Check out the upcoming Fiddle Tunes and Fish Camps

The Earl Scruggs Center is bringing local history back to life this Friday with a fish fry and music event that ties in to the story of famed musician Earl Scruggs.

Fiddle Tunes and Fish Camps: A Fish Fry at the Earl Scruggs Center, will be held on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at 103 S. Lafayette St., Shelby.

Tickets are available on the Earl Scruggs Center website at earlscruggscenter.org or people can call 704-487-6233.

Tickets are $40 for members and $50 for non-members. Seating is limited.

Mary Beth Martin, executive director of the Earl Scruggs Center, said fish fries and fish camps were an important part of life in Cleveland County during the time of Scruggs' upbringing.

"That was a place where he played music early on and where he honed his skills, and it was an important social event," she said. "People would catch fish down at the river, have a fish fry and make music."

She said the fish fry pulls out a piece of Scruggs' story and takes a closer look at it. Martin said the blue grass musician, who popularized the three-finger banjo picking style, was born right before the Great Depression and experienced many of the things other Cleveland County residents lived through, including working the family farm and working in the textile mills.

"Most people in Cleveland County can make that connection," she said. "It's just one way to tell his story and make that connection locally."

The Fiddle Tunes and Fish Camps dinner program will recreate the feeling of early fish camps along the Broad River. According to the Facebook event page, "fresh fish and all of the fixins will be served and for entertainment the musical duo of fiddler Will Ritter and banjo player Brett Riggs two of the finest musicians in Western North Carolina."

There will also be a presentation on the history of early Carolina fish camps given by Dr. Stephen Criswell, director of Native American Studies at USC-Lancaster, who has contributed articles on fish camps to the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and the South Carolina Encyclopedia. Dr. Criswell has studied southern foodways for years and has researched the origins of everything from hushpuppies to banana pudding.

"Fish Camps have played an important role in the community of Cleveland County dating back nearly 100 years when groups of hungry patrons would gather at the banks of the Broad River to enjoy fried fish and great music," the event description said. "It was in this environment that a young Earl Scruggs first played in front of live audiences alongside of his brother and earliest musical partner Horace. The two would walk home along the banks of the Broad River with stomachs full of fresh fish and hushpuppies and pockets rattling with change."

Martin said the event will take place in the great hall with food and music and fresh fish will be cooked on the court square.

She said the event is connected to a special exhibit called Born of the Broad River examining Scruggs' life from the time of his birth in 1924 up until he left the county to pursue music full-time in 1945.

"Much of the exhibit is taken from Earl's own words," Martin said. "We have handwritten notes, remembrances from his time growing up in Cleveland County. That included playing at fish fries and fish camps."

She said the exhibit will be up through the end of the year.