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A hush falls across the auditorium as house lights dim over blue velvet curtains. The emcee leans into a microphone at stage left and reminds the audience that tonight’s program is being taped for broadcast: Please applaud, he instructs, when his arm goes up. Then he begins speaking in the singsong cadence of an old-time radio announcer:

“Welcome to The Martha Bassett Show, coming to you from the historic Reeves Theater in Elkin, North Carolina — a home for music in the heart of the Foothills.” His tone rises on the words home and heart, and when he gently lifts his arm, the crowd — a mix of gray-haired seniors and young adults, families with children and couples on dates — enthusiastically claps.

Once a week, Martha Bassett’s radio show delivers a range of medleys to listeners from the historic Reeves Theater. photograph by MARK KEMP

Over the next two hours, this majestic 1940s Art Deco-style theater, tucked into a small strip of shops and restaurants on West Main Street, will explode with music from across the region and around the world. A singer-songwriter from Greensboro. An experimental string trio formed in Belgium. A family bluegrass band from right here in Surry County. And, of course, Martha Bassett, the show’s affable, bright-eyed namesake, who’ll perform a few songs of her own and chat onstage with each artist in between sets. At the end, she’ll corral all these disparate musicians back into the spotlight for a full-cast finale of guitars, cello, fiddle, piano, pedal steel, and about 20 voices singing a rousing version of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.”

Since her debut live show in February 2018, Martha Bassett — with a lot of help from many friends — has taken her audiences back to simpler times, drawing from early radio shows like the Carolina Hayride, a popular country-music barn dance broadcast out of Charlotte in the 1940s, as well as modern-day retro shows like Garrison Keillor’s evocative A Prairie Home Companion. People travel to The Reeves Theater from all over the state to attend Martha’s Thursday night tapings; even more people listen to The Martha Bassett Show on eight radio stations across the region, including WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem every Saturday night.

Earlier in the afternoon, Martha ducks into the theater’s green room, where a spread of chicken, barbecue, and other snacks is laid out for the guest artists. She chats with a musician about the big closing song — one of her favorite parts of every show. During past performances, Martha has encouraged jazz guitarists to swing with banjo pickers, a trio of Brazilian vocalists to sing harmonies on a rockabilly song, and an accordion player from Brooklyn to add his reedy keyboard flourishes to an old-time Appalachian folk ballad.

The variety of musicians and storytellers that she brings to this big stage in a small town is not like anything you’d experience anywhere else — but then, Martha is not like anyone you’d meet anywhere else. She grew up in West Virginia, initially rebelling against her bluegrass-loving family by studying opera at UNCG. In her late 20s, she began expanding beyond classical music, performing in a swing band, playing folk and Americana, experimenting with blues and cabaret music. She’d long dreamed of bringing all those sounds together, having musicians of multiple genres collaborate on one goal, one vision. She got the opportunity when two friends decided to renovate the old theater in Elkin. Martha’s partner, the show’s producer, pitched the idea for an old-time radio program, and they loved it.

Striking the right balance each week isn’t easy, but she somehow pulls it off. Because at every taping, when the lights go down and that soothing radio voice welcomes folks to The Martha Bassett Show at the historic Reeves Theater, time stands still.