A lot has happened in the past couple months (I know I need to start posting more often): We added a son-in-law to our family at a beautiful wedding, and had a great time at the reception playing music with our group, supplemented with Steve Thomas on fiddle, Rick Loyd on drums, and Ray Barr on electric guitar. As you might gather, we mixed in a little country with our bluegrass for those that wanted to dance. We’ve played great shows at the Pinch Reunion, the Johnny Staats bluegrass festival in Parkersburg, the Sorghum Festival in South Point, OH, and our annual central WV weekend tour from the Braxton County Jamboree, Jerry Run theater in Webster Co., and Tamarack at Beckley. Highlight weekends included our trip to Roanoke to play at Fiddlefest, followed the next day by a trip to the Buffalo Bluegrass Festival in Beverly, OH, and of course our first Gabefest, where we hosted Lost & Found, the Darrell Webb Band, Monroeville, and a lot of other great groups.

Sadly, our Gabefest was the farewell performance of our bass player, Joe Vance, Jr., with the group. As our schedule, and the traveling, has increased, Joe has concluded that between maintaining his full-time supervisory position with Bayer chemical plant and commitments to his church (where he is an assistant pastor) and family (he has a child still in school), he can not continue as a member of our group. We have enjoyed and appreciated Joe’s contributions to the group and are proud of his contributions to the growth of our music, including his involvement in our last recording, and wish him all the best in the future.

While we are sorry to see Joe depart, we are excited about the future with our newest member, John “Buckwheat” Green. Buckwheat is a great singer, songwriter and musician, whose impressive resume includes having been a member of the Lonesome River Band with Dan Tymnski, Tim Austin, and Dale Perry. Many of his songs have been recorded, including The Old Man In The Shanty, recorded by the Lonesome River Band and more recently by the Chapmans, and two others recorded by the Lonesome River Band — It Won’t Be Like Cheatin’ and If I Could Only Have Your Love. We would probably not be looking to record a new CD quite this soon, but with Buckwheat’s vocals and songwriting contributions, a new recording will probably be in the works sooner rather than later.

We had a big trip to Nashville for IBMA with a lot of exciting news to report but I’ll close for now and give out all the scoop in our next post. Come out and see us at the Bob Evans Farm Festival if you can. More LATER.