Bill plays bass and sings (just as he did with the Gents), with assistance from Darren Beachley on guitar and vocals, Kevin Church on banjo and vocals, Dave Propst on mandolin and vocals, Mark Clifton on resonator guitar, Mike Phipps on vocals, and Terry Pearson and Dave MacGlashan on bass.

The songs will all be familiar to long-time followers of The Country Gentlemen.

• Joe’s Last Train
  
• Darby Castle
• One Morning In May
• I’d Rather Live By The Side Of The Road
• Willow Creek Dam
• Dark As A Dungeon
• Meet Me Over On The Other Side
• Bringing Mary Home
• Matterhorn
• The Old Pine Tree
• Fox On The Run
• Legend Of The Rebel Soldier
• It’s Just Like Heaven
• Traveling Kind

Several audio samples can be found on Bill’s MySpace page.

Fred tells us that he just stumbled across the slides after decades sitting in a box, and says that he is delighted to be able to share them with the bluegrass community.

If you enjoyed the Bluegrass Country Soul DVD released in 2006, you are sure to appreciate Fred’s photos, which were taken a year after the festival documented in that DVD. New bluegrass fans will get a kick out of seeing some of today’s premier artists when they were younger, and folks who were following bluegrass in the 1970s will have some powerful memories rekindled.

There are shots of The Country Gentlemen, The Kentucky Gentlemen, Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, James Monroe, Bluegrass 45, The McLain Family, Mac Wiseman, IInd Generation and the original Newgrass Revival.

Here are a few images Fred agreed to let us post, but you really need to see them all, put together in a very nice slide show online.

               

Fred also has a great many audio and video recordings from bluegrass events posted where they can be seen and heard online.

First up, he is engaged to be married to Brooke Justice, with whom he has started a new band. Darin is on guitar, Brooke on mandolin, with Chris Bryant on banjo, Eddie Biggerstaff on bass and Perry Woddie on resonator guitar. All five sing, with Brooke and Darin the featured lead vocalists.

Darin Aldridge & Brooke Justice will have a new CD, I’ll Go With You, due October 14 on Pinecastle Records and the band will be at IBMA this coming week showcasing the hard driving Gospel music that is their specialty.

Here is a YouTube clip of the band doing Get Down And Pray, one of the songs from the new CD. Audio samples for the others can be heard on their MySpace page.

The first CD was released in December of 2006. We first brought you news of volume 2 in December of 2007. Darren tells me a December 2008 release is planned for this second tribute CD.

Work is about 75 percent finished. Songs include “Traveling Kind”, “Dark As A Dungeon”, “Joe’s Last Train”, “Darbys Castle” and “Willow Creek Dam”. The lineup includes Bill Yates, Darren Beachley (DL&Q), Mike Phipps, Dave Propst, Kevin Church (former country gent) and Mark Clifton.

Yates and company are currently putting together their tour schedule for early next year in support of this new recording.

You can find their tour schedule on their myspace page.

Harry Grant from The Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival in Pennsylvania will be on hand as well for Friday’s show. He is bringing live recordings from past fests, as well as his many backstage stories and anecdotes from years in bluegrass music.

Lonesome Pine RFD is broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon on 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm. It will also be recorded for a later broadcast on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.

At the time the fledgling link-up didn’t have a website. It does now! Go to the new website to see the liner notes, bios, and more about the CD – plus sound clips.

As an aside, Martha Adcock told me how the name RadioTherapy Records was chosen. I thought I would share the thought process involved …

“In thinking of a name for our own record label, I thought it was best to check the www.allrecordlabels.com site to see if any of our choices had been taken, to avoid the possible confusion of our label having the same name as another. Lo and behold, all the ones we had chosen were already in use; I have a whole page of them that I systematically checked off on the list. So I resorted to the dictionary for inspiration. I like alliteration, so the R’s were consulted first; and when I came upon the word ‘radiotherapy,’ meaning ‘therapy effected through the use of radiation (the definition of the term ‘radiation’ includes sound waves) I thought it would do very well to call our label RadioTherapy Records ‚Äî because of course music is good for you!”

Great story, isn’t it?

