Haley Stiltner Archives - Bluegrass Today

My Favorite J.D. Crowe lick – Haley Stiltner

Haley Stiltner with Country Current at Lake Havisu (right) – photo by Senior Chief Musician Stephen Hassay

This is a new feature we are running to memorialize the creative and musical legacy of the late J.D. Crowe, who we lost just before Christmas. We are calling it My Favorite Crowe Lick, and each episode will feature a prominent bluegrass banjo player sharing both their thoughts about Crowe and his influence, and showing us a lick they learned from his playing that sticks with them.

Today’s contribution comes from Haley Stiltner, banjo player with the US Navy Band Country Current. Haley was something as a prodigy as a teen, playing at a very high level while still in high school. She completed her degree at ETSU in the bluegrass program, and auditioned for the job with Country Current when Keith Arnseon announced his retirement. She was accepted into the band in 2018 and joined the US Navy as a Musician First Class (E6), and has been with the group ever since.

Haley is only the third banjo player to serve with Country Current in its 48 year history. The band launched in 1973 with Bill Emerson at the helm, and Areneson stepped in when Bill retired. Stiltner is filling those big shows well, and she shares her thoughts about J.D. Crowe below.

Keep an eye out for future installments of My Favorite J.D. Crowe Lick here at Bluegrass Today.

Haley Stiltner, USN – 3rd Country Current banjoist in 45 years

Way back in 1973, the US Navy Band program in Washington, DC formed a new outfit called Country Current, created to take advantage of the growing popularity of bluegrass and country music in the capitol region. At one point, there was talk of bringing all the members of the Country Gentlemen into the Navy as a touring group, but as discussions ensued, only banjo man Bill Emerson made the move.

Since that time, the band has been stationed in DC and has traveled the country, performing in a role that combines education, recruiting, and public relations. They also serve a ceremonial function, being called upon to play for all sorts of services and celebrations amongst the top brass in the district and northern Virginia.

In addition to Bill Emerson, who served his full 20 years before retiring, Country Current has included several other bluegrass artists working the scene today. Guitarist and singer/songwriter Wayne Taylor led the band for many years, including a time while Emerson was still aboard, and Frank Solivan who still lives in the area, leading his own group, Dirty Kitchen. And the Navy’s most recently retired banjoist, Keith Arneson, who now plays with Taylor’s group.

As the band works their 45th year in bluegrass, with an anniversary concert scheduled later this month in Alexandria, VA, they welcome their newest member, Haley Stiltner, who joined the Navy last year to take Keith’s spot on banjo. Haley has been getting noticed since she was a teen, winning banjo contests in her native eastern Virginia, and eventually graduating from the bluegrass program at East Tennessee State University. For a time, she played bass with the Little Roy & Lizzy Show, and made the plunge – including basic training – to join the Navy when Arenson retired.

When we spoke last week, I asked her if it felt odd being only the 3rd banjo player in Country Current over 45 years.

“I can definitely understand why. It’s a great job, everything I expected and more. The guys in the group are great, and so is the command.

It’s totally unlike anything else I’ve ever done. The skill level is very high.

Basic training was difficult, but I got through it. It teaches you that what you actually have to depend on is your shipmates.”

Once she joined the band after basic, Haley was given a Musician First Class rating, an E6 for you military types out there. That includes a highly respectable salary, and full military benefits (housing allowance, medical care, retirement, etc).

She said that the job is fairly laid back. Like most bluegrass bands, Country Current may only have a couple of shows each week. But they all report to the band building every day during the week, where they rehearse frequently and take care of administrative duties.

The best part so far for her has been getting to play a show in Smithfield, VA recently, quite near where she grew up in Windsor. Family and old friends were able to see her up on stage, picking the fire out of the banjo, and wearing her Navy uniform.

“I also like that all of our concerts include a special tribute to military veterans, where we do a medley of all the service anthems. Plus I enjoy getting to help educate people about the Navy.”

The Country Current 45th Anniversary concert is scheduled for May 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall on the campus of the Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. There is no admission charge and no advance tickets are required. The band will feature both their bluegrass and country sets, and several alumni members of the band will sit in.

Congratulations Haley for landing this gig and representing the banjo in the Navy!

Haley Stiltner, USN, to appear with Wynonna on TV tonight

Since 1923, the annual lighting of the National Christmas Tree has been a highlight of the holiday season in Washington, DC. Each year a magnificent tree is brought in to the capitol for placement at the White House, where it is decorated and lit at a gala ceremony for invited guests.

Traditionally, the Christmas decorations at the White House are under the direction of the First Lady, who since 1954, has also opened a section of her and the President’s home to citizens, decked out in its holiday finery. Trees representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five US territories also grace the White House lawn, decorated by representatives of their local residents.

In recent times, the lighting of the national tree has been televised as a celebration of American music in its many forms, with participation from a variety of entertainers, but always including a contingent of US military performers. This year, the US Navy Concert Band has been chosen, with a special spot created for the Navy’s new banjo player, Haley Stiltner.

Haley, a graduate of the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time & Country Music Studies program, is a member of the the Navy’s Country Current band, a group launched by Bill Emerson of Country Gentlemen fame in 1989. She serves as the first female banjo player in the Navy, and began her tenure this year following the retirement of Keith Arneson. Ever since her teen years, Haley has been recognized as an exceptional banjo player and songwriter, with one of her compositions, It’s Never Too Late, being recorded by Rhonda Vincent.

