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Charlie Daniels Band Finale Fireworks Concert July 26

Charlie Daniels is bringing his quintessentially Southern music to the Holmes Convocation Center on Saturday, July 26, for An Appalachian Summer’s annual finale fireworks concert. With all the construction work going on at Appalachian’s Kidd Brewer Stadium, the final concert for An Appalachian Summer Festival had to find a new venue this year. That venue is the Holmes Convocation Center where the Charlie Daniels Band will headline the festival’s annual finale fireworks concert on Saturday, July 26.

Seating for the concert is general admission and the doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the concert starting an hour later at 7:30. Fireworks will take place outside the convocation center immediately after the concert. Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation sponsors the event.

A North Carolina native, Charlie Daniels was born in Wilmington in 1936. He was raised on a musical diet that included Pentecostal gospel and local bluegrass, as well as the rhythm and blues and country music that his radio could pick up out of Nashville. In 1955 Daniels— already skilled on guitar, fiddle and mandolin— graduated from high school, formed a rock ‘n roll band and hit the road.

Less than five years later, the group’s instrumental recording Jaguar, produced by the legendary Bob Johnston, was picked up for national distribution by Epic. It was the beginning of a long relationship with Johnston, and in 1969 at Johnston’s urging, Daniels moved to Nashville to find work as a session guitarist. Among his more notable sessions were the Bob Dylan albums of Nashville Skyline, New Morning and Self Portrait.

Daniels himself finally broke through as a record maker with his 1973 Honey In the Rock album and its hit song “Uneasy Rider.” Two years later, his Fire On the Mountain collection was propelled to double platinum status with rebel anthems such as “Long Haired Country Boy” and “The South’s Gonna Do It.”

Then in 1979, Daniels delivered “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” The song became a platinum single, topped both country and pop charts, won a Grammy Award, earned three Country Music Association trophies, became an international phenomenon and launched Daniels’ Million Mile Reflections album to triple platinum sales levels. By 1981 the Charlie Daniels Band had twice been voted the Academy of Country Music’s Touring Band of the Year.

Over the years, Daniels has recorded sessions with Bob Dylan, Flatt & Scruggs, Leonard Cohen, Ringo Starr and Johnny Cash; his songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley and Tammy Wynette; and his annual Volunteer Jam concerts have hosted an impressive range of megatalents, including Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, the Allman Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Little Richard, B.B. King and James Brown.

According to Daniels, a classic Charlie Daniels Band performance is “purely American music with something for everyone.”

Tickets to the finale fireworks concert are $30 for adults and $5 for children ages 12 and under. Blue Ridge Electric members are eligible for discounted ticket prices. For tickets or information call 800-841-2787 or 828-262-4046 or click to www.appsummer.org.

Want To Go?
Date: Saturday, July 26
Time: 6:30 p.m. doors open/7:30 p.m. concert
Location: Holmes Convocation Center
Cost: $30 adults/$5 children 12 and under