BAINBRIDGE – Travis Chandler & Avery Country are featured at Opry Night at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Bainbridge Town Hall Theater.            
Avery County is a new touring band of seasoned professional musicians playing in the style of pioneers like Charlie Moore, Red Allen, Buzz Busby, Walter Hensley and Dee Gunter and bringing back the entertainment factor in bluegrass music. And the spirit of Baltimore Bar room bluegrass where good women and better music was king. The band took its name from the 1978 title of a Charlie Moore album citing their strong influence from Charlie Moore.
The band felt it was important to point to the man that had a profound impact on all of the members in the group. They were raised on the diet of bluegrass. They are from the heart of bluegrass country, but they are young and energetic with a bit of a wild streak and wanting to take the real lonesome sound to a new and younger audience. Recently at an appearance on Broadway in Nashville, they were referred to as the “Ramones of bluegrass.”
Avery County Bluegrass members sing and play with a honky tonk bar room edge. They have toured with bluegrass greats such as Audie Blaylock, Karl Shiflett and the Big Country Show, and a 9-year stint with the hard edged James King Band. Their songs delve into the darker side of life that bluegrass was meant to explore, but groups have shied away from lately. They aren’t afraid of alcohol, cheating, murder, and even redemption. Powerful originals mixed dark obscure bluegrass from the Baltimore/D.C. honky tonk bluegrass scene of the 1960’s.
Influenced heavily by Charlie Moore, Buzz Busby, Red Allen, Frank Wakefield, Dee Gunter, Walter Hensley, Carter Stanley, the band feels every note they play and sing and relays that to the audience in a way that only a true bluegrass experience can bring. They can even bring a little joy with just the guitar and mandolin with the old time gospel sound.
The Jericho Arts Council is pleased to welcome Karen Spychalski to their Town Hall Gallery on Saturday. Spychalski, a past award-winner in the Jericho Arts Council’s Annual Fine Arts Show, will be showing her photographs.  The gallery is located on the second floor of the Town Hall building, Main Street, Bainbridge.  The photography exhibition will open at 7:00 pm and remain open throughout the evening.  Admission to the gallery is free and the public is welcome. 
Spychalski, a Mt. Upton resident, bought her first camera in 2000 and learned photography by joining on-line critique groups.  She eventually began to win various online contests. She won the Grand Prize in a BetterPhoto.com contest, as well as other first and second place honors. She won third place in a National Geographic contest, and recently one of her photographs was purchased for use as a greeting card which will be available nationally.  She has been a featured artist several times on Webshots.com, and has written a how-to article for the British magazine Digital Photo (complete with a how-to CD ROM).  
 Spychalski used to say that she thought she must have been a camera in a past life,  because even before she bought her first camera she would compose her world visually in “scenes,” as if there were a frame surrounding her field of vision.  She became interested in photography when she worked for a company in Rochester named Light Impressions.  She sold archival storage supplies for photos to museums around the country.  Her office often hosted small photo shows. “It was inspiring to view the works of Mary Ellen Mark and such.”  Karen is not set in any single style or genre. “There is just too much beauty in the world to limit myself ... I remain open to any and all photo-ops.”
  If you enjoy photography, don’t miss this one-night-only show.  It is planned to coincide with the performance of Travis Chandler and Avery Country, which will be held in the Town Hall Theater on the same evening.  Audience members are encouraged to arrive early and take time to visit the gallery.