Area residents are invited to join the St. Margaret’s School community for “Old Dominion Songsters,” an educational evening of traditional Virginia blues music presented by Dr. Gregg Kimball and the acoustic trio Sheryl Warner and the Southside Homewreckers. The event will take place on Thursday, January 12 at 6:30 p.m. in Ball Memorial Gymnasium on Water Lane.

Of special interest to the community, the program will include the ragtime-inspired music of Tappahannock’s William Moore, a blues legend whose work in the early 20th century continues to influence musicians today. The legacy of the late Moore was honored with a Virginia Highway Marker in early December.

Kimball, an award-winning musician and historian who works for the Library of Virginia, was instrumental in obtaining the recognition for Moore. He researched and wrote “Old Dominion Songsters” to explore not only the music of rural Virginia in the 1920s and 1930s but also the larger cultural and historical context of the blues in the Jim Crow South.

Sheryl Warner and the Southside Homewreckers, of which Kimball is a member, is a well known traditional blues group that has received rave reviews in national blues and roots music magazines. The trio has performed at the DC Blues Festival, the Theater at Lime Kiln and other premier venues, as well for a wide variety of schools, colleges, libraries, museums and cultural organizations.

The SMS Speakers Series is a series of free, public presentations sponsored by St. Margaret’s School. Future programs include Mike Roberts of Return to Nature, Inc. on Wednesday, February 15 and mystery novelist Ted Blain of Woodberry Forest School on April 4.

For more information, contact program coordinator Tobey Taliaferro at (804) 443-3357.