Two Christmas concerts on tap in Fairview, Dec, 9, 10

By Doug Lowe

Staff writer

12-5-2019

FAIRVIEW—Two wonderful Christmas concerts featuring a bluegrass quartet and Snow College’s best clarinets will be showcased early next week at the Fairview Museum.

This bluegrass quartet of Sara, Sue and the Longbottom Boys will perform at the museum, 85 N. 100 East, on Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. The quartet features four well-known local performers Sara Gunnell (fiddle and mandolin), Susan Shepherd (vocals), Greg Booth (guitar and vocals) and Devin Shepherd (bass, guitar, and vocals) who have played together, on and off, from some eight years, but never done bluegrass together until recently.

The group’s fiddler and mandolin player, Sara Law Gunnel, is a classically trained violinist and violist who has performed with orchestras throughout Utah, in other parts of the USA, and also abroad.  Her bluegrass credits include playing with the band Leaping Lulu and performing on National Public Radio.

Susan Shepherd and her son, Devin, are members of the local country rock band, Junction 89, based in the Wales-Fountain Green area, which had the honor of opening for the Bellamy Brothers in Nephi last summer.

Greg Booth is a prize-winning song writer, performer, and guitar teacher, originally from Ogden, who now lives and teaches in Ephraim while performing in more far flung venues.

And then, on the next night, Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. the Snow College Clarinetists will perform original Christmas arrangements at the Fairview Museum.

According to Snow’s clarinet expert, Madeline Johnson, this group of eight students are among her best, and they have amazed her with all the effort they’ve put into writing original arrangements and practicing for their Christmas concert.

The group’s eight members—Torin Anderson, Alex Blosch, Braiden Clipperton, Clair Isom, Brindyn Nelson, Kierra Priced, and Joshua Ukena—have come to study music at Snow from all over Utah, with one even coming from as far away as Alaska.