Editor’s Note: Since first rolling into Haywood County in August 2012 to start work as the arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News, Garret K. Woodward has been extensively documenting banjo players around our backyard.

In the mid-1960s, when Bill Allsbrook was a med school student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, he decided to pick up the banjo. 

There will be a stage production of “Good Ol’ Girls” at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22-23, 29-30, Oct. 5-7 and 2 p.m. Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and 8 on the Fangmeyer Stage at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. 

A community jam will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. 

It’s 11 a.m. Monday. Currently sitting in the rec room of my aunt’s high-end apartment complex on the outskirts of Charlotte.

This past spring, guitarist Seth Taylor and his band, longtime bluegrass staple Mountain Heart, once again took the stage under the bright lights at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. 

In an effort to preserve and perpetuate the heritage arts and lore of the Great Smoky Mountains and greater Southern Appalachia, the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center has now come to fruition at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley.

A series of community programs celebrating the natural and cultural history of the Cosby area will be offered Fridays June 23 through July 14 at the Cosby Campground Amphitheater in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

ArborEvenings is back at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville, offering opportunity to spend Thursday and Friday evenings strolling through the gardens through Sept. 22.

On May 12, North Carolina-based musician Libby Rodenbough released her sophomore solo album, Between the Blades, via Sleepy Cat Records.