For the Democrat-Herald

STAYTON - The sixth annual American Roots Music Festival in October will feature direct descendants of the original Carter family in "Roots & Branches: A Multimedia Celebration of the Carter Family."

The festival will take place Oct. 13 at the Turner Tabernacle in Turner. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.american

rootsmusicfestival.org.

Grammy-winning producer, author and performer John Carter Cash, grandson of Maybelle Carter and son of June Carter and Johnny Cash, will be featured along with his wife, national fiddle champion and Oregon native Laura Cash.

Joining them will be Dale Jett, the grandson of A.P. and Sara Carter, who performs frequently at the Carter Family Fold in Southwest Virginia.

As a trio, A.P. Carter, Sara Carter and Maybelle Carter influenced generations of artists between 1927 and 1941, and helped launch the country music industry with their catalog of classic songs, recordings, vocal harmony innovations and original guitar stylings.

"After five years of steady growth for the American Roots Music Festival, the Carter family celebration takes us to the next level and will allow us to expand our fundraising efforts for school music programs in the area," said Steve Gehlen, festival director.

"Having John, Laura and Dale travel here from Tennessee and Virginia says a lot about their commitment to our objectives of keeping American roots music alive and supporting K-12 music education."

In addition to live performances of classic selections from the influential Carter family music catalog, the event will feature large-screen projection of rare photos and never-before-seen footage from Northwest filmmaker Beth Harrington's work-in-progress documentary about the Carter family.

The festival, which has raised $14,500 for local school music programs over the past three years, showcases a variety of American roots music genres. The 2007 lineup will also feature the Total Experience Gospel Choir from Seattle and the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band from Portland.

In conjunction with this year's festival, a new nonprofit organization called "Keeping the Beat" is being launched to expand the mission of supporting school music education to additional rural Oregon communities.

Festival sponsors include JELD-WEN, West Coast Bank, Holiday Retirement Corp., Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company, Norpac Foods, Inc. and Stayton Auto Parts. Grant funding is provided by the Doris J. Wipper Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.