The Haywood County Arts Council presents Tennessee songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Ballew in concert at the Haywood County Public Library auditorium, 678 S. Haywood Street in Waynesville at 3 pm on Sunday, August 19, 2012. The free concert is sponsored by the Chef’s Table and is part of the Sunday Concert Series co-sponsored with the Friends of the Haywood County Library.

Using a variety of stringed instruments including: guitar, banjo, dobro, fiddle, bouzouki, and tiple, Ballew will take his audience on a journey through the 20th century's traditional music. Touching on gospel, old-time, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll,reggae, and original music, he'll show how the roots and branches of musical expression produce new traditional forms.

Beginning with the purchase of Ray Charles' 45, "Hit The Road Jack" at age five, Marshall Ballew set out on a journey of musical exploration that has seen many twists and turns. He has collected music and musical instruments, amassing a large collection of sounds from all over the world, and throughout the history of recorded music. At age 14, Ballew took up guitar and set out on a stringman's quest leading him to the dobro, banjo, fiddle, lap steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, tiple and bouzouki.

Ballew also went on the air as a music programmer on WNCW in Spindale, NC in 1989 and spent the next 12 years hosting a daily show called "Crossroads," featuring 20^th century music from around the world. He garnered many awards for his work, including "Best Public Radio Personality" for five years straight from Charlotte's Creative Loafing magazine, and "Best Public Radio Personality" from Asheville's Mountain Xpress. Along the way he also created a feature called "Frank On Friday", a program spotlighting the music of Frank Zappa which still runs every Friday on WNCW.

Ballew regularly plays solo, with "Radiation Blues Banned," a psychedelic rock band based in Tryon, and with "The Timber Rattlers," an acoustic quintet in Waynesville. He has performed with other groups, among them the mysterious Gospel Playboys, David Childers Band, Happenstance, Acoustic Syndicate and more. He was an instructor and performer at the National Slide Guitar Festival in Brevard. He has appeared on WDVX's "Blue Plate Special" and "Writer's Block" programs in Knoxville. Festival appearances include the Lake Eden Arts Festival, Greening Up The Mountains, Spring Fling, the NC BBQ Festival, and the Flat Rock Music Festival.

Ballew's dobro and lap steel work can be heard on recordings by Christine Kane, Chris Rosser, David Childers, Hot Guitar, Wanda Lu Greene, Mama Said, and the Gospel Playboys. His songs can be heard on "Here We Are," the Asheville area songwriter's collection, on "Radiation Blues Banned Live At The Tryon Theater," on “The Sounds Of Jackson County” as well as on two of WNCW's live on-air collections.

Contact Marshall Ballew at 396 Hideaway Farm Rd., Piney Flats, TN 37687, 828-508-2146, marshallballew@charter.net, or www.reverbnation.com/marshallballew.

For more information about the Haywood County Arts Council and the Sunday Concert Series, as well as other exhibits, programs or events, visit www.haywoodarts.org or www.facebook.com/haywoodarts. The mission of the Haywood County Arts Council is to build partnerships that promote art and artists, explore new cultural opportunities, and preserve mountain artistic heritage. This project was supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.