$7 in advance / $10 at the door / $5 with student ID / 17 and under free
www.theriverhousewv.org/event-registration

Kirk Judd has lived, worked, trout fished and wandered around in West Virginia all of his life. Kirk was a member of the Appalachian Literary League, a founding member and former president (and JUG recipient) of West Virginia Writers, Inc., and is a founding member of and creative writing instructor for Allegheny Echoes, Inc., dedicated to the support and preservation of WV cultural heritage arts. Author of 3 collections of poetry “Field of Vision” 1986, “Tao-Billy” 1996, and “My People Was Music” 2014, and a co-editor of the widely acclaimed anthology, “Wild, Sweet Notes – 50 Years of West Virginia Poetry 1950 – 1999”,  he is widely published.  His work has appeared in such respected regional publications as “The West Virginia Hillbilly”, “Appalachian Heritage”, “Appalachian Journal”, "BOGG", "Now & Then", "The Sow's Ear", "Grab-A-Nickel",  "Down Home", “The Dickensonian”, “The Hamilton Stone Review”, and "Hill and Valley", and has been used in Appalachian Poetry classes at the University of Tennessee, The Ohio State University, Marshall University, and Southern West Virginia Community College.  He has been featured three times on American Public Radio on "The Poet and The Poem" with WV native Grace Cavalieri.  Kirk's poetry deals with the Appalachian cultural experience, and the individual emotional and spiritual involvement of living day-to-day in this unique environment. Kirk was honored to be one of the 5 readers selected for the installation ceremony of Louise McNeill Pease as Poet Laureate in 1979 at the WV Cultural Center on the Capitol grounds in Charleston, WV, and currently sits on the advisory boards of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation headquartered in Hillsboro, WV and the WV University Pearl S. Buck Advisory Committee.  He is internationally known for his performance work combining poetry and old time music, and has performed poetry in Ireland and across West Virginia at fairs, concerts, and festivals for the past 40 years.

Bob Shank, from Morgantown, is WV’s finest hammered dulcimer player. As a member of Hickory Wind, Curmudgeon, The Percolators and the Big Otter Orchestra, Bob has played in over 30 states, toured Europe, played The Kennedy Center and has shared the stage with Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Jimmy Martin, John Hartford and the Dirt Band. Bob has made several recordings with his bands. He has taught privately for years and has been an instructor at Allegheny Echoes and Augusta.

For more than three decades Bob has been a benchmark for American banjo players. Not bluegrass or old-time, or classical or ragtime, but all that and more.

A sixth-generation West Virginian, Bob began his musical journey at age 5 with drums and piano and by age 13 he was firmly hooked on banjo. And then guitar. And then hammered dulcimer. And an abiding rock and roll sensibility.

All of which led to the formation, with (Sam Morgan, Mark Walbridge, Pete Tenney, and Glen McCarthy), of the successful crossover band, Hickory Wind.

Hickory Wind’s fusion of various traditional musical forms over (and under) layered with rock rhythms and fills got them all the way to opening for some of the best known acts of the time including Steely Dan, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, and Jackson Brown.

As Flying Fish recording artists the band toured 30 American states and 20 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, recording three very favorably reviewed albums in the process

Over the last few years Bob returned to his musical roots, writing and recording his own original music including the successful solo CD Dont’ Worry About The Moon, that in his words “retains the traditions of Appalachia but ventures beyond the front porch.”  He currently plays with the band Buffalo Run

Bob performed on NPR’s internationally broadcast Mountain Stage. He has been an invited guest at West Virginia University’s annual World Music Concert and has been a Master Artist at the Augusta Heritage Center’s Spring Dulcimer Week, the Upper Potomac Dulcimer Festival, and West Virginia’s traditional music camp, Allegheny Echoes. Bob won first place old-time banjo at West Virginia’s celebration of traditional arts, the Vandalia Gathering.