Snapshots: Watermelon Pickers Festival @ Watermelon Park (Berryville, VA) — 9/16-9/19/21

Posted on 09/24/2021 by Chester Simpson in Live Review and tagged Americana, Bela Fleck, Bijou Creole, bluegrass, Bumper Jacksons, Cedric Watson, Charley Crockett, Daryl Davis, music festival, The Infamous Stringdusters, Town Mountain, Watermelon Pickers Festival.

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Charley Crockett performs at Watermelon Pickers Festival 2021. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

Watermelon Picker’s Fest is one of my favorite festivals that I look forward to every year. The experience of camping, socializing with old and new friends while listening to music is an amazing experience not to be over looked. Besides music on the stages, there’s the night jam sessions, where various musicians travel from campsite to campsite for a special musical experience. It’s an opportunities to hangout with performers in a pleasant, usually quite rural, setting.

Live Review: Daryl Davis @ The Birchmere — 7/11/20

Posted on 07/16/2020 by Ari Strauss in Live Review and tagged Alexandria, blues, boogie woogie, Daryl Davis, Daryl Davis Band, The Birchmere, Virginia.

Daryl Davis and his band entertain music fans with a high-energy blues and rock & roll performance at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, July 11, 2020. (Photo by Ari Strauss)

A sight for sore eyes appeared on Mount Vernon Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia, this past weekend as the iconic Birchmere sign light up with news that it is once again open for business.

After a four-month hiatus since early March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the legendary Northern Virginia music venue reopened recently at a limited capacity using enhanced health and safety measures set forth by the CDC and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Parklife DC’s Ari Strauss went to see the Daryl Davis Band perform on July 11 and reviews his experience with photos of the performance.

Preview: Daryl Davis @ The Birchmere, 7/11/20

Posted on 07/07/2020 by Parklifer in Local Spotlight, Preview and tagged blues, boogie woogie, Daryl Davis, DC, The Birchmere.

Daryl Davis (Photo courtesy of The Birchmere)

You may have heard tales of an eloquent Black man who surprisingly engages with the Ku Klux Klan, occasionally convincing its members to abandon the group by expanding their awareness of brotherhood and human rights for all men.

That man is musician Daryl Davis, a Bluesman and scholar ever there were one, and he’s heading to The Birchmere to boogie down for a show on Saturday, July 11.