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Concert: Sparky & Rhonda Rucker
- Who
Sparky & Rhonda Rucker
- When
Monday, Sep 21, 2026
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
- Where
John C. Campbell Folk School
1 Folk School Road
Brasstown, NC 28902
About.
Audience: Faculty & Staff,General Public,Student
Cost: suggested $5-15 donation, per adult
Folk School Locations: Festival Barn: John C. Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Rd, Brasstown, NC 28902
Link: www.sparkyandrhonda.com
Sparky and Rhonda Rucker’s music includes old-time blues, Appalachian music, slave songs, spirituals, and originals, and they accompany themselves with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, old-time banjo, blues harmonica, piano, spoons, and bones. They have long been ambassadors of cultural heritage, accompanying themselves with bottleneck slide guitar, old-time banjo, harmonica, piano, spoons, and bones. Sparky was recently honored with a 2025 Tennessee Governor’s Folklife Heritage Award. Over fifty years of performing, they have performed at the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as well as NPR's On Point, Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and Morning Edition. Their recording, Treasures & Tears, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award, and their music is also included on the Grammy-nominated anthology, Singing Through the Hard Times.
The Folk School features some of the finest regional and national acts performing eclectic roots music. We’ll have standard seating available, first come first serve. We also have a family-focused social area of picnic tables in the back. You’re welcome to bring your dinner, card games, carving, sewing project, or set up on the grass and let your kids play.
A donation of $5-15 per adult is suggested, but all are welcome regardless of contribution. Folk School Students and Staff are not asked to donate. Any funds raised support traditional arts and help us strive for equitable pay for performers.
*Lineup, schedule, and venue are subject to change, for the most up to date details check the schedule at www.folkschool.org/concerts
Cost: suggested $5-15 donation, per adult
Folk School Locations: Festival Barn: John C. Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Rd, Brasstown, NC 28902
Link: www.sparkyandrhonda.com
Sparky and Rhonda Rucker’s music includes old-time blues, Appalachian music, slave songs, spirituals, and originals, and they accompany themselves with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, old-time banjo, blues harmonica, piano, spoons, and bones. They have long been ambassadors of cultural heritage, accompanying themselves with bottleneck slide guitar, old-time banjo, harmonica, piano, spoons, and bones. Sparky was recently honored with a 2025 Tennessee Governor’s Folklife Heritage Award. Over fifty years of performing, they have performed at the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as well as NPR's On Point, Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and Morning Edition. Their recording, Treasures & Tears, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award, and their music is also included on the Grammy-nominated anthology, Singing Through the Hard Times.
The Folk School features some of the finest regional and national acts performing eclectic roots music. We’ll have standard seating available, first come first serve. We also have a family-focused social area of picnic tables in the back. You’re welcome to bring your dinner, card games, carving, sewing project, or set up on the grass and let your kids play.
A donation of $5-15 per adult is suggested, but all are welcome regardless of contribution. Folk School Students and Staff are not asked to donate. Any funds raised support traditional arts and help us strive for equitable pay for performers.
*Lineup, schedule, and venue are subject to change, for the most up to date details check the schedule at www.folkschool.org/concerts