Another of the featured artists on the show, Wynonna Judd, requested a banjo player for her portion of the program, and the Navy had just the thing. Country Current shares facilities with the Concert Band, and Stiltner quickly found herself included. That’s quite an introduction into the limelight!

The Tree Lighting actually occurred last Thursday, but the program was taped to be televised tonight on the Hallmark Channel at 7:00 p.m. (EST). Also appearing will be Kathie Lee Gifford and Dean Cain as hosts, with music from Craig Campbell, The Beach Boys, Boys II Bow Ties, The Texas Tenors, Manheim Steamroller, Jack Wagner, Steve Gibson, and Us The Duo.

Congratulations Haley – we’ll be watching!

Terry Poirier to Little Roy & Lizzy

Terry Poirier has been announced as the new bass player with the Little Roy & Lizzy Show. The Canadian native now living in Lexington, KY will start his tenure with the band on June 9.

Terry went looking for a job recently when word went out that The Spinney Brothers, with whom he had been working this past three years, would cease touring at the end of this season. And it didn’t take long for such an experienced and capable musician to land a new gig.

It worked out that the Spinneys’ decision to give up the road coincided with Little Roy & Lizzy bass player Haley Stiltner’s opportunity to join US Navy Band Country Current on banjo. The five string is her true love, so she dropped the bass and will start with Country Current as soon as she completes basic training.

So Terry steps in with Little Roy & Lizzy, and Haley heads for boot camp.

Poirier got his start in bluegrass at 5 years old, performing in a family band with his father, Eddie Poirier, in eastern Canada. Since moving to the US he has also worked with NewTown and become a sought-after live audio engineer in Lexinton.

Rhonda talks about her new CD

Tomorrow (1/28) is the official release date for Rhonda Vincent’s next album, Only Me, a curious sort of double album with six bluegrass tracks on one disc and six country tracks on the other. It is packaged in such a way as to make the point that the two CDs are both separate, and part of the same thing.

If you’ve followed her career as long as I have (since the late 1980s), you are already aware that Rhonda has sung both styles since childhood, and even had a brief career in mainstream country with Giant Records in the ’90s. Since her return to bluegrass in 2000, her recordings have often included grassed up country songs, and she tells us that her experience releasing a duet project with Gene Watson on her Upper Management label in 2011 really opened her eyes.

“That album showed me that there is a market for good old traditional music. People always say that there’s no traditional country anymore, but we know the market exists. I think maybe there just isn’t enough being recorded.

Of course I grew up singing both styles, back when what we were doing was just called country music. My granddad might sing a Bill Monroe song, and then my mom some Kitty Wells, and then dad a Jimmy Martin song.”

To help share her excitement about Only Me, Rhonda has created brief videos to introduce the songs, which we will share with our readers. First up is one with her thoughts about working with Willie Nelson on the title track.

This next shows how even an iconic performer like Vincent can find inspiration from young, up-and-comers.

We’ll have a formal review of the album on the release date tomorrow, and will share other videos from this set through the week.

Good Friends, Good Times from Haley Stiltner

Since its founding in 1982 by Jack Tottle, the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Program at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has helped to further the careers of many of today’s prominent bluegrass and country musicians, including Adam Steffey, Barry Bales, and Tim Stafford. Haley Stiltner, whose first solo project Good Friends, Good Times was released June 29, is part of the most recent group of talented musicians to emerge from this program.

Haley, who first became interested in the banjo at age nine, displays her excellent musical skills, both instrumentally and vocally, throughout the album. Having toured with Rhonda Vincent’s daughters in The Next Best Thing for the past two years, her new project was released on the Upper Management Music label. Artists like Adam Steffey and Hunter Berry, along with many other up-and-coming musicians, join Haley on this twelve-song compilation.

While Haley’s treatment of well-known bluegrass tunes like Redwood Hill and Love for an Angel are good interpretations of earlier recordings, it is the originality on this record which makes it stand out. The tracks on Good Friends, Good Times range from pop and country covers given a bluegrass treatment (like The Eagles’ Take it to the Limit) to sacred songs like When the Roll is Called Up Yonder.

Also included are several originals by other students in the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Program: senior Emily Willis both wrote and sang the beautiful gospel piece Perfect Love, while Colby Laney contributed Sam’s Gap and Dark and Shady. Steffey’s count off, followed by a syncopated instrumental intro, leads into the polished, country-flared vocal of Brent Burke, all of which make Dark and Shady, a mid-tempo piece concerning failed romance, one of the best pieces within this set of music. Recorded at 160 BPM, Laney’s tune Sam’s Gap is a particularly complicated instrumental piece named after a local landmark between Johnson City, TN and Asheville, NC.

Haley’s version of Take it to The Limit, which was originally released on the Eagles’s fourth album in 1975, is a superb arrangement. The twin fiddle treatment by Hunter Berry, coupled with an affectionate lead vocal sung by his wife Sally, makes this tune instantly sound like a bluegrass standard. A contemporary adaptation of the Country Gentleman tune Redwood Hill is also included as the closing track of the album. Haley’s modern rendition of this classic piece, with lead vocals provided by David Grindstaff, maintains its original integrity but adds a more current tempo and phrasing.

Within the last year, Haley has performed on the Grand Ole Opry with multi-award winning performers Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, filling in for Aaron McDaris. At the young age of 23, there is no doubt that Haley, who is a graduate student at ETSU and works as a banjo instructor and graduate assistant in the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Program, is just getting started on her musical pathway. Good Friends, Good Times definitely showcases her enormous talent.

For more information regarding this new release, visit Haley online.