Join us for Tar Heel Troubadours, a celebration of Americana, roots, bluegrass, and traditional music performed by artists from or living and working in North Carolina.
A music performance at the North Carolina Museum of History is unlike any other! You’ll enjoy an intimate experience with an artist in our 300-seat venue. Every seat in the house has a fantastic view, and the sound is exceptional. The evening is complete with merchandise from the artist and a bar with a special beer from Fullsteam Brewery plus wine.
Our Tar Heel Troubadours series works to keep music accessible to our community by keeping ticket prices affordable. Visit the museum’s website for up-to-date information and tickets.
DaShawn Hickman grew up hearing pedal steel in the tiny House of God church his family attended in Mount Airy and listening to his mother play lap steel in their home. Hickman picked up pedal steel guitar at the age of 5. Now he’s one of the foremost contemporary practitioners of sacred steel, a blues-gospel tradition dating back to the Pentecostal Holiness churches of the 1930s.
Hickman put his own spin on the sacred steel tradition with Drums, Roots & Steel, his debut album on the label Little Village, produced by Charlie Hunter (who also plays bass on the recordings). The album also featured the soulful vocals of Hickman’s wife Wendy on several tracks. Hickman was inducted into the 2023 class of the Sacred Steel Hall of Fame and was nominated in multiple categories for the Blues Music Awards and Blues Blast Music Awards the same year. “We just want to spread love and joy to people,” said Hickman. “That’s our mission, me and my wife both. We love what we do, and we just want to take it out and let other people experience it and be heard in the right way.”