The Lanier Library will be celebrating Tryons 125-year history with music and poetry on Saturday, September 4 beginning at 2 p.m. Everyone is invited to join in the festivities.

Weather permitting, the first event will be at the Greene Corner (across Melrose Avenue from the library) at 2 p.m. If its raining it will be in the library. This will be a performance of music by Bob and Amy Buckingham, from upstate South Carolina, interspersed with poetry by local poets Anna Pack Conner and Jim Farrell. This will be followed by a flute recital by Lea Kibler inside the library. There will also be tours of the library throughout the day and light refreshments will be served.

Founding members of the award winning band The Blue Ridge Rounders, Bob and Amy Buckingham have appeared at music festivals throughout the south both with the band and as a duo. They have both won numerous awards for their performances and also teach instrumental music. In addition to singing, Amy plays guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin and bass and her husband Bob, also a strong singer, plays banjo, mandolin, fiddle and guitar. Their repertoire includes familiar and less familiar old time Appalachian music, bluegrass and southern blues. They have recorded several CDs.

Polk County native Anna Pack Conner is well-known locally for her research and teaching of the history of Polk County at Isothermal Community College and at the Polk County Museum in Columbus. She is the author&bsp; of Tryon: An Illustrated History and To Seem Or To Be.&bsp; She will be reading some of her recently-published poems.

Jim Farrell is also well-known locally as an actor, musician,&bsp; playwright, novelist and poet.&bsp; He has published several books of his works and will be reading some of his poems. A native of Washington, D.C., Farrell began his career as a teacher of creative writing, before pursuing his interest in live performance. Since that time he has worked as a full time actor in New York and as a singer in Los Angeles. He now lives and writes in Polk County.

A North Carolina native, flautist Lee Kibler was a member of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra where she performed as a soloist on both flute and piccolo and has also toured with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra as principal flute. Her solo CD The Back of Beyond, Music Inspired by the Appalachian Mountains was released in 2008. She will be performing music by the poet and composer Sidney Lanier, who spent his last days in Tryon and for whom the Lanier Library is named.

Books and CDs from all the performers will be available for purchase and signing at the library both before and following the performances.

The Lanier Library, located at the corner of Chestnut Street and Melrose Avenue, will be extending its normal Saturday opening hours for this celebration. The programs are all free and everyone is welcome.