Good Times are Rollin’ | Highlands Live Music Series

Written By: Luke Osteen | Issue: 2021/04 – April

Americana Jones

Kurt Thomas

Last year, Highlands’ Community Calendar was essentially shut down by Covid.

Downtown, the weekend evenings were sad and hushed, especially to Highlanders of a certain age. 

That silence brought back memories of nights 30-odd years ago when Helen’s Barn turned out the lights and emptied the parking lot. 

That structure, it really was a barn, was a roadhouse for all the things that make a quiet Southern town spring to life on Saturday nights.

Local bluegrass bands would show off their licks, precision teams of local kids would demonstrate their clogging talents, adults and their offspring would square dance with abandon, and enthusiastic sets of buck dancing would spontaneously erupt. 

This writer knows three people who were conceived in that parking lot. 

A couple of years ago, the Highlands Chamber of Commerce took it upon itself to resuscitate those happy evenings of music and laughter and dancing.  

The chamber introduced its twin concert series –  Friday Night Live, and Saturdays on Pine.

These live concerts were an immediate hit, and drew happy throngs of locals, summer people, and weekenders – just as the storied Helen’s Barn.

The coronavirus effectively crushed the entire 2020 concert season, leaving a gaping hole in the town’s social calendar. 

But in a sure sign of the arrival of spring and the town getting back on its feet, the concerts are back!

Starting Friday, May 21, and Saturday, May 22, Friday Night Live and Saturdays on Pine are once more on the community calendar.

Friday Night Live concerts take place at Highlands Town Square from 6:00 until 8:00 P.M. Saturdays on Pine are at Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park on Pine Street and also begin at 6:00 P.M. 

These concerts offer the chance to hear some of the finest music the region has to offer and are free to everyone.

Friday Night Live features traditional mountain music, and an opportunity for the audience to participate by singing, clapping, tapping their feet, or dancing if the mood strikes. 

It’s audience participation at its best and the bands feed off the energy.        

Saturdays on Pine is rock and roll, often mixed with a dash of country goodness or smooth soul.  It’s a delirious opportunity to bring a blanket, open the picnic basket and enjoy the sensations of live music under a pristine nighttime sky. 

And for those premiere performances, you can expect Silly Ridge Roundup on Friday, May 21; and The Carribean Boys on Saturday, May 22.

For more information about Saturdays on Pine or Friday Night Live, visit highlandschamber.org or call (828) 526-2112.