The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band features Randy Waller, son of Charlie Waller, who, like his father, sings lead and plays guitar; Eddie Adcock (banjo, lead and baritone vocals), Tom Gray (upright bass, bass and baritone vocals) and Jimmy Gaudreau (mandolin, lead and tenor vocals). They have been making several personal appearances, most notably to mark the 50th anniversary, last year, of the formation of the original Country Gentlemen.

Adcock, Gaudreau, Waller & Gray – The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band (RTR-CD-001) has 13 tracks, four of which, including the opening song Widow Of The Glade, are by the late lamented Randall Hylton. Remember the Country Gentlemen’s other ghost stories? Well, this is a modern counterpart to Bringing Mary Home. Older songs to get the Country Gentlemen treatment include I Hope You Have Learned, Grave In The Valley, Little Box Of Pine, Sundown And Sorrow and Some Old Day.

Other notable numbers are White Line Fever from Merle Haggard, Sweet Georgia Brown and a jazzy new instrumental composed by Gaudreau, El Doggo.

Co-producer Martha Adcock comments …..

“After Monroe, if anyone can be said to have turned bluegrass in a new direction, it was without a doubt the ‘Classic’ Country Gentlemen: John Duffey, Charlie Waller, Eddie Adcock and Tom Gray. No one else did as much to re-popularize and reinvigorate the genre, taking it to city-folk audiences, and onto hip college campuses, to large theaters and coffeehouses, and eventually to Carnegie Hall. Their musical creativity, individually and synergistically, coupled with their hip irreverence and loose attitude onstage, was a quantum leap from the past, and it brought about a sea change in bluegrass, a dramatic expansion of the genre.”

Tom Gray adds …

“Eddie, Randy, Jimmy and I started playing a few dates together as the C.G.R.B. with the purpose of recreating the ‘Classic Country Gentlemen sound by those closely associated with creating it.”

This new CD is a welcome addition to the catalogue of recordings in the classic Country Gentlemen’s style.

There isn’t a website for RadioTherapy Records at the moment, but they are working hard to set that up. MP3 audio samples may be made available also.

For more information about the Country Gentlemen Reunion Band and Radio Therapy Records, write them at PO Box 219 Lebanon, Tennessee 37088-0219

They can also be reached by phone (615-443-7135 or 615-476-8786) or email.

Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein are names that should be familiar to bluegrass fans. Klein spent time with Seldom Scene, and later with Mike Auldridge (and Jimmy Gaudreau) in Chesapeake. Gaudreau has been a member of several of the most celebrated acts ever to play bluegrass – The Country Gentlemen, JD Crowe & The New South and The Tony Rice Unit, to name a few.

Their debut CD together is called 2:10 Train, and the performances are true duets throughout. There are no guest artists, just Moondi on guitar and lead vocals with Jimmy on mandolin and harmony. The material is taken from traditional old time and country music, and some of the best contemporary bluegrass and folk songwriters. If you’ve followed these genres for the past 20 years or so, most of the titles will be familiar, but each receives a treatment that is fresh and perfectly in keeping with the minimalist approach on this CD.

You’ll find Tom Paxton’s Last Thing On My Mind, Pete Goble’s Colleen Malone, Harley Allen’s High Sierra and Eric Bogle’s And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda among the newer songs along with old time favorites like Sweet Sunny South, Shady Grove and Black Jack Davey.

There are a few audio samples on Jimmy and Moondi’s site, and for all the tracks in iTunes.

Greatest hits of bluegrass collections seem to come out every few months, many of them little more than back catalog tracks by lesser-known artists. When a project is titled Best Loved Bluegrass – 20 All-Time Favorites, it’s fair to expect a good bit from the CD.

And this new Rebel compilation delivers. Not only are there offerings from Tony Rice, Lonesome River Band, The Country Gentlemen, Larry Sparks, Del McCoury, Ralph Stanley, JD Crowe and others, the songs are great examples of each artists’ work during the time they recorded for Rebel.

