What started with Brooks Wood and Danny Shampine performing completely stripped down and acoustic in our modest studio has turned into full-on rock performances from the likes of The Alcazar Hotel and Lonnie Walker.

We have had a great start and have featured some of the best music the Triangle has to offer, and it’s only going to get better.

You can check out photos from some of the performances at our Facebook page; and while you’re there, become a fan to get the latest updates on up-coming shows as well as see exclusive photos.

KANNAPOLIS — It took nearly 10 years, but the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame found its home at the “home of science.”

Located in the old Kannapolis jailhouse, the hall of fame honors musicians, singers, songwriters and producers from the Old North State who have made contributions to American music.

Invited guests to a special reception, hosted by California music mogul Mike Curb, got a sneak peek inside the hardwood-floored showroom Thursday. Exhibits showcased musical artists from all genres with North Carolina roots — artists like Randy Travis, Andy Griffith, Ben Folds, Thelonious Monk and Earl Scruggs.

And there are some big names enshrined here: Famed fiddler Charlie Daniels, beach music crooners Billy Scott and the Chairmen of the Board, big band leader Kay Kiser and opera singer Victoria Livengood.

Even its curator, Eddie Ray is a music pioneer himself.

Ray, 83, from Franklin, N.C., worked his way up through the label system from assistant shipping clerk to becoming the first African-American vice-president of Capitol Records.

“I’ve always been interested in music history and in honoring the legacy of these artists,” Ray said.

In this small-statured, soft-spoken man lives a wealth of music history. Ray has signed and promoted some of the biggest names in music. He brought Pink Floyd from the United Kingdom for Capital Records.

He promoted jazz and R&B piano player and songwriter Fats Domino for Imperial Records. Ray said he would pitch Domino to country music stations, saying “he was the next Louis Armstrong.”

“[Fats Domino] was the first crossover artist before there ever was such a thing,” Ray said, with a smile.

Ray, as a music executive, signed Curb when he was 16 years old in the 1960s. Since then, the duo have been working together in the music industry. Curb went on to head MGM Records and then started Curb Records, a major country music label.

Curb’s foundation is backing the hall of fame, which has struggled in past years to find a permanent home for its collection.

Doug Croft, an executive with the Thomasville Chamber of Commerce, dreamed up the idea of a music hall of fame back in the ’90s.

He said he began reading a music book published by Rolling Stone and recognizing musicians that had North Carolina roots.

“You’ve heard of all the big ones, like Charlie Daniels,” Croft said, “so I made a list of all artists, producers and writers from North Carolina.”

At the same time, he saw an ad for the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in a Reader’s Digest and he thought North Carolina needed the same thing.

In 1999, the hall of fame organization was formed and the group inducted its first class — which included The Chairmen of the Board, Loonis McGlohon, and promoter Bill Griffin.

“Bill Griffin was the one that made Greensboro a major between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. for Motown groups at the time,” Bill Kopald, chairman of hall of fame’s board of directors, said.

Kopald is a former local news anchor who lives in Greensboro. He got involved with the music hall of fame in 1999. At that time, the group tried to get a museum opened to show the memorabilia the group had collected.

“Lots of places were interested — Thomasville, Greensboro, High Point,” Kopald said. “But no one stepped forward.”

Croft said the group was pretty active in promoting the idea of a physical hall of fame; but, soon, with no takers, the group went on hiatus, he said.

Until about a couple of years ago, when Kopald got a call from Eddie Ray.

“He said, ‘We’ve heard about you and talking about you,’” Kopald said. “He was calling on behalf of Mike Curb.”

Being from North Carolina, Ray thought there needed to be a place to honor the artists, promoters and producers from the state that made an impact on music.

Curb and Ray both are interested in music history, and Curb is good friends with Dole Food Company owner David Murdock.

“Mike talked with Mr. Murdock, and we got a 10-year lease for $1 a year,” Kopald said.

