In These Mountains - 2021 North Carolina Folklife Mentor-Apprentice Showcase Josh Goforth and Tim McWilliams

Mentor, Josh Goforth (Grammy Nominee & “Master Fiddler”) and apprentice, Tim McWilliams, are to perform at the First Baptist Church of Asheville in Crocker Auditorium on Thursday, August 11 at 7pm. The pair was one of the five that received the third annual North Carolina Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship Award.

Josh Goforth, of Marshall, mentored Tim McWilliams, of Asheville, in the traditional music of the Madison and Buncombe county region. Raised in a family that maintained singing and fiddle tunes as part of the rhythm of everyday life, Goforth is a respected teacher and performer of ballads, shape-note songs, storytelling, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and bass. During the apprenticeship year, Tim McWilliams focused on the guitar and banjo styles of Madison and Buncombe Counties, including the music of Byard Ray, Tommy Hunter, the Freeman family, Lee Wallin, Jerry Adams, Dale McCoy, and the Luke Smathers String Band. Goforth knew these people personally and has passed their songs and stories on to McWilliams. McWilliams is a music teacher at the Academy for the Arts and in the Buncombe County School district. A descendant of Appalachian out-migrants, McWilliams is excited to share local musical traditions with the youth he works with. The concert will be a showcase of all that has been learned during the apprenticeship year.

The performance is free and open to the public.