The Lost Found are here with Love Of The Mountains, Emerson & Waldron with the original version of Fox On The Run (classic!), Reno & Smiley with Little Rosewood Casket and Claire Lynch with Wabash Cannonball. The Gent’s offer Bringing Mary Home and Mac Wiseman Footprints In The Snow, with Larry Sparks’ version of Roving Gambler and Keith Whitley & Ricky Skaggs doing Dream Of A Miner’s Child (while they were still in school).

You can see the full track listing – and hear audio samples – in iTunes.

Darren will be producing along with Yates as executive producer on this second set of re-recordings of classic Gentlemen cuts from their hey day. Tracking is scheduled to begin in January.

Bill will contribute vocals, Darren and Mike Phipps will be on guitar and vocals, Dave Propst on mandolin and vocals, Dave Macglashen on bass, and in the sole change from Yates’ previous tribute CD, Rick Alred will be on banjo.

Darren says that they are all pleased to have Rick, another Gentlemen alum, with them in the studio.

“Scott Walker had just recently let Bill know that he wouldn’t be able to continue, so we called Rick and he took the gig. I am excited to have him coming in on this recording He has a great set of ears and is a real pro in the studio plus, having been with Country Gentlemen, he knows what that sound is all about.”

Bill has many loyal fans from his 20 years as a member of The Country Gentlemen, and they will surely greet this next CD with enthusiasm. Audio samples from the first tribute project can be found on MySpace.

Randy Waller’s website has a video available of the reunion band playing the Country Gentlemen classic Rebel Soldier. What a great sound. Randy sings lead with Doyle Lawson cutting the tenor.

The video is in Windows Media format and the clip is 37 MB, so those with a slow connection will need to be patient. It’s worth the wait though.

The story of the formation of the Country Gentlemen is well told. An automobile crash involving Buzz Busby and his Bayou Boys left only Bill Emerson fit to play a personal appearance that had been scheduled for July 4.

Emerson called a couple of friends and they formed a quartet to fulfil the date at the Admiral Grill in Baileys Crossroads, Virginia. The band’s original members were Charlie Waller on guitar and lead vocals, John Duffey on mandolin and tenor vocals, Bill Emerson on banjo and baritone vocals, and Larry Lahey on bass. Thus, it is claimed, modern bluegrass was born.

The Country Gentlemen are universally acclaimed as one of the most important progressive bluegrass bands. They brilliantly created a unique blend of folk and bluegrass that did much to make bluegrass music very popular in the Washington DC area.

After a few early personnel changes, the line-up of co-founders Charlie Waller (guitar) and John Duffey (mandolin) with Eddie Adcock (banjo) and Tom Gray (bass) that played from 1960 through to 1964 came together. This combination has often been referred to retrospectively as ‘The Classic’ Country Gentlemen. This quartet was very popular during the early 1960s; one of the highlights of the period being their appearance at Carnegie Hall in September 1961.

In November 1965 their song Bringing Mary Home climbed to #43 on Billboard magazine’s country music charts; their best placed release. Ed Ferris had by this time replaced Tom Gray on bass.

Another highly rated combination was that which comprised Waller, Emerson, Doyle Lawson (mandolin) and Bill Yates (bass); a quartet that was together briefly in the early 1970s.

Just as Bill Monroe had a renowned training school for traditional bluegrass musicians, the Country Gentlemen have numerous young musicians on its membership roster. These musicians can rightly be referred to as a Who’s Who of the contemporary bluegrass world. In addition to those already mentioned are:

Honorary Country Gentlemen – those who played on recording sessions for the Country Gentlemen – include Wayne Yates, Mike Auldridge, Ronnie Bucke (Freeland) and Spider Gilliam.

Charlie Waller remained the sole original member until his death in August, 2004. Since then Charlie’s son Randy has taken over the leadership of the band and has continued to keep the name of the group prominent among the nation’s finest contemporary bluegrass bands.

The Country Gentlemen made their recording debut in October 1957, cutting Going to the Races and Heavenward Bound for the local Dixie label. That single never made much impact beyond the Washington DC city limits, but the Country Gentlemen’s December 1957 recording of It’s The Blues and Backwoods Blues for Starday led to their name becoming known further afield. The band made a number of singles for Starday over the next few years, including Rolling Stone, a cover of Tom Dooley (with new lyrics by Kuykendall), High Lonesome, The Devil’s Own, Hey Little Girl, The Hills of Home, New Freedom Bell, (Poor) Ellen Smith, Red Rocking Chair, I’ll Never Marry, Copper Kettle and Sunrise.

