Kevin Prater has announced a new member of his touring group. Lennie Centers has joined the band playing guitar and helping out with lead and harmony vocals.
Hailing from eastern Kentucky, Lennie carries one of the proudest legacies in bluegrass music, bringing forward the sound of his father, the late Roy Lee Centers, who was a member of Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys in the 1970s. Roy Lee recorded some terrific music with Dr. Ralph during the same period when Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley were members of the band.
It wouldn’t be fair to compare Lennie with his dad, but let’s just say there is a strong family resemblance.
Prater says that as a long time proponent of the mountain bluegrass style, he is proud to add Lennie to his lineup.
“The name Lennie Centers is synonymous with Eastern Kentucky, known as one of the most talented and versatile guitar players and vocalists in the area. To have Lennie Centers reach out to me, interested in playing for The Kevin Prater Band, was pure shock, not to mention a huge compliment for me. I never thought I would have a musician of his caliber as guitar player of The Kevin Prater Band.
Since his entry, the entire band has a fresh, new dynamic. Lennie’s energizing talent forces all of us to reach for our maximum potential.”
While Kevin is the primary lead singer with his band, Centers gets his chance to shine as well, as you can see and hear in this video of the Kevin Prater Band doing You Know I’ll Be Lonesome, which Roy Lee recorded with Ralph Stanley for Rebel Records in 1974.
With Kevin on mandolin, the Kevin Prater Band is completed with Jake Borrows on banjo, Mallory Hindman on fiddle, and Alex Donahue on bass.
They will be busy performing throughout the summer, and you can check their schedule online to see when they might be out your way.
