LIVE MUSIC: TWO GREAT SHOWS COMING TO A VENUE JUST DOWN THE ROAD AT WILLINGHAM THEATRE

If you’re looking for some great soul music, it’s worth the 30-minute drive up Hwy. 421 to Yadkinville and the Willingham Theatre, located in the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center, 226 E, Main St. in Yadkinville. This has become a favorite place of mine, not only for their creative art exhibits and state-of-the-art theatre that features a variety of plays and music, but also for dining at the Southern-inspired Bistro that is inside the venue. The complex also includes multiple art galleries, artist studios, and classrooms. There is free parking behind the center.

SILK GROOVE REVUE. Coming up on Saturday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. is the Silk Groove Revue. This soul group touches on favorite hits from the ‘50s to the ‘90s, with some current tunes sprinkled in. This popular North Carolina band entertains with classic vocal harmonies and high-energy choreography reminiscent of groups like The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Stylistics, and many others. Tickets are $25 and is a great date night – or a gift for your mom (Mother’s Day is May 10). Through their soulful tunes and snappy choreography, Silk Groove Revue guarantees an unforgettable evening of music.

DESHAWN AND WENDY HICKMAN. This concert, originally scheduled for January but postponed due to inclement weather, DeShawn and Wendy Hickman Present Sacred Steel will take to the Willingham stage on Friday, May 29, at 7:30 p.m. Hailing from Mount Airy, DaShawn is one of today’s foremost players of Sacred Steel. He grew up hearing the pedal steel in the tiny House of God church his family attended, and listening to his mother play lap steel at home. His lovely wife, vocalist Wendy Hickman, channels artists including Anita Baker, India Arie, and Tina Turner, but with her own smooth style. 

I was fortunate to see the Hickmans perform last summer at the Charlie Poole Festival in Eden where Wendy sang the most spine-tingling version of “Amazing Grace” I’ve ever heard. I hope she’ll sing it at this concert.

The Hickmans share their soulful sound, putting their own spin on Sacred Steel, a blues-gospel tradition that started in the Pentecostal-Holiness churches in the 1930s. More recently, DaShawn toured with Cirque de Soleil, playing pedal steel in the country music band. He was the pedal steel player in Steve Ray Ladson’s band that made the finals of this fall’s America’s Got Talent TV Show. In 2023, he was inducted into the Sacred Steel Hall of Fame. Tickets are $25.

This show is part of the Sounds of the Mountains Concert Series (show #2), in partnership with the Blue Ridge Music Center.

For more information and to purchase tickets, as well as to learn about their upcoming juried arts exhibit, the Willingham Performing Arts Academy, arts classes and more. please go to www.yadkinarts.org.isque.