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Hayes Center Showcases Local Musician and Potter Glenn Bolick June 1

Story by Anna Oakes Glenn Bolick, a local potter and old-time musician, will give a hometown performance at the Hayes Center on Sunday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m.

The Hayes Performing Arts Center has brought many regional and national acts to the small town of Blowing Rock since it opened two years ago. On Sunday, June 1, the venue will celebrate the extraordinary talent found right here at home with a performance by local potter and old-time musician Glenn Bolick.
The 7:30 p.m. performance, titled Entertainment Before Electric Power, will be an educational and entertaining evening of banjo, guitar and other instruments, as well as storytelling and clogging, with help from Bolick’s family.

“I thought [the Hayes Center] needed some local stuff,” said Bolick. “The tourists that come here—they really want to see things that are made here in the mountains and hear mountain music.”

Bolick, 69, operates Bolick Pottery just south of Blowing Rock with his wife, Lula Owens Bolick. His daughter and son-in-law, Janet and Mike Calhoun, run Traditions Pottery next door, continuing a family art spanning many generations.
As a child, Bolick attended the small Bailey’s Camp Baptist Church, a church without a piano or organ. The congregation sang a four-part harmony using shape notes.

“I learned a lot about music then,” he said.

His grandmother played banjo and his grandfather played harmonica, and somewhere along the way, Bolick learned to play the guitar, too. Bolick married Lula Owens in 1962, and the couple started performing together at local churches. Both grew up listening to old-time mountain music as well as the old Carter Family tunes on the radio.

Over the years, Bolick has performed old-time and Gospel music at music festivals, restaurants, the Jones House and with several different bands. He also works traditional storytelling into his performances. In 1998, he received the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award.

Bolick’s debut at the Hayes Center will combine music, history and storytelling. He’ll perform the first set solo, including some original pieces. During the second set, Bolick’s family will accompany him. His wife and daughter will join him on songs and on a couple of tunes, all of the kids will help, too—playing the washtub bass, spoons, dancing and “cutting up a little bit and having some fun,” Bolick said.

“I think [the audience will] really learn from my program,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a blast.”

If all goes well, Bolick is interested in starting a regular, local variety show at the Hayes Center. He also hosts Mountain Music Jamming at Traditions Pottery starting the second Sunday of July and running through the last Sunday in September.

Tickets to the June 1 performance at the Hayes Center are $10. For more info, call 828-295-9627. For more info about Bolick or the family pottery business, call 828-295-3862 or click to www.traditionspottery.com.

Want To Go?

Date: Sunday, June 1
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Hayes Center, Blowing Rock
Cost: $10