The Curb Family Foundation backed the hall of fame, putting up the money to renovate the old jail building in Kannapolis — a process that took the better part of two years.

“When you get people together [who] share the same passion, the same interests, that’s when things get done,” Kopald said. “We’re in a good location here. This is a part of Kannapolis — the old mill town rising from the ashes.”

Part of the mission of the hall of fame is to honor artists; the other part is education.

Once the museum opens full time, Ray said the plan is to hire interns to help with music research and build a digital archive of songs and interviews with native artists.

“We believe we should preserve these,” Ray said. “This is more than just a physical site.”

The music hall of fame is expected to open to the public by June 1.

• Contact Web reporter Ben McNeely: 704-789-9131 | The Independent Tribune

A longtime Raleigh resident is bringing his jazz show back home.

Sax player Will Scruggs came up through the ranks of Ligon Middle and Enloe High bands, becoming the first person to ever graduate from Emory University’s prestigious music program with a focus on jazz.

Scruggs now calls Atlanta home, where he’s had the chance to work with the likes of Dave Brubeck and Natalie Cole, who flew him up to New York to perform on-stage at the Apollo Theater.

In 2004, he formed the Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship, a rotating ensemble made up of some of Atlanta’s best jazz musicians.

The band plays a mix of originals and jazz standards, focusing on making each show unique.

The Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship will help to kick off the April 19 grand opening of the Busy Bee Café (along with its own music space called “The Hive”) at 225 South Wilmington Street in Raleigh.

The video was shot over a few days at Baucom Road Studios in February 2009 and was edited together by Stephanie Mirabelli at Ramseur Records.

Bombadil will kickoff its tour in support of Tarpits and Canyonlands at Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh with Lost in the Trees and Charlotte’s own freak folkster Benji Hughes. The concert is on April 10 and tickets are on sale for $8 in advance or $10 the day of the show.

Tarpits and Canyonlands is due in stores July 7, 2009 through Ramseur Records.

HOLLY SPRING, N.C. — A group of preschoolers in Holly Springs were treated to an unusual concert Friday, March 20 featuring one of their classmates.

Liam Turnage is a 5-year-old student at Little Dreamer’s Preschool in Holly Springs.

“He’s amazing,” Little Dreamer’s owner Debbie Harast said.

Liam doesn’t only play the songs, he also writes them.

“We played my song I wrote on the computer,” he said.

His musical inspiration? Oasis.

“I like that sitar on it,” he said.

Complete with his sippy-cup in hand, Liam is always ready to rock.

“It’s apple juice, but I brought it over there in case I get thirsty,” he said.

Liam said it’s not hard to play the drums.

“When he was 18 months old he sat on my lap on the drum set and then — I never really taught him how to play — he just could kind of do it,” Charles (Carlton) Turnage, Liam’s father and guitarist in his “band,” said. “I put the sticks in his hand and I could tell he had natural rhythm.”

His Mom and little sister are back-up dancers and his older sister plays the piano.

“I’m so proud of him,” Katie Turnage, Liam’s mother, said.

The drums aren’t the only instrument this preschooler is mastering.

“He can actually hear something and then go play it on the piano,” Carlton said.

And that probably won’t be the end.

“I think I’m going to practice everyday,” Liam said.

Next, Mom says he’ll probably pick up the guitar.

RALEIGH — On the secluded edge of Hillsborough Street, a non-distinct building stands with simple lettering on the windows that reads, “Violin Maker.”

Through the windows, the owner of the shop — John Montgomery — uses the sound of his carving wood as a rhythm, to create a cello. John Montgomery has been making violins, cellos and violas in Raleigh for nearly 30 years and says the craft called to him.

While the art of making violins has been around for centuries, not much has changed.

“The craft of building the violin is fundamentally the same as it was in the 17th and 18th century,” Montgomery said.

While the basic fundamentals of violin making is the same, the actual works of art are completely different.