It has been estimated that at one time the Country Gentlemen released on average one album a year. It is certainly a long list ……

Since then Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen has released Keeper of the Flame (Lendel, 2006), supported by Mark Delaney on banjo, David Kirk on mandolin and Gary Creed on bass.

Through the years the Country Gentlemen has recorded many songs that have become perennial favourites, including bluegrass versions of songs from a diversity of idioms, Little Bessie, The Long Black Veil, Two Little Boys, Bringing Mary Home, The Legend Of The Rebel Soldier, Bob Dylan’s Girl Of The North Country, Matterhorn and Fox On The Run. Other very popular recordings include This Morning At Nine, Calling My Children Home, Come And Sit By The River, Electricity, When They Ring Them Golden Bells, God’s Colouring Book and Casey’s Last Ride.

The Country Gentlemen have won many awards during their long existence. In 1972 they dominated the Muleskinner News awards, collectively and individually, and in 1973 the group won the best band award for the second year in a row.

They have won many SPBGMA awards, both individually and as a group, including their induction to the SPBGMA Preservation Hall of Greats. In 2003 Charlie Waller was given the very special Diamond award for winning male vocalist of the year 10 times.

The iconic ‘Classic’ Country Gentlemen were IBMM Hall Of Honor inductees in 1996 and in February 2006 they were inducted into the Washington (DC) Area Music Association’s Hall of Fame.

The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band (Eddie Adcock, Jimmy Gaudreau, Randy Waller and Tom Gray) is making some live appearances in 2007 under that name. The biggest of the events planned to mark the 50th anniversary will be held July 13 & 14 at Watermelon Park, Berryville Virginia. Also, the quartet has recorded a new CD, although other details remain unresolved at the moment.

A couple of Country Gentlemen have graciously provided comment to mark the occasion.

Tom Gray, one of the early pioneers, provides a story that has an international flavour …….

“In the summer of 1963, The Country Gentlemen played a two week engagement at the Moon Cusser Coffee House in Oak Bluffs Massachusetts, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. It was a folk music venue which would have two acts play every night for a week at a time. One of our weeks there, we shared the bill with the Scottish folk singer, Jean Redpath. The MoonCusser had a big old house where they would house their entertainers. During the week we spent there with Jean Redpath, we would sit around at night after our shows and talk music and share songs. She developed a friendship with Eddie Adcock. Eddie was into body and muscle building and talked about how much weight he could lift. Now Jean was a strong woman herself. So, one night when Eddie talked about lifting weights, she decided to show what she could do. She picked up Eddie over her shoulder and carried him around the house, finally dropping him in the bath tub. John Duffey had followed them into the bathroom, laughing at Eddie’s predicament. So she turned to John, said “What are you laughing at?”. She then picked up John, threw him in the tub, and turned the water on.”

Jimmy Bowen, a much more recent member of this great band, shares his thoughts about what it means to him to have worked with his hero Charlie Waller.

“I dreamed of being a Country Gentlemen ever since the age of 8. I got my first guitar when I was 6 and started to learn to play. My father was an avid Flatt/Scruggs, Monroe and Reno/Smiley fan. I grew up listening to those pioneers. But, there was just something about groups like Country Gentlemen, JD Crowe, Tony Rice, Seldom Scene and Bluegrass Cardinals. Growing up listening to the albums (back then), it was magic just to hear Charlie Waller open his mouth. God, what a voice. I started to learn how to sing tenor at the age of about 12 or 13. My dad always told me that maybe if I practiced enough I might get good enough to become a member and sing tenor with the great Charlie Waller. In a comical way, I would say, “Oh dad, he will be dead and gone before I can reach the age to perform or even try out with Charlie Waller”. But I kept practicing and learning the material. When I was in the later years of high school, I went to Statesville NC to see Charlie perform at an auction barn. That was when Rick Allred and Kent Dowell were members. I waited around and hung around the bus until Charlie got sick of looking at me and me hanging around, he asked me, “Boy, what do you do”, and I said, “I sing tenor sir, could I sing just one song with you?” We sang “Lord I’m Ready” off the ‘Calling My Children Home’ album. The crowd went nuts. Man that was a thrill to finally sing with Charlie Waller.

