Valerie Smith has announced the departure of her long-time musical partner, Becky Buller.
For the past decade Becky has played fiddle and banjo, provided lead and harmony vocals with Valerie’s band, Liberty Pike, and both wrote and co-wrote much of the material they recorded.
In a statement, Val shared these thoughts…
“After 10 years of work, high-quality service, Becky is going onto pursuing other dreams that she needs to strive for! This was a hard decision for both of us, for we are very good friends. Becky will be growing in studio work, song writing and many other goals. Please give support, for this is s big step in the direction of life and career.
Will we play again? I understand that we will, for we enjoy each other so much. I do have an artist that we have trained for 2 years and only pray that you will help her grow by reaching out to her.”
We’ll have more details on Becky’s future plans as soon as we can reach her.
UPDATE 12:10 p.m. – This just in from Becky…
“This was a really hard decision to make after ten years and I’m very grateful to Val for being so supportive of my need to branch out. She and I will still do some projects together and will always remain friends.
At the moment, I’m doing a lot of teaching, songwriting, sessions, and fill-in work as well as co-hosting The Bluegrass Crossroads Show on WMSR in Manchester, TN. I’ve just signed on to teach fiddle at the Sore Fingers Week 2012 in the UK next April.
I’m really excited to see what else God has for me to get into.”
