Close call for The Spinney Brothers

Memories - The Spinney BrothersCanada’s Spinney Brothers encountered a hazard to navigation last night when they had almost made it home from several dates in the US.

One of the furry woodland creatures stepped out into the road and nearly put an end to the band.

I’ll let Rick Spinney tell the tale…

“We were driving back to Nova Scotia after performing our last set in Kendallvill, IN at the Tri-State Bluegrass festival. It is a 24 hour haul, and we were all feeling good about getting back home after a great US tour covering Branson, MO, Hillsboro, OH and Indiana.

We were all wide awake after just passing through the last toll befroe arriving home, when in the blink of an eye, from the driver’s side of the vehicle, came an adult black bear in a full run. Our mandolin player, Gary Dalrymple, was driving and he didn’t even see the bear. All of a sudden…BANG!!!!

We hit the bear, the van swerved right, then left, and the inside of the vehicle filled with smoke from the air bags. We couldn’t see a thing.

Just in time, the air cleared enough to see the white line on the shoulder. Gary did a great job holding the wheel steady until we came to a stop. We all piled out of the van, checked everyone over and confirmed that we were all OK – except for some minor scratches.

We walked back 150 yards and found the bear deceased on the opposite side of the road. Paramedics arrived and pronounced everyone OK! It shook us all up a bit, the vehicle is a might off…. but we know how lucky we are!!!!

We have a lot of folks who pray for us, and many other musicians, while we are on the road…we give thanks!!

A lucky day in the travels of the Spinney Brothers bluegrass band.”

Indeed.

Rick said that bear incidents like this are quite rare in Nova Scotia, even with a rapidly growing population.

This could easily have gone far worse for the boys. Great news that everyone (but the van) is doing fine.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.