Greg Blake has certainly got to be in the running for busiest man in bluegrass for 2022. In addition to a full time schedule performing with Special Consensus, he has a solo career and a current album, People, Places, and Songs, out on Turnberry Records. Blake also fronts his own group, Greg Blake & Hometown, who likewise boasts of a new project called The View From Home.
Hometown, aptly enough, consists of several of Greg’s longtime musical friends from Kansas City, where he has lived most of his life following an Appalachian raising in West Virginia. There he built a reputation in bluegrass as a soulful vocalist and strong rhythm guitarist over nearly 15 years with The Bluegrass Missourians. After a move to the Rocky Mountain region with his family, Blake signed on with Jeff Scroggins and Colorado, and toured all over the US.
Now back in KC, Greg has assembled a group with some of his fellow Bluegrass Missourians veterans, and they have a new single to share from their album.
Hometown consists of Grant Cochran on bass, who spent 28 years with the Missourians; Todd Davis on banjo, who had spent many years with Straightline Bluegrass Band; Brian McCarty on mandolin, another fellow Bluegrass Missourian; and Greg Blake on guitar and lead vocals.
Their first single should be a familiar song for long time bluegrass fans, Gardens and Memories, written and sung by John Starling with The Seldom Scene on their Act Two record in 1973. Greg’s voice actually favors John’s, and he says that this track is meant as an appreciation.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of John Starling and his work with the Seldom Scene. Saddened to hear of his passing in May of 2019, I was determined that I would pay tribute to him some how through one of my upcoming recording projects. This is the official music video of the cut Gardens and Memories from the debut album of Kansas City-based bluegrass band, Greg Blake & Hometown. Hope you enjoy it!”
Have a listen with the band’s official music video for the single.
Gardens and Memories, and the full The View From Home album, will be available soon from popular download and streaming services online. Radio programmers can get the tracks now via AirPlay Direct.