“Every instrument is different, you won’t find any one instrument that is exactly the same,” Marshall Johnson explained. Johnson is a member of the North Carolina Symphony and has been with them for more than 30 years. He has been playing one of Montgomery’s violins since 1991 and says, “I think I [have] one of the best instruments he’s ever made.”

John Montgomery isn’t worried about his craft disappearing any time soon and credits the fact that it has been around for almost 400 years as a good example.

“The day they quit teaching music in kindergarten, is the day I get worried,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery Violins has a staff of five and has handled some of the most valuable and rare violins in the world, with some worth as much as 9 to 10 million dollars — a big difference when compared to the violins that Montgomery makes and sells for about $15,000.

Montgomery Violins not only makes instruments, but also repairs, restores, and buys and sells instruments from all over the world.

But in 1999, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst introduced the world to a band that would change the landscape of alternative metal.

“[Durst] is the one person in a line of many who heard what we had to offer and actually put himself on the line for us, ” Staind frontman Aaron Lewis says.

Trading Durst’s signature backwards baseball cap for a slick, shaved head and nu-metal’s rap tendencies for brooding, often bleak lyrics, Staind unknowingly redefined the genre and made way for bands such as Cold, Breaking Benjamin, Seether, Trapt and Hinder to storm popular music airwaves.

This shift was much more in line with the direction grunge was moving in the early ’90s when radio began trading Nirvana for Live, and Alice in Chains for Collective Soul and Candlebox. Lewis chalks this new movement in alternative metal to the cyclical nature of popular music and the fact that rock bands often “regurgitate” what has already been done.

“Everything has been done once — at least,” Lewis says. “Anybody in rock music is ripping off Black Sabbath or any of those bands from that era that really kind of blew the rock thing wide open for all of us.”

Since Staind peaked in popularity in 2001 with Break the Cycle, popular music has again shifted to a retro-fitted style that mimics music of the ’70s and ’80s. This swing from brooding to poppy has not affected Staind’s record sales much, however, and Lewis says the band’s natural progression from album to album has a lot to do with it.

“We were much younger 11 years ago. I was still full of all the teenage anger that I was holding onto,” Lewis says. “Over the years, writing lyrics and writing these records has been cathartic for me. It’s a way of getting this stuff off my chest so I don’t have to carry it around anymore.”

Sporting a low-profile, black Boston Red Sox baseball cap, black T-shirt and oversized jeans, one might have the notion that Lewis still clings to the nu-metal ethos, but he asserts his understanding of the need for musical progression.

“Once [something is] off my chest, I don’t want to keep revisiting it so that nothing changes. And I’d like to hope that our fans don’t want the same record from us over and over again.”

So far the formula has proven to be successful for Staind as the albums Break the Cycle, 14 Shades of Grey and V all debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, and 2008’s The Illusion of Progress debuted at number three. And while Korn has struggled to capture the same success it saw pre-1999 and Limp Bizkit is still fighting its label of “Worst Band of the Year” from a 2003 Guitar World readers poll, Staind has continued to sell albums and release singles that captivate modern rock radio.

However, there may be a resurgence on the horizon for late-’90s alternative metal with the announcement last week that guitarist Wes Borland has once again teamed up with Fred Durst to record another Limp Bizkit album. In turn, that may lead to another run of Family Values tour dates.

“Limp Bizkit is working on music again and they plan on going back out on tour,” Lewis says. “That would be pretty cool to put the Family Values thing back together again -– I’d be in.”

While the fate of post-grunge still hangs in the balance, Lewis will continue touring and recording with Staind, and he is planning a solo release that will feature many of the songs that he presents during his intimate, acoustic performances.

“There are a few songs I’ve been throwing out there over the past year or so that are songs that I wrote while I was out on tour or just have kicking around,” Lewis says. “They’ll be on the solo record –- renditions of them, anyways. They’re never finished until you go into the studio.”

