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Ruth Swallow (center) and Davidson Express.

The local bluegrass/folk group Davidson Express played to a sold-out Mooresville Citizens Center auditorium Saturday night and won plenty of applause with a mix of foot-stomping bluegrass standards and fun original songs. But it was an 11-year-old last-minute addition to the group who nearly stole the show.

The concert was part of the Mooresville Concert series. The group – fiddler Sherman Campbell, banjo player David Conner, bassist/songwriter John Wertheimer, mandolin player Tony Hoover and guitarist/vocalist Cameron Swallow – had been rehearsing for weeks in anticipation of the show – their first on a concert stage like this one.

But things didn’t go entirely according to plan. Last week, as the show approached, Ms. Swallow came down with a nasty case of laryngitis. On Thursday, her 11-year-old daughter Ruth, filled during a rehearsal to help the group work out timing for the show.

Despite various treatments, Ms. Swallow’s voice did not recover. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, the group realized it would have to go on without her vocals. Their solution: Why not have Ruth sing in her mother’s place?

Ruth Swallow is no stranger to either singing or the stage. She has played her banjo and sung at folk music events in the past, and regularly joins in when family and friends pull out the instruments and break into song. Last June, she performed along with her parents and sister Davidson Community Players’ production of “Hello Dolly.”

On Saturday, the Davidson IB Middle School sixth grader rose to the occasion, belting out traditional songs and even new ones written by Mr. Wertheimer without a stumble. By the end of the concert, she was finishing Bill Monroe’s bluegrass classic “Can’t You Hear Me Calling” with a vocal flourish worthy of someone years older.

Mr. Wertheimer’s songs were another highlight (according to the program, he has written 90 over the past year). They’re poignant commentaries on the New South in original folk or bluegrass arrangements.

“Mooresville” painted a picture of life in town and dropped the names of local landmarks (including the line “You’ve got to understand I’m a What-a-Burger Man”). “Country Breakfast in the New South” was a sad tale of old age and lost culture. “Big Fat Turkey Legs” put the spotlight on that modern staple of community festival food stands.

Ruth and 11-year-old guitarist Sharad Wertheimer, son of Mr. Wertheimer, also played and sang a humorous folk duet called “Grandma’s Rolls.” It told the tale of one woman’s lifelong strategy of using bad cooking get her husband to take over the chore and his equally determined resistance.

Ruth Swallow said on Sunday that the show was “very fun,” despite being her first performance before “an audience that paid to see me.”

“It gave me adrenaline,” she said, “because I hadn’t really practiced.” Would she do it again? “Yes,” she said, without hesitating.

For Cameron Swallow, it wasn’t the way Saturday’s concert stage debut for Davidson Express was supposed to go. “It was quite an unexpected, wild ride. Now that it’s over, it’s something to tell the grandchildren some day,” Ms. Swallow said.

Thank goodness for such an understudy.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

Feb. 29, 2008, “4-min. interview: Davidson Express.” An audio interview with the group.

Filed under: Davidson arts scene, Davidson people, Mooresville