Beverly Smith and Dahlonega's John Grimm have teamed up recently to perform some of the best old time music heard in the hills of southern Appalachia in a very long time. Both are well known old time musicians who can "play the devil out of a multitude of instruments" as well as sing like two whippoorwills on a hot summer night.

John Grimm's musical talents are unparalleled in the southern Appalachians and his fiddling and banjo picking represent the old time tradition at its best. His mournful vocals pull and twist at the roots of the red Georgia clay he calls home and the forgotten days of the past. When John was in his 20s he met Tommy Jarrell. “Jarrell was an old moonshiner from North Carolina who had learned to play from Civil War veterans,” John says. “His playing was rough, archaic, primitive. If you didn’t pay attention, you might not realize how incredible it actually was. A poster in John's music store, Vintage Music on Dahlonega's Historic Public Square, says this about Jarrell: "He drank some good corn likker and played the violin for awhile. Then he died.” As a young musician, John took lessons from Bruce Molsky, a venerated Jarrell protégé, and learned the finer points of old-time fiddling—how to rock his bow, how to sing while playing, and how to saw “crooked tunes,” jumping a beat and compensating with the next note. John has appeared at Bear on the Square with the Georgia Mudcats and the Georgia Potlickers.

One of the most respected guitar and fiddle players in old time music today, Beverly Smith is also in demand as a singer and dance caller. She has made numerous recordings, backing up fiddlers Bruce Molsky, Rafe Stefanini, Tara Nevins and Brad Leftwich, vocalizing with Irish musicians Mick Moloney and John Doyle, and also singing with bluegrass great Laurie Lewis. She has taught and played at many camps and folk festivals. Smith's mastery of Carter Family music is as well respected as it is beautiful. A well known face to the attendees of Dahlonega's Bear on the Square Mountain Festival, Beverly has appeared here previously with Carl Jones, and her playing and singing have captured the hearts of many local fans. Over the years, she has also played with an old-time band, The Rockinghams.

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