I went on to college after that weekend and achieved a degree in Accounting from the Citadel (Military College of South Carolina). After moving to Nashville upon graduation in 1985, I called Charlie about a job. He said that he and Bill Yates were parting ways and he needed a bass player. He remember how I sang with him in Statesville a few years back and really wanted me to come on board as a member. I met the band in Kentucky one weekend to do some show with Melvin Goins. Man, I have never had such fun in my life. I started with Charlie in the later part of 1987. Charlie, me, Kevin Church, and Norman Wright were members at that time. To perform with those guys was such an honour. It was just an honour to a member of the Country Gentlemen. Charlie was my Bill Monroe. Through the years that I stayed a member, Charlie and I became closer and closer, We were really like father and son instead of employer to employee. Randy and I look a lot alike and so I think a reminded him of Randy. Randy wasn’t around a lot in those days, but Randy and I stayed in touch and became like brothers. I told him I would always take care of his Daddy while I was there, and I did.

During those years I had the honour of recording two CDs with Charlie, (1) New Horizon – which gave him Waltz of the Angels – which went No. 1 for us and (2) Souvenirs.

Due to illness that occurred with Charlie in the later part of 1994 – November to be exact – during the Myrtle Beach festival – I had to leave the band. God, what a sad time for both of us. Charlie and I both cried that day. Like I said he was like a father and me a son. But due to his illness, dates were being cancelled and I had to work due to wife and kids. Charlie and I continued to do some shows together up until his death when other band members could not make the show for what ever reason.

The only way that I can sum up my experience with Charlie, because there are so many stories during the old days, is this: Bill Monroe may have been the Father of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin may have been the King of Bluegrass, BUT Charlie Waller was the MASTER! I miss him so and the bluegrass community has lost the greatest voice that ever was and will be in the bluegrass industry. Charlie Waller was a symbol o f respect, humbleness, caring and especially class. I will always remember and love the man that gave me my break in the music industry, Charlie Waller.

This tribute is dedicated to those Country Gentlemen who have now passed on …….

With grateful thanks for the assistance of Tom Gray.

Further to our recent discussions regarding the Country Gentlemen Folkways CD, Going Back To The Blue Ridge Mountains, I approached Walt Saunders, currently most notable for his Notes & Queries column for Bluegrass Unlimited magazine. He reminded me of the souvenir book compiled to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Country Gentlemen, 1957-1982.

In this book there is a very good Country Gentlemen discography put together by Les McIntyre, an historian and commentator also associated with Bluegrass Unlimited as a contributing writer.

McIntyre lists the musicians on the LP as Charlie Waller, John Duffey, Eddie Adcock and Ed Ferris. He adds this remark,

“Actually this album first came out in Japan in 1967 under the title The Country Gentlemen In Concert (London SLH 86). It was the fourth album in the Folkways catalogue of Country Gentlemen recordings. The songs are all from a live performance in Syracuse, New York, shortly before Bringing Mary Home was recorded.”

Saunders agrees with my assessment that the recordings are from the latter half of 1964 or sometime in early 1965.

With grateful thanks to Walt Saunders for his assistance.

We wondered at the time whether any readers might have a copy of the original LP, and could let us know how the band is listed there. No luck there, but Richard found the original Bluegrass Unlimited review of Going Back To The Blue Ridge Mountains, and BU editor Sharon McGraw has graciously agreed to allow us to repost it here.

It shows that Ferris is on bass, and I think that modern readers will get a kick out od reading the 1973 review, written by George B. McCeney.

