Alex VanTuyl, who performs as An American Forrest, will play a show near Adna this week.
The American Roots Music concert series at Willapa Hills Farm will be awash in local flavor over the next several months thanks to visits from homegrown talent and a new effort to work hand in hand with area FFA chapters.
Tonight Alex VanTuyl, better known to music lovers as An American Forrest, will return to the renovated barn above the working dairy farm in Doty in order to serenade the crowd with his particular brand of honkytonk poetry and guitar. VanTuyl, a graduate of Adna High School, makes his living as a working musician and is no stranger to the cathedral barn at Willapa Hills Farm, having played to a packed house there just last January.
This time around VanTuyl will be accompanied by singer-songwriter Margo Cilker with their country twang tilted show slated to run from 7-8:30 p.m. in the heated hayloft of the historic gambrel style barn.
Beginning next year the American Roots Music concert series will seek to provide assistance to future farmers in addition to the old hat laborers who keep the milk flowing at Willapa Hills Farm. The February and April concerts will be the first affiliated with a specific FFA chapter and all net proceeds will be donated to the W.F. West FFA group in Chehalis.
“With those two FFA Benefit concerts recently finalized, I just reached out to all other Lewis County High School FFA Leadership to see if they would like to collaborate on a concert,” wrote Stephen Hueffed, owner and operator of the Willapa Hills Farm, in an email to The Chronicle.
In March and June the concert will benefit the Willapa Valley High School FFA while Hueffed is still seeking collaborators and benefactors for the show in May. He says he is slated to meet with at least three more area FFA chapters after the new year.
Hueffed also noted that the American Roots Music concert series, which features live concerts at the barn in Doty on the second Thursday of each month, recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. As the concert series slowly becomes a tradition there are still some changes in store, including a change of concert times beginning in February. Beginning on that Valentine’s Day show with local crooner and W.F. West FFA advisor Chris Guenther the tunes will start a new tradition by striking the first tune at 6:30 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. Even with the earlier start time the music is still scheduled to play until 8:30 p.m.
Hungry early birds will find that there is more to enjoy at Willapa Hills Farm than American roots music and ambiance.
“We have a light meal for staff and artists around 6 p.m. Whoever comes out is welcome to join us,” added Hueffed.
Adult tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the barn door. Youth tickets are $5 in advance or $10 the night of the show with children age 5 and under admitted for free.
Willapa Hills Farm is located 19.6 miles west of Chehalis at 4680 state Route 6. Additional information can be had by emailing rootsmusic@willapahillsfarm.com or by calling 360-291-3937.
Upcoming shows in the American Roots Music concert series at Willapa Hills Farm in Doty include:
December 13, 2018, 7 – 8:30 pm - An American Forrest & Margo Cilker
January 10, 2019, 7 – 8:30 pm – Dan Weber
February 14, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Chris Guenther
March 14, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Sam Densmore in Concert
