If you follow Nothin’ Fancy’s newsletter, you will have noted the sad story they told in the March ‘09 issue. It was a tale of vehicular woe, in which a wheel from their long-suffering van came rolling off and passed them on the highway.

Mandolinist Mike Andes relayed the events that transpired on February 22…

Within 20 minutes of our trip, Mitchell says, “There are flames coming out of the back wheel.” Mitchell was driving so he pulls off the road and Gary puts the fire out with ice from our cooler. We stand around for a while and decide to try and limp the van up the road to an exit ramp. Everything is going quite well; we stop a couple of times and check the wheel, its OK. We keep going.

Tony is riding shotgun, he is glued to the mirror watching the passenger side rear wheel when he says “there’s sparks coming out of the trailer wheel.” Mitchell stops immediately; we check the wheel and agree to keep going as far as we can. Finally we get off the interstate and pull into a service mart. We are trying to come up with a game plan. We check the wheels, they’re not overly hot, and so we decide to go further.

While leaving the parking lot, Tony says, “The trailer wheel is really wobbling.” OK, so we drop the trailer and put everything we need into Chris’s vehicle. Chris is following the injured Nothin’ Fancy van.

Now back on the road, I really thought we might make it since we weren’t pulling the trailer; I was wrong. 15 minutes into the journey, I had just fallen asleep along side the bass and all kinds of luggage, KA BOOM the van is listing starboard. My first question was, “Did Chris run over our wheel?” Tony answered, “no, our wheel passed us.”

Here we sit.

Everyone will be glad to know that the boys made it on time for their next show – thanks to a taxi service – and are now driving their own tour bus, recently acquired from David Parmley. They even sent along a few photos of their new ride.

Our good buddy, Katy Daley from WAMU’s Bluegrass Country, spent much of last week at the River Of Music Party, more commonly known as ROMP, in Owensboro, KY. It’s a 4 day festival put on by the International Bluegrass Museum which always makes recognition of the pioneers of our music a part of their stage schedule.

Katy not only served as an emcee, but also kept up a regular blog on the WAMU’s MySpace page throughout the week. She has photos and a running commentary of the week’s events.

She also was on the job getting signatures on petitions for the Bill Monroe US Postal Stamp campaign. The goal of the campaign is to convince the United States Postal Service to honor Bill Monroe with his own stamp in 2011, which would have been his 100th birthday.

Katy sent along these photos of prominent grassers endorsing the Monroe stamp campaign at ROMP.

Find out how you can help make the Monroe stamp come to fruition. All necessary details and materials here.

Darrell Webb has left Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and announced that he is forming his own group. His last show with Michael was on June 21, and Darrell has most of his new band already in place.

Matt Leadbetter will be on resonator guitar, Owen Piatt on banjo and Jeremy Aarwood on bass. Darrell tells us that he will either play mandolin or guitar himself, depending on who he chooses to complete the group.

He tells us that after stints with Lonesome River Band, JD Crowe & The New South, Wildfire, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and Flamekeeper, the time is right for him to lead his own band.

“I’m going to do my own thing from here on out. I’ve waited long enough, and I’m really going to work hard and do my best to try make it happen on my own.

You don’t ever know until you try.”

Flamekeeper has not yet chosen a replacement for Darrell, and has Jeff White playing guitar on an interim basis until a new hire comes on board. Webb leaves with nothing but respect for Michael and all the guys in Flamekeeper.

“I wish the band the best of luck but right now I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish. My fans can look forward to seeing The Darrell Webb Band out and about soon. I am excited about the new things that are in store for me right now.”

Darrell’s web site is being updated now, and new information should be available there in a few weeks. In the meantime, he is eager to communicate with anyone about his new endeavor, and can be reached by email at mandocaster2005@hotmail.com.

His energies right now are dedicated to his first effort at festival promotion with Coalfest 2009 (July 17-19) in Pilgrims Knob, VA, where he serves as co-director.