THE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN VOL. 4 – GOING BACK TO THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS
FOLKWAYS FTS 31031
(Rechanneled stereo)

Going Back To The Blue Ridge Mountains/Going To the races/Dark As A Dungeon/Copper Kettle/Billy In The Low Ground/I Saw The Light/Tom Dooley #2/Brown Mountain Light/Electricity/Daybreak In Dixie/Mary Dear/Sad And Lonesome/Cripple Creek/Don’t This Road Look Rough And Rocky/Muleskinner Blues

Charlie Waller-guitar; John Duffey-mandolin; Eddie Adcock-banjo; Ed Ferris-bass

Today in a time when numerous bluegrass bands are launching out in various directions to establish their uniqueness, it is interesting to reconsider what the Country Gentlemen were during the mid 1960’s, almost ten years ago. This latest Folkways album, and probably the last in a series, gives us some idea. From simply perusing the titles of the songs presented here, one might surmise, if he did not already know the Country Gentlemen, that they were a very traditional bluegrass group. And of course in some respects he would be right, at least as far as the selection of material is concerned. But it is the treatment of the material that sets off the Country Gentlemen from other groups of their day. (Now as well as then.) The instrumental work of John Duffey on “Billy In The Low Ground” or Eddie Adcock on “Azzuro Campana (Blue Bell) could hardly be characterised as “traditional” even though the material is in many cases old. What the Country Gentlemen managed to do rather successfully ten years ago was to take strong traditional material, draw out the essence of its appeal, and then present it to a new bluegrass audience in a form that they could understand. In short they managed to capture the best of both worlds, excellent material presented through flawless instrumental and vocal execution. This “live performance” (there must be a more definitive expression) from sometime in 1964 or 1965 at a folk club attests to what the Country Gentlemen were able to achieve, an accomplishment almost now forgotten in the rush of folk-rock crush at some recent festivals. the Country Gentlemen had a great deal to tell us about the spread of good bluegrass, but it might be distilled down to playing the best material better than anyone else. (Folkways Records, 701 7th Avenue, New York, New York 10036) GBMcC

Review by George B. McCeney Reprinted by permission Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright September 1973. 1-800-BLU-GRAS. www.bluegrassmusic.com

UPDATE 6/17: Richard Thompson asked us to point out that it was Tom Gray who mentioned to him that he was wrongly credited on the CD reissue, and also that Joe Ross had located the BU review and sent him a copy. We send our thanks to them all.

UPDATE II 6/17: We received the following from a reader, Keith Edwards, who has a copy of the original LP:

I have the original Folkways album that has been discussed for release on CD. The album does not list the band members per se but has the following written on the bottom right hand corner:

“THE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN: Winner of the bulk of the 1972 Muleskinne News Bluegrass Awards, including: Band of the Year, Best Bluegras Singer (Charlie Waller), Best Vocal Group, Best Album of the Year. Folkways presents the original group with Charlie Waller, John Duffey, & Tom Gray (now members of the Seldom Scene), Eddie Adcock (now member of 2nd Generation), and Pete Roberts.”

To me, this explains the error in credits on the CD as information was probably used from the back of the original album cover to create the credits for the reissue.

Smithsonian Folkways has released Going Back To The Blue Ridge Mountains (SFW 40175) on CD, a collection of 16 songs recorded by the Country Gentlemen and originally released in 1973.

This set comprises Going Back To The Blue Ridge Mountains, Going To The Races, Azzuro Campana (Blue Belle), Dark As A Dungeon, Copper Kettle, Billy In The Low Ground, I Saw The Light, Tom Dooley #2, Brown Mountain Light, Electricity, Daybreak In Dixie, Mary Dear, Sad And Lonesome Day, Cripple Creek, Don’t This Road Look Rough And Rocky, and Muleskinner Blues.

Like its 2001 predecessor, The Country Gentlemen On The Road (And More) (SFW 40133) album, this new CD consists of live recordings. However, while the notes indicate otherwise, these performances are from later shows than those on the earlier collection and do not actually feature the ‘classic’ Country Gentlemen. They were recorded in 1964 after Ed Ferris replaced Tom Gray on bass.

Tom Gray says in a light-hearted tone, “I should be grateful for the good press, but honestly it’s not deserved.”

The most recent Newsletter from Martha and Eddie Adcock makes reference to there being “some unfortunate issues with the content of the booklet.” However, Eddie adds, “just get this CD, give it a spin, and enjoy the fabulous music!”

