PineCone & NC Museum of History present Blind Boy Chocolate & the Milk Sheiks

Sept. 22, 2011 - PRLog -- Blind Boy Chocolate & The Milk Sheiks took Merlefest by storm this past spring, and you can see them for free in Raleigh at the NC Museum of History on Sunday, Oct. 9!

What began in the summer of 2009 as a three-piece busking group with Dwight “Blind Boy Chocolate” Hawkins (wood saw, guitar), Nicky "The Squirrel" Marshall (mandolin, harmonica, accordion, kazoo), and Antone "T-Bird" Costa (lead guitar, kazoo) quickly became a sound people wanted to hear more. In the spring of 2010, the Milk Sheiks rounded out their sound with Alex Brady on washtub bass and Aaron Gunn on fiddle. The band’s repertoire is drawn largely from a bank of early American music, including both black and white string and jug band music and drawing on the pre-war blues, ragtime, early jazz and songster traditions.

Hawkins, Marshall and Costa began making music together in the summer of 2009, and the trio gained momentum, busking as much as possible and playing the occasional gig. Blind Boy Chocolate & The Milk Sheiks began playing more indoor gigs and branching out beyond the city of Asheville.

Hawkins grew up in Raleigh and began playing violin, his first instrument, when he was 7 years old. By 10, he was also playing the trombone, tuba, and piano. In his teens, he shifted his focus to the guitar, and he has been playing music and learning new instruments ever since.  Growing up, he listened to a wide range of music, including lots of punk rock but also older, folk-oriented music. He was especially into Woody Guthrie.

Around 2005, he moved to Oregon. He was working in construction, so he had a saw. He also continued performing on the streets of Portland for fun, and to earn some extra income. During this period, he met “Captain Shirt,” who played the saw and gave Hawkins a five-minute crash course in the saw-as-instrument. The rest, as they say, is history. While he was in Oregon, there were plenty of days when the weather was not conducive to construction work, so Hawkins had time to practice his new instrument. He spent countless hours honing his saw skills in a basement. He listened to classical pieces and learned to match the exact notes and tones of violins and other instruments. He is always making music or seeking out new sounds and rhythms.

After his band's performance at Merlefest, the Wilkes Journal-Patriot reported, “Over 1,000 people crowded into the Dance Tent for the group’s Saturday morning performance, leaving little room for anyone to dance.”

Don't miss your chance to catch them as they kick off the 2011-2012 Music of the Carolinas Series here in Raleigh - this concert is free and open to the public!


As this year's Music of the Carolinas series kicks off, it is only appropriate to acknowledge the people who have helped the series survive. When PineCone and the Museum of History first got word that funding for the series was in danger, we started soliciting donations from members, and PineCone member Alice Goode made a Show Co-Sponsor donation in honor of Larry Nixon (co-host of the PineCone Bluegrass Radio Show and member of Nixon, Blevins & Gage) for the assistance he provided in helping to produce her CD, A Good Day. Goode met Nixon many years ago after finding his business card in a music store in Ridgewood Shopping Center. Nixon helped her transform some scratchy old cassettes and records into clear sounding CDs. That experience planted the seed in her mind of making a CD of her own someday. In the recent past, someday became today, and Nixon encouraged and helped Goode make her CD dream a reality. He particularly helped with the country songs, she notes, adding accompanying guitar and vocal harmonies and even singing one song solo on the CD.

Celebrating the music traditions that are near and dear to all our hearts is what Music of the Carolinas is all about, and Goode and Nixon both exemplify the magic that music can bring into people’s lives! Thanks to the generosity of supporters like Goode, as well as this year's sponsors (Williams Mullen and the NC Museum of History Associates; and in-kind support from WLHC-FM & WLQC-FM) the series has been sustained for 2011-2012, and, PineCone hopes, for many more years to come. PineCone hopes that you, too, will consider making a donation to help sustain the Music of the Carolinas series and other PineCone programs for many more years to come. Your donation can be in honor of a friend or loved one, a special event that you want to commemorate, or simply because you value the music programs being offered! Contact PineCone at 919-664-8333 to learn more about sponsorship opportunities, or learn more on PineCone's website: http://www.pinecone.org.

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PineCone—the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, is a private, nonprofit, charitable membership organization dedicated to preserving, presenting and promoting traditional music, dance and other folk performing arts.