Six Pack Songwriter Series to Benefit The Front Porch

Founded in February 2012, The Six Pack Songwriter Series' Mission is simple: To provide a broader audience to songwriters who call Virginia home. Over the last three years, the show has relocated from Lovingtston to Charlottesville and performed to thousands.

About The Front Porch:
The Front Porch is a non-profit roots music school based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our  warm, family-friendly environment is a place where inspiration happens: we host classes, workshops, master classes, weekly jams, and performances. Our talented instructors, each professional musicians themselves, offer lessons and group classes in a variety of musical styles, including bluegrass, old time, gospel, acoustic blues, and folk. We are dedicated to educating and experiencing traditional, roots, and folk music and dance.

Inspired by the rich musical heritage of Central Virginia, The Front Porch seeks to create a strong, vibrant musical community comprised of music lovers of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. As a non-profit organization, it is our mission to make music inclusive, affordable, and accessible to all. To that end, we offer scholarships, present lots of free programming, and we have priced our classes at a level that is below the national average without compromising the pay scale of our teachers.

The Front Porch began in the home of local educator Emily Morrison, and after one year on the campus of a Montessori school, The Front Porch moved to its current location in downtown Charlottesville in June of 2016. Being downtown, we have been able to significantly expand our services and outreach. More than 100 people come to The Front Porch each week to take classes or study instruments such as fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, djembe, and ukulele. Our weekly jam programs, which are free and open to the public, likewise draw a diverse crowd of 25+ weekly. We host a wide array of performers who offer workshops and concerts in our theater space. We partner with James Monroe’s Highland to co-present the popular Tuesday Tunes series, an outdoor concert series that highlights local performers and food purveyors. We have worked with numerous other community partners, including C-ville Hoedown, International Neighbors, Charlottesville Friends of Old Time Music, Blue Ridge Irish Music School, the Prism Coffeehouse, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Charlottesville, and The Virginia Folklife Program. To date, we have served more than 2,500 people in Central Virginia through our educational, outreach, jam, and performance programs.

The Front Porch was founded with the strong belief that music is a universal language that brings people together.  It is a bridge between our past and our future. It allows us to express ourselves creatively and connect with others. Experiencing music together allows us to feel the magic of creation happening in real time, and it requires concrete skills from dedicated instructors, and deep sustained practice to achieve. The Front Porch aims to provide the highest quality educational experience, coupled with opportunities to practice and share in a community setting, so that these rich folk traditions, long enjoyed by Virginians, may be sustained for generations to come.

Our founder, Emily Morrison, was named one of the TomTom 2017 Founders of the Year, an award recognizing leaders who are shaping the future of Charlottesville and inspiring the next generation of founders.

About Gary Hatter:
Gary Hatter is a singer-songwriter from Afton, Virginia. His intrinsic style of writing features an eclectic blend of country, folk, blues, and gospel that is sure to warm the heart!

About Nick Berkin:
A Charlottesville native, Nick Berkin began his full time music career performing on the cruise ship circuit for years. After moving back, he played keys and sang with such local acts as ADAR, The Working Effective, and Big Ray & the Kool Kats. Now a teacher at The Front Porch, Nick shares his original songs with you tonight!

About FarAway (Brian Franke and Sara Davenport):
FarAway is the married husband and wife duo of Brian Franke and Sara Davenport who got their start in 2012.  Originally starting in the Washington, DC and Northern Virginia area, they moved to Charlottesville in mid-2018.  Known for their big strong harmonies, they have opened for nationally touring acts such as Philip Phillips and Griffin House, played a range of shows from festivals to wineries, breweries, bars, weddings, and private events, and had their song "Long Drive Home" on the PBS television show Roadtrip Nation.  Their music is a blend of folk and pop music, drawing comparisons to The Civil Wars, The Lumineers and Lady Antebellum.  They have released one album, "Somehow", and reside with their three cats and new dog, Rocky.  

About Emily Kresky (Dropping Julia):
Emily Julia Kresky is a New Jersey born, multifaceted singer-songwriter, guitarist and performer who leads the funky-pop-rock group Dropping Julia. When she was 19 years old she began writing songs and picked up the guitar, which eventually accompanied her on excursions across the US and in Europe, where she spent time working on farms, street performing and playing in various pub and restaurants. She relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia in the winter of 2014 and quickly immersed herself in the local music scene. She has since collaborated with many local musicians and has performed on stages all over Virginia and the east coast including Jammin’ Java, Rockwood Music Hall, TomTom Founders Festival, NorFOLK Fest, RVA Music Hall, Bluegrass Valley Music Festival, and The Southern Cafe and Music Hall. She released her debut solo EP, “No Place to Be”, in March, 2018, celebrating its release in New Orleans during the 2018 Jazz & Heritage Festival with two shows at The Howlin’ Wolf Den. 

Said to have a retro vibe, Emily's songs include elements of genres spanning blues, R&B, swing, folk, pop and rock. They are rich with luscious layers of hauntingly alluring lyrics, catchy melodies and impassioned vocals, and are delivered with a whimsical storyteller quality. She has an authenticity and honesty on stage that is infectious, inspiring and inviting to many, which has made her a strikingly compelling act, both solo and with her band, in the Central Virginia music scene. 

Emily has written two articles on songwriting and the gig life for Americana Rhythm Magazine and she has been featured on numerous Central Virginia radio stations including 106.1 The Corner, Roots Down Radio, WTJU’s Something New, WKDW, Rock Hits 92.3, WPVC Home Grown: Your Show About Local Art and Star 94.3 Shenandoah Valley Local Music Hour. Dedicated to being an active participant in many aspects of the local Charlottesville music scene, she organized and hosted Jam Fish Music Festival for three consecutive years, is a teaching artist for MIMA music, and books music acts for The Shebeen Pub and Braai and for The Front Porch, a roots music school and venue in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia.

About David Kulund:
David Kulund is a singer-songwriter living in Charlottesville, Virginia. David sang and played guitar in popular bands in New York City and Boston. His rock band, the Soft Explosions, was hyped as “the best band in New York, bar none, based on their live shows” (Allmusic). David’s bands performed at major music festivals like SXSW and Hammerstein Ballroom and Webster Hall, sharing bills with artists like Weezer and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. He has played at the Kennedy Center.

David also writes and performs children’s music as the fun and groovy cowboy Ramblin’ Davey. He was a member of the award-winning Dream Jam Band in New York. In Charlottesville Ramblin’ Davey has played at First Night Virginia, the Virginia Discovery Museum, elementary schools and child care centers.

About Marc Carraway (Scuffletown):
For the past 22 years Marc Carraway and John Whitlow have performed together as Scuffletown in concert settings, festivals, and musical events throughout central Virginia, the East Coast and internationally. 

Carraway (who serves as the lead songwriter for the group) performed and toured professionally throughout the 1980's and 90' as a solo singer-songwriter, sharing bills with a range of national artists including Tony Rice Unit, the Kingston Trio, Martin Simpson, and Tom Paxton. With multiple albums to his credit, Marc has received extensive air play for several songs, including "Barrel of a Gun," and more recently, "All These Roads." 

John Whitlow is known as one of the premier harmonica players in the region. He has shared the stage with such diverse artists as John Stewart (The Kingston Trio), Cephas and Wiggins, Jesse Collin Young, Pierce Pettis, world harmonica champion Gary Green and others.