Bicentennial Music Festival All Day Saturday on Square

By: Betsy Reason

Grab your lawn chairs and blankets and get ready to tap your toes all day Saturday during a Hamilton County Noblesville Township Music Festival.

The Legacy Keepers Music Bicentennial Celebration is part of Legacy Keepers’ seventh annual StringTime on the Square summer music series.

While a Slow Jam begins at 10 a.m. in the side yard of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Residence and Old Jail on the Courthouse Square, the Music Festival officially begins at noon and runs until about 8 p.m.

This old-timey day of music will begin promptly after the original Courthouse clock tower strikes 12 noon with a brief dedication ceremony to include members of the Navy Club Color Guard making a flag presentation with rifle salute on the Hamilton County War Memorial Plaza, followed by remarks from County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt. Noblesville High School senior Addie McMillan will sing the National Anthem.

This Music Festival and Bicentennial Celebration is among many events this year that celebrate Hamilton County’s yearlong 200th birthday.

“To celebrate the Bicentennial, we wanted to arrange a program that spanned many age groups and interests, to appeal to the broadest audience possible,” said Janet Gilray of Noblesville, founder of Legacy Keepers Music, an educational charity that she started in 2007 to offer musical family programming. Legacy Keepers Music series debuted in July 2017 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Legacy Keepers Music.

Gilray, musician and vocalist herself, loves bringing string music, particularly bluegrass, to the Square and our community. A woman of many hats, she’ll not only do some emceeing during the daylong festival but will also perform in PrairieTown String Band, which also features her husband, Dan Wethington (whom she married in July 2019 on the Square during the StringTime music series); Bob Foster of Noblesville, owner of The Hedgehog Music Showcase; and Michael Davis, music director of Noblesville First Presbyterian Church.

While the StringTime on the Square music series usually features bluegrass and country, there’s more planned for this Saturday.

During this celebration, there will be an array of genres, including Americana, bluegrass, country, folk, gospel, classic rock and soft pop.

“We designed a program that would incorporate several musicians who helped launch the series, along with a number of musicians never featured at this series before,” Gilray said. “We are proud of our lineup. It includes musicians primarily from Hamilton County. However, since we invite all Hoosiers to celebrate with us, we brought in acts from around the state (just north and just south of Hamilton County), as well.” The headliner, the final band of the day, is Barrel Scrapers Bluegrass, whose members make their home in and around the Indiana towns of Wabash and Manchester. The lead member of Limestone Nomad group, who hails from Bloomington, grew up in Carmel.

The all-day Music Festival will be presented on the west side of the Hamilton County Courthouse Square, near the Hamilton County War Memorial, in downtown Noblesville.

Look for the celebration to be on the West lawn across from Syd’s. The series changed sides in 2022 after a big shade tree on the east lawn came down in a storm in 2021.

While the Music Festival officially begins at noon, a Slow Jam in the Sheriff’s Side Yard will begin at 10 a.m., with Jeff Hutson, a mandolin player and member of the Metamora Mandolin Society. He regularly attends the StringTime on the Square Courthouse Concert Series and came forward to volunteer his leadership for a gathering of players hosting an early Slow Jam from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday. Here’s the scenario: “Players arrange their chairs in a circle and take turns playing songs. The intent is to enjoy casual camaraderie and provide opportunities for musicians who are not always skilled at stage performances to share their tunes in the company of others,” Gilray said. “The Slow Jam takes place on the lawn of the Sheriff’s Residence much in the way it was probably done in earlier times of our county’s history. Although any jam can bring a wide range of talent, from the beginner to the most versatile players, a slow jam generally has a leader who sets the tempo according to the skills of the participant, tries to ensure that everyone gets a turn, and helps to welcome beginners.” (Longtime Noblesville residents might recognize Hutson’s name from his time as a reporter in the mid 1980s for The Noblesville Ledger. I met Hutson during my first week of work at The Ledger in May 1986, as he was preparing to move on to another newspaper.)

Following a break after the Slow Jam, the Music Festival’s opening dedication and Navy Club Color Guard Flag Ceremony will begin at noon. Addie McMillan, 17, a senior at Noblesville High School, will also sing the National Anthem.

At 12:15 p.m., Gilray’s PrairieTown String Band (mentioned above) will kick off the live band performances.

From 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m., Addie McMillan will play host to Addie & Friends, featuring some of her musically talented NHS friends, Roux Carney, Jaiden Casey, Tyler Cowan, Lily Ferazzi, Mia Gordon, Ehren Knerr and Kat Logue. Addie sings in her school’s NHS Singers mixed varsity show choir and regularly sings the National Anthem during StringTime on the Square. (At age 13, she sang and played mandolin on the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival stage with the former Sideline bluegrass band whose hit single, “Thunder Dan” won Bluegrass Music’s Song of the Year later that year, in 2019.)

