1979 Blue Ridge Mountain Grass Bluegrass Band - 3-Page Vintage Article

Description

1979 Blue Ridge Mountain Grass Bluegrass Band - 3-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
John Cheney, Virgil Harrison, Bill Wells, Bobby Kay, Andy Cartoun.
Blue Ridge
Mountain Grass
I first had the opportunity to hear the
Blue Ridge Mountain Grass perform at a
concert for the veterans at the Naval
Hospital at Great Lakes, Illinois (near
Chicago) in late summer of 1977. Bill
Wells, the co-founder and manager of the
group (which at that time was known as
Lake County Bluegrass Friends) is a re-
tired Navy man himself and we struck up
a discussion about the “art” of bluegrass
music. That was my initial real exposure
to bluegrass music - regretably because I
wish had been sooner - but none-the-less
the beginning of my love affair with the
old style mountain music they call blue-
grass, and more precisely, with the
enticing sounds of the Blue Ridge
Mountain Grass. Later on when I had the
opportunity to interview the group I
jumped at the chance, almost as eagerly
as the group recently jumped at the
chance to be on the same bill with Ralph
Stanley at the Old Old House in
Whitewater, Wisconsin. Bill recalls the
memorable event. “We got a call late
Friday asking if we were booked this
weekend, I said, ‘No we weren’t we had
an open date.’ Then I was asked if
we’d like to come up and do the warm-up
and intro for Ralph Stanley who was going
to be in Whitewater this weekend.
I really couldn’t believe what I was hear-
ing, so we took ’em up on the offer. We
had an opportunity to get in on the open-
ing of Bill Monroe’s Brown County
Jamboree Park in Bean Blossom, Indiana
this year. The weather was awful that
night, it was raining and sleeting and
colder than all get out, and they were pre-
dicting more of the same for the whole
weekend, but I’d drive through a dozen
sleet storms to play with Bill Monroe.
That was definitely the thrill of a
lifetime for me - for all of us!” Indeed,
since their organization three years ago,
this group’s fame and popularity in the
Midwest has really rocketed! For the first
three months of their inception, their
only live performing was practicing three
nights a week in the basement of Bill’s
home in Lake Villa, Illinois, (a peaceful,
residential community about 50 minutes
or so north of Chicago). In 1977 they
participated in three bluegrass festivals,
through the first six months of this year
they’ve participated in five festivals in
Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and
Virginia, and that’s not including the fact
that already in 1978 they have
appeared with Lester Flatt’s Nashville
Grass, Ralph Stanley and the Clinch
Mountain Boys and Bill Monroe and The
Blue Grass Boys.
My interview took place at Bill’s house
one night shortly before the group started
rehearsing for an upcoming engagement
in Wisconsin. He spoke of his start in
bluegrass.
“I’ve always enjoyed bluegrass, ever
since I was growing up back home in
Hiltons, Virginia...” (Bill was born in
Cromona, Kentucky, the son of a Baptist...
14586-AL-7901-34