Every Friday, we highlight three great shows from local performing artists that you can see this coming weekend.

 

Roots And Leaves Series: Barn Stormin’
Friday, June 13th at 6PM at Southern Village Green

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Hillsborough’s Music Maker Relief Foundation is on a mission to preserve and promote the traditional music of the American South, but it doesn’t accomplish that mission through archives or museums. Instead, it carries on music through the musicians themselves.

Friday’s concert marks the second in the foundation’s weekly “Roots and Leaves” series at Southern Village. And you can see why they chose that name – the bill pairs an older musician and a younger group, representing both the deeply grounded roots of one generation and the fresh new growth of the next generation. Boo Hanks grew up in rural Carolina, on the Virginia line. He made music there his whole life, finger-picking guitar in the Piedmont Blues style. It wasn’t until he was nearly 80 years old that the Foundation discovered this vital artist, helping him to spread his talent across the world through recording and touring. Big-voiced Carolina girl Kelley Breiding and her expert five-piece band The Cowboys hold up the new end of the tradition, but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten the old ways. They mash up rockabilly, western swing, old-time and country music to create an old new hybrid. The result is a high-energy, thoroughly fun trip across the musical South. Add up both acts, and you have an evening that looks both backwards and forwards.

 

A Mad Affair
Friday, June 13th at 6PM at 140 West Franklin Plaza

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It’s been a beautiful Spring of performances, thanks to the Friday night series at 140 West Franklin Plaza. This week, the plaza welcomes a perfect band for under-the-stars singing (and dancing, for everyone in the audience): Chapel Hill trio A Mad Affair. There’s something curiously retro about this young and hungry group, from the way they dress to their cool sound. They play catchy pop songs with strong undercurrents of old-time and country, making for a style as unique as it is intuitive. And it’s almost all original music – though their tunes sound like time-tested standards. In short, A Mad Affair is a band designed to make you dance along.

 

The Best Tap Show Ever
Saturday, June 14th at 7:30PM at The ArtsCenter

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This weekend’s North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival offers the area’s best young dancers a chance to learn from some of America’s leading tap artists. But you don’t have to own tap shoes and be in your teens to benefit from all the talent descending on or town. On Saturday night, five of the masters will be on a show of their own for anyone who buys a ticket. Now you can see (and hear) the blazing-fast feet of these nationally-known dancers for yourself.

What’s the local connection? Well, one of those dancers is a born-and-raised Chapel Hillian. Michelle Dorrance grew up in a family that knew how to use their feet (dad Anson has won just a few collegiate soccer titles at UNC, mom M’Liss was a ballerina), so perhaps her career choice wasn’t a surprise. But this long-limbed Carolina native made a name for herself at the top of her profession, becoming one of New York’s most sought-after tap dancers and choreographers. It’ll be a homecoming for Dorrance and friends, and a rare chance for local audiences to see a favorite daughter in action on stage.

 

For more on these and other great activities, visit our full event calendar, or click here to sign up for our newsletter and get “Ten Things To Do In Chapelboro This Weekend” delivered every Thursday to your email inbox.