Music & Arts

By DON RICHESON, Staff

INDEPENDENCE — While the Grayson County area regularly receives recognition for its bluegrass and country music, heavy metal and rock have a Grayson following also worth noting.

Annabelle’s Curse sounds like a dark family secret, or maybe a play regarding the same. In fact, it’s the name of a band based out of Bristol, started in 2010.

What kind of music comes from having such a spooky name? According to guitarist and occasional pianist Zack Edwards, a Galax native: “Annabelle’s Curse isn’t tied to any one particular genre. We all have different influences and very different backgrounds.”

(The band’s Facebook page uses the descriptor “alt-folk.”)

Christina Pollins-Shackelford, Chestnut Creek School of the Arts’ executive director, recalls the toil that went into the work of art she’s spent countless hours creating.

She stands beside it, a huge sculpture of an older man and his two young daughters. Their shoulders and faces seems to rise up and out of the limestone block that she carved them from over nine painstaking months. The work took place outdoors in her back yard, “in single-digit temperatures and in the 90s,” as she puts it.

Chestnut Creek School of the Arts held its annual Fall Into Art festival on Sept. 20, on Grayson Street and in the school building in downtown Galax.

Attendees took part in several art challenge activities. Their work is on display as part of the Fall Into Art exhibit from now until Oct. 3. People’s Choice prizes will be awarded for these pieces based on public voting; any member of the public can stop by CCSA to vote for their favorites in several categories.