The Selma Times-Journal

The annual Sturdivant Hall Barbecue, one of the most popular autumn events in Selma, will be Friday, September 9 from 7-9 p.m. in the beautifully landscaped rear terrace and grounds where tables, chairs and the buffet line will be set up.

In addition to offering delicious food and entertainment, income from the event helps raise funds for support of the handsome Greek Revival structure.

Tickets are $17.50 each, with sales limited to 250 people. To purchase a ticket call 872-5626 or go directly to Sturdivant Hall, which is open Tuesday through Sunday.

Prepared by Joyce’s Catering, the menu leads with barbecue, smoked, pulled by hand and seasoned with Deep South sauce. Oriental Cole Slaw, made with authentic ingredients; baked beans and old-fashioned potato salad – again, the kind made in kitchens of the past – toasted barbecue bread and sweet tea.

Dessert will be peach cobbler. And there you have a meal our great-grandmothers might well have produced.

The evening does not end when appetites are satisfied. Sturdivant Board President Celia Alison, board members Debe Henry and Patty DeBardeleben and museum director Carol Henry have arranged special entertainment from our neighboring city Marion.

The Kudzu String Band was formed and is directed by Ted Whisenhunt, who is also a professor of art at Judson College. His abstract paintings are familiar in Selma where he has shown his work at the Harmony Club.

Kudzu Band members are Chip Spencer, guitar; Brian Burns, bass; Whisenhunt, banjo and mandolin; and Hanna Lofus, of England, who plays violin.

“Mostly we play festivals in North Alabama,” Whisenhunt says. Friday night at Sturdivant he plans to play “old time music, predating Blue Grass although we might do a few like Buffalo Gals and Alabama Jubilee.

“I believe that my favorite thing to do is to sit around a campfire at some festival and pick with people whom I have never met and hear songs that I have never heard. This is the truest form of old music – music learned from a granddad or uncle, songs handed down from one generation to the next and evolving along the way,” Whisenhunt says.

“When someone plays a song, no matter how simple or complex, they can’t help but to make it an expression of emotion. It may remind them of someone or something from the past, or maybe they just like that particular tune, but there is no escaping the personal innovative style that each individual puts into their music.”

Remember that only 250 tickets will be available for this delightful evening.

Kudzu has an excellent web site: www.kudzustringband.com.