A biased plea maybe, but not having heard these recordings, I cannot give a dispassionate comment.

The liner notes, including song notes, in the accompanying 25 page booklet were written by Jon Hartley Fox, and the mastering was by Pete Reiniger.

Editor’s note: If any of our readers have a copy of the original 1973 LP release, we would be curious to know what those liner notes say about the composition of the band on the live recording.

Randy Waller, son of the late Charlie Waller, will host this 50th Anniversary Celebration. The band was formed in 1957 in the Washington D.C. area. In the last 50 years over 100 musicians have been members of this influential band. Many of them went on to successful careers of their own, including John Duffy, Bill Emerson, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas.

The two day celebration will features the current band line up as led by Randy Waller, along with former members and special guests Bill Emerson, Tom Gray, Jimmy Gaudreau, Bill Yates, Pete kuykendall, Eddie and Martha Adcock, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Norman Wright, Ronnie Davis, Tom Morgan, Jimmy Bowen, Kevin Church, Dick Smith, Greg Corbet, Jim Cox, Kenny Haddock, Mike Auldridge, Tim Finch, Darrin Auldridge, Billy Gee, Rick Allred, Kent Dowell, Country Current, and others.

Tom “Cat” Reeder, a member of the Disc Jockey Hall of Fame, will be on hand to emcee the event.

Tickets for the celebration, and more information, are available online at WatermelonParkFest.com or you may call 540-539-2054.

The workshop will be held in Falls Church, VA on March 10, 2007 from 1-4 PM. The cost is $50 in advance, $55 at the door. More information can be found on the workshop website here.

In early December, Mastershield Records will release a new CD from Bill, entitled The Country Gentlemen Tribute. Bill is assisted on this project by the The Shenandoah Blue Band, whose members include Keith Waddell on guitar, Kevin Mallow on fiddle, Dave MacGlashan on bass, David Propst on mandolin, and Scott Walker on banjo.

Yates sings both lead and harmony vocals on the new CD, with additional lead vocals provided by Darren Beachley (of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver), Mike Phipps (of Eastern Tradition) and Shenandoah Blue’s David Propst.

It contains 12 songs which Bill had previously recorded as a supporting member of The Gentlemen, including Little Bessie, Redwood Hill, The Secret of the Waterfall, Remembrance of You, Son of a Hickory Holler’s Tramp, I’ll break Out Again Tonight, Walking Down The Line, Heaven, and Two Little Boys.

There are no audio samples up yet on the Mastershield site, but they expect to have them by the time the CD is released next month.

When the magazine launched in 1966, it was available for dues of $3 per year. This first issue was a typed, mimeographed pamphlet with a hand drawn logo – quite a contrast from the slick, full color magazine we now see each month.

There are some real gems in the insert, like this short review of the then new single release from The Osborne Brothers, Hard Times/World Of Unwanted:

“About nine parts Nashville hokum to one part grass.”

The main portion of the magazine includes some more choice bits from past issues, including a piece John Duffey wrote in 1967, responding to the critics of the early Country Gentlemen who took them to task for deviating from the “true bluegrass’ way.

They also feature a version of how their National Bluegrass Survey might have looked for July 1966, with The Country Gentlemen’s Bringing Mary Home topping the list.

Subscribers should see their copies in the next few days, and news stands will surely sell out quickly, so pick one up if you want to have this as a keepsake.

Liner notes for the new CD were provided by Joe Bonsall, long time member of The Oak Ridge Boys, and a newly serious student of the five string banjo.

“Randy Waller and the Country Gentlemen are a GREAT Bluegrass Band and this is a GREAT CD! These guys can pick it clean on every instrument and their singing and harmonies and blends are impeccable. It also becomes very clear on this project that Randy Waller is one of the great lead voices singing today!”

“I love this CD and will be listening to it a lot this year!”

Our friend Dave Roye reports that Randy announced a few days ago that The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band (consisting of Jimmy Gaudreau, Eddie Adcock, and Tom Gray) are set to go into the studio the last week in March to produce a new recording project. They will also be doing a limited number of shows with the Reunion Band, which can be found on Randy’s web site, along with the shows for Randy Waller & The Country Gentlemen.