Elizabeth LaPrelle hails originally from Rural Retreat in southwestern Virginia. She's been performing Appalachian ballads and old-time songs since she was eleven. Her grasp of this repertoire has garnered high praise from many leading lights of Appalachian folk tradition. She's studied with noted singers like Ginny Hawker and Sheila Kay Adams, and explored songs found in archives and field recordings from the region.
Elizabeth's performances are truly riveting, even transporting, in their evocation of the mountain milieu. She has a powerful voice that tugs at both the ear and the heart. She sings many songs unaccompanied, but also plays the 5-string banjo.
I think Elizabeth started to appear on the folk circuit in our region around the time she went to college - she graduated from William & Mary with a major in Appalachian traditional performance. (Funny, they didn't offer that where I went to school!) She became an instant favorite for devotees of traditional singing. She now tours widely and is doing her part to pass the music along by teaching it. She's released three CDs under her own name, and two more with her duo partner Anna Roberts-Gevalt. And, she recently made her big-screen debut with a supporting role in the film The Mountain Minor.
Our host for this evening (333's "28th birthday" concert) will be 333's Host Emeritus, the inimitable Max Ochs. It was Max's idea to bring Elizabeth to 333, and we're pleased that it worked out!
-Tom Rhoads