Circuit Riders Archives - Bluegrass Today

Greg Corbett passes

Greg Corbett, North Carolina banjo player, died yesterday (August 24). He was 41 years old, set to turn 42 this next week.

Not much information has been released about his passing. Greg died in his sleep Saturday morning, of a suspected heart attack.

In the 1990s, he was the banjo player for The Country Gentlemen, remaining with the band until the passing of founding member Charlie Waller in 2004. That final edition of the Gentlemen also included Darin Aldridge on mandolin and Ronnie Davis on bass.

After Charlie’s death, Corbett and Aldridge formed a band called The Circuit Riders, taken from the title of a classic Country Gentlemen song.

Greg was a big man, with a bigger heart, and was a friend to everyone he met. Though he had left active touring as his children were born, he is widely remembered in bluegrass both for his crisp playing and his outsized personality.

He leaves behind a wife, Amanda, and two young children, Calvin and Kensy.

R.I.P., Greg Corbett.

Bluegrass on TV this weekend

Song of the Mountains is broadcasting some good bluegrass this weekend on public television stations.

This weekend’s episode features both Dale Ann Bradley and The Circuit Riders. At the time of taping, Dale Ann had Gena Britt Tew on banjo, Jeremy Abshire on fiddle, Tim Laughlin on mandolin, Charles Fields on bass, and Randall Conn on dobro.

The show airs this Saturday night at 6pm on UNC-TV for North Carolina viewers, and at 9:30pm on Blue Ridge PBS for Virginia viewers.

A complete listing of broadcast stations nation-wide is available here.

Congrats to Darin and Brooke

Darin Aldridge and Brooke Justice are getting married today.

Darin plays mandolin with The Circuit Riders, and guitar in his group with Brooke, Darin Aldridge & Brooke Justice, where she is featured as lead vocalist.

After a honeymoon in Gatlinburg, TN, Darin heads into the studio to finish the next project with The Circuit Riders.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Darin Aldridge & Brooke Justice

We heard last week from Darin Aldridge, former member of The Country Gentlemen and current mandolinist with The Circuit Riders. This young man has quite a busy time ahead of him in the near future.

First up, he is engaged to be married to Brooke Justice, with whom he has started a new band. Darin is on guitar, Brooke on mandolin, with Chris Bryant on banjo, Eddie Biggerstaff on bass and Perry Woddie on resonator guitar. All five sing, with Brooke and Darin the featured lead vocalists.

Darin Aldridge & Brooke Justice will have a new CD, I’ll Go With You, due October 14 on Pinecastle Records and the band will be at IBMA this coming week showcasing the hard driving Gospel music that is their specialty.

Here is a YouTube clip of the band doing Get Down And Pray, one of the songs from the new CD. Audio samples for the others can be heard on their MySpace page.

Darin says that in addition to a wedding on December 27, he is also working on a new recording with The Circuit Riders this fall, which will also be released on Pinecastle.

Pinecastle new releases – and a new web site

Pinecastle Records has released three new CD projects this week, each of which we had previewed for you here prior to their street date. They have also launched a new, completely redesigned web site which Andy Evans at Pinecastle tells us has been in the planning stages for several months.

The new releases are from longtime Stanley bass man, Jack Cooke (Sitting On Top Of The World), The Circuit Riders (Let The Ride Begin) and a second compilation set from their extremely popular bluegrass instrumental series (More Ultimate Pickin’).

Andy says that they are still making minor site revisions, but expect that all the bugs will be found and fixed in the next few days. He invites everyone to stop by and have a look around.

New Pinecastle releases

We just got word from our friends at Pinecastle Records with the street dates for two of their upcoming releases which have been discussed here of late.

Jack Cooke’s Sittin’ On Top Of The World, and The Circuit Riders’ Let The Ride Begin are both set for an official release on February 20, 2007.

Circuit Riders debut CD on Pinecastle

Brance posted earlier this year about the first release from The Circuit Riders, made up of former members of the final edition of The Country Gentlemen prior to Charlie Waller’s untimely passing. Charlie’s son, Randy Waller, has maintained The Country Gentlemen, while former members Greg Corbett, Darin Aldridge and Billy Gee departed to form The Circuit Riders with Greg Luck and Jaret Carter.

Back in May, Brance mentioned that their debut project, Let The Ride Begin, was available directly from the band, but that no release date had been announced by their label, Pinecastle Records.

Pinecastle has now shipped the CD to radio, but it does not yet appear on their web site, and no official release date is mentioned. It is safe to presume that it will ship to retailers within a few weeks.

Audio samples can be found on The Circuit Riders web site, or on their MySpace page.

The Circuit Riders – Let The Ride Begin

Let The Ride Begin is the debut recording from Pinecastle recording artists the Circuit Riders. While Pinecastle has yet to announce a release of the project, the band does currently have them available for purchase at their live shows. If you like, you can order the CD from their website by sending in a check or money order.

I spoke with Greg Corbett, the banjo player with the Circuit Riders, and asked him briefly about the CD.

We hope folks enjoy the project as much as we did making it. It has some original material that we are proud of and hope folks like it also.

Song clips are available, but I had to dig for them. The clips page is here, but none of the links worked for me. I had to click on the link and then change the extension in my browser url bar from http to mp3. That worked for all but a few of the songs with the notable exception being the first track. The mp3 filename is mis-spelled so you have to change the extension and retype it to read lonsomewind.mp3.

I’ll make this post open for comments, so someone on a windows box take a look at this page and let me know if the clips work for you.