At 2 p.m., NHS 2021 grad Santiago Baptista, who plays lead guitar and will be joined by a drummer and bass player, performs as a solo guitarist and with his own trio.

At 3 p.m., Limestone Nomad will perform southern Indiana folk and modern bluegrass with Carmel native Josh Hughey on guitar, Samuel McGuire on banjo and Arianna Shepherd on bodhrán (a framed drum used in Irish music).

At 4 p.m., Stampede String Band, whose members hail from the Moontown area, include Kyle Buck, John Bahler and Aaron Nicely, and will perform country, folk and bluegrass.

At 5 p.m., there will be a Bicentennial Dedication Ceremony.

At 5:15 p.m., Brad McCord of Noblesville will take the stage with his guitar, playing country, rock, bluegrass, gospel and Americana. “When the pianist at church left, I decided to learn traditional hymns, and this is where I first started playing in front of people,” McCord has said.

At 5:45 p.m., singer, songwriter and guitarist John R Gilmore of Noblesville, who has recorded two solo albums of his original material, will perform bluegrass, country and Americana. He also performs as a trio with Indy area musicians Doug Sauter and Rod Schindler, under the new name, Lenwood.

At 7 p.m., Barrel Scrapers Bluegrass — consisting of banjoist Scott McAlpine, fiddle player Carl Sparks, guitarists Tom Sizemore and Paul Fry-Miller, mandolin player Mark Jones and bass player Dave West — will perform traditional bluegrass from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s with a handful of modern tunes that they’ve adapted to the traditional style.

After this weekend, Legacy Keepers Music StringTime on the Square summer music series continues on Aug. 5 with Stones Crossing family bluegrass and gospel group, featuring Mark Graham, his daughters Shalynn and Amanda, and son-in-law, Billy Adams; and Sept. 2 with Cornfields & Crossroads Bluegrass Band featuring Dan Wethington of Noblesville on banjo, Darrell Duety of Indianapolis on mandolin, Jason Barrows of Indianapolis on guitar and Joe Flowers of Lebanon on bass. The band has shared the stage with bluegrass singer and songwriter Rhonda Vincent.

Series benefactor is Noblesville Township Trustee Office, and Trustee Theresa Caldwell has been a driving force in organizing this Music Festival. (Hamilton County has 12 townships, and each of the 12 months was assigned to a different trustee and month, Noblesville being assigned to July) Caldwell and her team will be under a “Welcome” canopy and will be joined by Noblesville Preservation Alliance — which is featuring the covered wagon used to compete in the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville’s annual Darlington Bed Race in June — to be used as a selfie station.

This year’s band sponsors include: Chuck Goodrich, Mark Heirbrandt, George Kristo (in memory of his late wife, Linda Kristo), and Jean Roberts. Opening act sponsor is Deco Indy. Other sponsors include: Stage Patron, Jeff Lockridge and Charlie McMillan; Musicians’ Friend, Hoosier History Live Radio 88.1 FM, Robbins Rabbit Ranch; Band Fans, Kathy and Bob Foster. With in-kind recognition to Discount Copies, The Times newspaper and Voices in Time LLC.

Legacy Keepers Music is an organization established to preserve and promote American heritage folk music, so any historic event, “but especially one as important as our Hamilton County Bicentennial, provides an occasion for showcasing some of the acoustical-style music commonplace downtown Noblesville in Hamilton County’s early years,” Gilray said.

Since its inception, Legacy Keepers Music has presented more than 100 public music programs. 

Gilray has been mixing business, music and special events ever since her college days in Fresno, Calif. Gilray got her start as a business and marketing major when she landed an internship with the president of the town’s convention and visitors bureau. With that experience, she went on to preside over a non-profit cultural arts auxiliary affiliated with the city parks and rec and then established her own marketing firm to manage promotional events,” she has said. “I have always enjoyed gatherings in a public square. All my life it seems, I’ve been organizing art and music festivals, rodeo events, promotions where people come for a good time,” Gilray said. “Now I’ve simplified my life by encouraging live music — finding and hiring the musicians — they play, and I kick back and smile.”

This series sounds like some amazing talent not to miss. Thanks for bringing another season of music and for planning this awesome daylong music festival, Janet Gilray.

-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact The Times Editor Betsy Reason at [email protected]. Addie McMillan, mentioned in this column, is Betsy Reason’s daughter.