Newton - Tom Paxton, the renowned singer-songwriter, wrote of Jay Smar, “There is a fire in his fiddle and it’ll spread to your heart.” Smar will perform at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 28, in the Sussex Bank Theater at Sussex County Community College, One College Hill Rd. in Newton. Smar’s repertoire includes performing on guitar, fiddle, banjo, and vocals, recreating many of the traditional songs of the Northeast Pennsylvania coal mines. Smar’s professional career started with a touring folk country band that led to a two-week gig at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. It was there his love of acoustic music richened, so he returned to Pennsylvania to help form an old-time trio “High Strung.” The group lasted two years and released an album that earned its way to the top of area PBS radio. Smar then returned to working solo, which he initially began at age 19. Smar introduces his audience to the “coal region” of Pennsylvania, where, during the 1800s, coal made an impact on the people and the region itself. He finds his information in local and state libraries, puts his information into poetic form, then composes music to fit his lyrics. Smar’s concerts feature traditional folk music, country, original compositions and flat-footing - a form of clog dancing. His interpretations of coal mining songs have earned him the honor to record music for a BBC Welsh documentary, The Welsh in America, which traces the migration of the Welsh to the coal fields of Pennsylvania. For concert information, call 973-300-2120.