Main Street features local flavor

By AMY FOSTER / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Clair Cochran is scheduled to perform this Friday night in the next to last Main Street Live concert. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

With August winding down, the next to last concert of the Main Street Live concert series is here with local talents Clair Cochran and Jonathan Jones opening for Allen Ramsey this Friday.

Headlining the evening at the West Lawn of Security Federal will be Ramsey, a native of McMinnville and current Nashville resident. Ramsey, who doesn’t really care for genre labels, said his music can simply be described as Americana.

“There is a genre out there called Americana which ranges from bluegrass to traditional country to a singer-songwriter pop style and it is kind of all accompanied together,” Ramsey said.

While at University of Tennessee as an undergraduate student, Ramsey began going to shows playing small gigs and it has now escalated into much more. The Warren County High School graduate now plays all over the Southeast.

“I’ve been playing in a lot of honky-tonks and clubs here in Nashville but I recently had a cool little gig in Rossville, Ga., at a place called Wollow in the Hollow and it was a very cool little place to play,” Ramsey said about a recent show.

Ramsey will be singing original songs such as “Be That Way Again,” “Old Stuff” and “Drunk Again” while playing acoustic guitar and harmonica. These songs can be found on his album self-titled “Allen Ramsey,” which was produced by Wooden Pickle Records and released last summer. These albums will be available for purchase at the concert for $10 each.

Opening for Ramsey will be local talents Cochran and Jones. Friday’s performance will mark the first time that Cochran and Jones have performed together.

Cochran, a native of McMinnville, will begin the evening with a set of country songs which will include songs from Martina McBride and other contemporary country artists. Jones, also a McMinnville native and Warren County High School graduate, will be playing guitar during this set.

Later in the performance, Jones will play on the banjo some select Earl Scruggs bluegrass classics such as “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”

“I am really looking forward to playing Friday because I don’t get to play as much as I used to,” Jones said.

The show begins at 7 p.m. at the West Lawn of Security Federal. The event is free and is sponsored by Ben Lomand TV, Clear Channel Radio and the Southern Standard, your source for local news.