The upcoming Mountain Roads Recordings CD, Born Into Bluegrass – The Songs of Cullen Galyean, will be premiered tonight (8/29) on WBRF FM 98.1 in Galax, VA.

The album celebrates the contributions of Galyean, a legendary performer from western North Carolina who had worked with The Stanley Brothers, Hylo Brown and Charlie Monroe. All of the songs are ones Galyean has written, performed by such stellar Virginia/North Carolina artists as Junior Sisk, Terry Baucom, Johnny Williams, Jimmy Haley and Rick Allred.

Cullen was discovered in 1965 at the storied Fincastle bluegrass festival, where he won the banjo competition with a spirited rendition of Midnight Ramble. That ‘65 live audio is included as on the tracks on the new CD. He had been recorded before in 1984, with Bobby Harrison on the Folkways album, Old Time Bluegrass from the Virginia-North Carolina Border.

Judith Burnette of WBRF tells us that Cullen’s son Mickey Galyean will be with her in the studio during the 8:00 p.m. hour while they highlight the music from Born Into Bluegrass. Mickey performs with his own bluegrass band, Rich In Tradition.

“I’m hoping Cullen will be well enough to join us in celebration, as well. He has been in the nursing home for the last several weeks for rehab. He had a serious bladder infection and was hospitalized a couple of times because of that.  He wasn’t very mobile before this illness, and was even less so after the hospital stays.  Mickey told me he has been able to walk from the bed to the bathroom, and from a wheelchair to his bed so that is an improvement.”

Cullen was able to be in the studio for some of the recording of this project. He plays his banjo and sings baritone on Bluegrass Time, he sings baritone on Days of Grey and Black, Judy Lou and Blue Ridge Mountains.”

WBRF broadcasts at 98.1 FM from Galax, and can be heard over a wide area in Virginia, North Carolina Tennessee and West Virginia. They also simulcast online at www.blueridgecountry98.com.

Born Into Bluegrass – The Songs of Cullen Galyean is scheduled for release on October 1.

Last December we mentioned that the recently formed bluegrass Gospel quintet Wheeler, from Weber City, VA, had signed with Mountain Roads Recordings. Their first album following that agreement, Bluegrass Gospel, becomes available today (August 1st).

Wheeler consists of the husband and wife duo Tiffany Wheeler (lead/harmony vocals) and Kevin Wheeler (lead/harmony vocals, bass), accompanied by Mark Jackson (lead/harmony, mandolin), Justin Salyer (guitar) and Steven Mounts (banjo).

Their debut release is, as the title states, an all Gospel affair. It features a good selection of original songs, eight of which were written by band members. Six are from other sources, including two from Mark Brinkman and two traditional songs. Salyer contributes the instrumental Solomon’s Song.

Their vocals are very impressive, earning praise from none other than Darrin Vincent, of Dailey & Vincent. As is always the case with Gospel music the message in each of the songs is compelling. With Wheeler their singing is both convincing and rendered with conviction. Those facets are no more apparent than in the a cappella rendition of the traditional What A Day That Will Be.

Audio and video samples are available on their MySpace page.

Mountain Roads Recordings of Bristol, Tennessee, continues its support of local bands by signing Pathway, a bluegrass and Gospel band originating from Mount Airy, North Carolina.

Pathway consists of three brothers, Mitchell Freeman (bass and tenor vocals), Mark Freeman (banjo, guitar, fiddle and lead vocals), and Scott Freeman (fiddle, mandolin and lead vocals); Mark’s son, Justin Freeman (guitar, lead and baritone vocals); and two good friends of the family, Jake Long (mandolin, guitar and baritone vocals) and Casey Byrd (Dobro ¬Æ, guitar, lead and baritone vocals).

According to Mitch …….

“The band was formed in August, 2007 and (jointly) writes 90% of its own material.”

Prior to that, Mitchell and Mark started playing in 1977 with Barry and Kenneth Berrier in a band called Interstate Exchange. After a couple of years, Kenneth moved on and Eric Silver, who was 16 at the time, joined the band. Silver played about a year and then moved to Nashville. Later Mitch was in the group Summer Wages.

Other notables who have played with the Freeman brothers include Alan Bibey and Sammy Shelor.

Mitch Freeman takes up the story ……

“In the early 1990s Mark and I laid our instruments down and raised families. In 2007 we began playing some together. Mark’s son became interested and began to play guitar and sing. Jake Long, a long time friend of the family, began to play and switched from guitar to mandolin. And the final member Casey Bryd was meet by accident by Mitch was asked to sit in one night at practice and has been a member ever since. He writes plays unbelievable Dobro ¬Æ and sings as well.

We meet Karl and Gail (Cooler) in October 2008 and after talking several times we asked Karl if he would be interested signing us to his label. We had been in the studio working on some new material, he came down gave a listen, we talked some more and in January 2009 met with him and Gail at their home, had dinner and signed with Mountain Road Recordings.

We just finished the studio work at Eastwood Studio and our engineer, Wesley Easter, should (be) ready to mix in the next two weeks. Eleven of the song are original (and there is) one new song by Tom T and Dixie Hall and Keith Bilbrey.”

Karl Cooler, who describes Pathway as “both exciting and inspirational” adds,

“We are extremely excited to have this talented group on the Mountain Roads Recordings label and we look forward to this release scheduled for June 1st 2009.”

At the same time as announcing the signing of Johnny Williams, Mountain Roads Recordings of Bristol, Tennessee, advised me of the signing of the new bluegrass gospel group Wheeler from Weber City, Virginia.

Wheeler was established in April of this year and comprises Tiffany Wheeler (lead/harmony vocals), Kevin Wheeler (lead/harmony vocals, bass), Mark Jackson (lead/harmony, mandolin), Justin Salver (guitar) and Steven Mounts (banjo). Tiffany and Kevin have been married 7 years this past June 9th.

I spoke to Kevin Wheeler about the band ……

“We are a bluegrass gospel group, but I like to refer to ourselves as a bluegrass group that just happens to do all gospel. We are not your typical sounding gospel band. We bring a different feel to the music in the way that we play it. We absolutely have a blast playing it and we have fun with the type of energy we bring to the genre. We definitely don’t think that we are anything special, but we do enjoy every opportunity that we get to play.

We love the fact that with this band we can play hard driving tunes and on the other hand we can slow it down and touch hearts of all those that listen. Most importantly, we are all born again believers and we thank God everyday for the opportunities that has been placed in front of us. Hopefully we can choose the right path and get the music out to more people.

We all absolutely love the music. All of us are such fans of music, especially bluegrass. We catch ourselves all the time just bragging about music and how much fun it is to play it. Each of us individually have such a desire to play and/or sing. It is unreal how much fun it is to do what we do. There are hard things about it but it is all well worth it. One of the main reasons we all do this is for the advancement of the message, a positive message. We may not sound like your average traditional bluegrass gospel group and you might have to listen a little harder to our music to get the meaning. But, nonetheless, we still present that positive message and hopefully in a new and exciting way. We love it; it’s what we do and I could never imagine not having music in my life.” (more…)