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The Stanly County Historical Society will present A.J. Bennett in concert at 6:30 p.m. May 15.

The free concert will be streamed on Facebook, as seating is limited to 50 guests at the concert at 112 N. Third St., Albemarle. Those attending need to bring a blanket or lawn chair.

Register online at historicstanly.org.

Bennett grew up in the rural foothills of North Carolina.

He began playing mandolin, guitar, banjo and fiddle in middle school and never put them down. A graduate of Appalachian State University, he continued his pickin’ at local jams around Boone and the occasional country gig with Pennsylvania-based singer-songwriter Austin Rife.

Since beginning his teaching career in Stanly County, he has focused on combining his love of music with his love of history. Using a variety of instruments, he brings the early history of the country and region to life with fiddle tunes, marches, ballads, German and English hymns. He is currently learning 18th century German, in part to decipher and learn to play material from Mozart’s daddy’s mid-18th century violin instruction book and from the tune and hymn books of the early German settlers of this region.