Artists” interested in preserving the music of the southern Appalachians but also enjoy performing tunes from other genres. A typical performance may include traditional ballads, Appalachian blues, Piedmont blues, Delta blues, trad-country, trad-jazz, tin-pan alley toe tappers, western swing, hot fiddle tunes (on guitar), and “folkgrass” (folk tunes played at bluegrass tempo).