DECEMBER 10, 2009 ISSUE
Melissa Reaves Gives 8th Annual Holiday Shows
Melissa Reaves will give her 8th annual holiday shows this Saturday, December 12, at the Louisiana Purchase in Banner Elk and on Thursday, December 17, at Char in Boone. Photo submitted
Pianist Dave Fox will perform with Reaves at both holiday concerts this year. Photo submitted
Local musician Melissa Reaves will give two holiday shows this year, with the first show taking place at Louisiana Purchase in downtown Banner Elk this Saturday, December 12, at 7:00 p.m., and the second slated for Char in Boone on Thursday, December 17, at 7:00 p.m.
Both shows cost $8 and restaurant reservations are strongly encouraged.
“I have done something a little different with each show over the years,” Reaves said.
“The first couple of shows, I didn’t have the actors,” Reaves said, adding that she dreamt up a show with varied instrumentation.
“The holidays are so many different emotions,” Reaves said. “I like to tackle them all musically.”
The holidays are “serious, beautiful and Norman Rockwell,” inspiring the full gamut of emotions for people, she said.
Her original vision was performing in a restaurant setting so audience members could have dinner and drinks while listening, and the holiday concert evolved into a variety show, incorporating theatre and musical components, she said.
Actors and fire jugglers took the stage last year, and the previous year’s show featured the local group the Forget-Me-Nots, a bagpipe player and a classical musician, Reaves said.
Four of the holiday shows in the past featured strings, such as cellists and violinists, one show incorporated steel drums and Doug James, an ASU classical guitar professor, played at one show, Reaves said.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” Reaves said. “I try to incorporate every part of the restaurant, not just the front. People can be entertained while having dinner.”
Her first holiday concert took place at Coffey’s, which used to be located where Char is now, she said.
“I’m doing one show there, so I’ve kind of come full circle,” Reaves noted.
Last year, the show doubled as a CD release party for Reaves’ Holidaze CD, she said, and audiences at this year’s shows will be able to enjoy many featured selections from the CD.
The second show will “be more in a blues vein,” she said, but both the Banner Elk and Boone shows will continue the eight-year tradition of fun, unpredictable entertainment of all kinds.
“My friend and musician extraordinaire Dave Fox from Greensboro will play both shows,” Reaves said, adding that Fox, a professor of music at Greensboro College, served as musical director for Holidaze.
Fox performs throughout the Southeast as a classical and jazz pianist and has collaborated most recently with Eugene Chadbourne, Ian Davis, Dave Menestre, Tara Flandreau and Martin Klapper, Reaves said in a press release. He founded and curates the Greensboro College Music Department’s Improvising Music Series, which features guest artists and local musicians’ improvisational collaborations.
To make dinner reservations for the Louisiana Purchase show, call 828-963-5656; for the Char show, call 828-266-2179.
For more information about Fox, click to www.davefoxgroup.com. For more information about Reaves, click to www.melissareaves.com, www.myspace.com/melissareaves, www.facebook.com/melissareavesmusic or www.reverbnation.com/melissareaves.
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