The scene Friday night looked like a who’s who of Triangle music with Caitlin Cary slinging drinks, members of Megafaun mingling amongst the crowd and The Rosebuds hanging out at the side of the stage. All were in attendance to see some of the best live music the Triangle has seen in more than a decade as well as support a station that furiously backs local music.

Greenville via Raleigh-based Lonnie Walker opened the benefit with its unique blend of Iggy & The Stooges energy and Bob Dylan-esque song craft. Following suit was the 13-piece orchestra Lost In the Trees fronted by singer-songwriter and composer Ari Picker, while alums of the Great Eight class of 2008 Schooner filled the third slot before Bowerbirds closed out the evening.

As an unexpected treat, Ivan Howard from The Rosebuds joined Bowerbirds on stage for an impromptu performance after a chant from the audience called for a continued set as the clock approached 2 a.m.

The two-night benefit showcased eight bands from the Triangle. The second night featured performances from I Was Totally Destroying It, Violet Vector & The Lovely Lovelies, Birds of Avalon and Polvo. Violet Vector & The Lovely Lovelies was named to this year’s list of The Great Eight artists N&O music critic David Menconi thinks will break out in 2009.

“We didn’t really understand the magnitude of it,” Bradley Cook of the band Megafaun and The Great Eight class of ‘08 said. “It definitely felt like a different turning point.”

Making its presence known on the list this year is Greenville via Raleigh-based band Lonnie Walker, who will see the release of its debut album this Spring and has a slot on this year’s South by Southwest music and arts festival in Austin, Texas.

“To be honest, it kinda hit me by surprise,” Lonnie Walker frontman Brian Corum said.

But success for the bands is not always instant.

“We’re all just as broke as we were before,” Corum said.

The project is always a labor of love — having to start in November just to produce a full multimedia package ready to be released in February — Menconi each year pours through hordes of bands who call the Triangle home. However, with the birth of weekly events like WKNC’s Local Beer Local Band at Tir Na Nog on Thursdays, Menconi has found that the support of local venues has made it easier to find bands he may deem worthy of The Great Eight — and if not this year’s list, then maybe next.

“I often run across bands for the first time at [Local Beer Local Band],” Menconi says. “It’s a great thing; every week there’s a couple of other great bands — local — and often I haven’t seen them. It’s a great way to check in.”

Although it is always satisfying to see the bands he picked in previous years become successful on a larger scale, Menconi remains humble.

“I’m not saying we’re great predictors,” he says. “But it is nice when bands you give some recognition to do go on to bigger and better things.”

What isn’t always satisfying is the backlash he sometimes receives with the release of the list. Sometimes bands are not interested in being featured on The Great Eight or even sitting still long enough to shoot a decent portrait for the feature; while other times local media outlets find the list to be a means for sparking controversy.

Just last year, the list stirred controversy when Independent Weekly published an article criticizing the annual list’s intentions as well as the N&O’s local music coverage. Despite the backlash, Menconi remained positive and fairly quiet about the situation, saying that anyone who paid attention knew that the claims against N&O’s local music coverage “just aren’t true.”

In years past, The Great Eight has included bands such as Annuals, The Old Ceremony, Megafaun, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bowerbirds and Alina Simone. It’s easy to say that the majority of these acts haven’t yet “made it,” but all have garnered quite the buzz; especially in the last year. It is this year’s list, though, that contains some of the most phenomenal acts in the feature’s history — and perhaps that is partially due to the thriving music scene that has really begun to prosper here in the Triangle over the past couple of years.

With bands like Annuals, The Love Language, Chatham County Line and Bowerbirds as well as expatriates such as Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Tift Merritt really seeming to hit their marks recently, there’s no doubt that the rest of the United States is beginning to catch on to the fact that with our massive University communities, the Triangle is a breeding ground for musical talent.

Like in previous years, a Great Eight showcase will be held at Local 506 in Chapel Hill. This year’s concert will feature Lonnie Walker, Hammer No More The Fingers, Violet Vector the Lovely Lovelies and Double Negative on Feb. 13. Tickets for the performance are $5.