Idletymes Archives - Bluegrass Today

Weekend photos from Marshall Bluegrass Festival

Friday at the Marshall Bluegrass Festival opened with a newly formed band, The Local Mash, created by Tony Zapolnik and his fiancé, Jennifer Strickland. Jennifer is a well-known bassist/singer/songwriter in the bluegrass world. They are joined by Michiganders Danielle Smith and Chad Phelps. Indiana/Michigan band Echo Valley put in their second day at the festival.

Festival sound was handled by the capable hand and ear of Jimmy Kittle. The weekend’s MC was Earl “The Pearl” Workman. Johnny Campbell, Michigander and brother of the late Jimmy Campbell brought his band, The Drifters, to the Marshall stage for the first time. Johnny will be appearing at various Michigan venues in the next few months.

Wapakoneta, Ohio’s New Outlook has become a staple at the Marshall Bluegrass Festival. Brad and Lori Lambert bring their music store, Park Street Music to the festival along with their wonderful band. Michigan’s own Missy Armstrong joined Lori and Brad for a couple strong, old country tunes during the evening set. Tony Holt and the Wildwood Valley Boys provided the audience with some of the well-remembered Boys from Indiana music along with some of the band’s original tunes. Goldwing Express closed out the day’s music for the second day. They gained a new fan during the evening. Bluegrass fans comes in all sizes, shapes — and some are green!

Saturday at Marshall always starts with one of the very best band scramble contests anywhere. Jan Green has organized the scramble for over ten years. This year she had seven bands put together. This is always a highlight of the festival. Then banjo player and Charlotte Bluegrass Festival promoter, Wes Pettinger, was honored for his contributions to bluegrass music in Michigan.

Idletymes from Ohio/West Virginia opened the afternoon stage show. They have been providing top notch music to audiences for quite a few years. Larry Efaw brought his Bluegrass Mountaineers to the festival. The Mountaineers provide hard-driving Stanley-style mountain music. Nightflyer also made their first appearance at Marshall. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed their two sets of music.

Blue Mafia has rapidly become a favorite band of the Michigan/Ohio/Indiana music scene. Dara and Tony Wray along with brother-in-law Kent Todd provide strong harmonies. Steve Gulley and New Pinnacle closed out the festival. Steve and his band give an audience full measure in their shows.

The next stop for this photographer is the Milan Bluegrass Festival, August 4-6. See you there!

More photos from Norwalk 2016

The Friday stage show at the Norwalk Music Festival was kicked off by a local band, Vertical Limit, playing strong, traditional bluegrass. They were followed by Columbus, Ohio’s Out of Mind Bluegrass Band. Co-promoter Kurt Hickman brought his band, Harbourtown to the stage next. Newly formed Mitch Jr. and Drivin’ Time along with Kyle Estep brought their great sound to the Norwalk stage. Indiana’s Blue Mafia has rapidly become a festival circuit favorite. Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice were the final band on stage for the day. They were joined by co-promoter Chris Smith and did a rousing Ralph Stanley tribute.

Saturday morning brought a special show to the stage. Chris Smith and Kurt Hickman brought out a group of youngsters to showcase the next generation of bluegrass musicians. Chris and Kurt are great supporters of young pickers. Norwalk festival favorites Ottawa County followed the youngsters. Then Ohio/West Virginia band Idletymes gave the crowd a generous helping of traditional bluegrass music. The Wayfarers take festival goers back to the traditional string band sounds that are the roots of bluegrass music.

Co-promoter Chris Smith’s band Caney Creek gave the audience of fine traditional bluegrass music. During their evening set they were joined by special guest Mike Prater. Mike and his brother Dave sang a couple tunes from their days as the Prater Brothers Band. Their passionate rendition of The Pilgrim brought a standing ovation. Don Rigsby joined the band for a couple of tunes also.

Acoustic Edge is a band that is a throwback to the country, rock-a-billy bands of the ’70s and ’80s. They had many in the audience dancing during their evening set. The Band of Ruhks highlighted the day with some of the best harmony singing one ever gets to hear. They showcase Ronnie Bowman’s songwriting, Don Rigsby’s unmatched tenor singing, and the very best guitar picking of Kenny Smith. John Meyer has joined the band and is one of the finest young banjo pickers around.

The Norwalk Bluegrass Festival supports Alzheimer’s research and also provides college scholarships to two Norwalk City High School students. One is for a student going into the medical field and one for music education.

Next year’s festival dates are July 13-15, 2017.

Final day of Bluegrass in Superclass

The final day of Bluegrass in Super Class on January 12, 20014 was kicked off by Nitro Ride from Pennsylvania. They were followed by Idletymes, Remington Ryde, The Bluegrass Mountaineers, and Rhonda Vincent & the Rage. The last picture is the Bluegrass Mountaineers with 4 generations of the Efaw family on stage together.

Ed Efaw is the patriarch standing to the right. Larry Efaw and Chris Wilcox are playing the mandolins. Larry is Ed’s son and Chris is his great grandson. Stanley Efaw is the fiddler and is Larry’s son. Chris’ mother is Larry’s daughter Becky Wilcox.

Poor Mountain Records to Merit Music Group

Jonathan Buckner, guitarist and vocalist with Chosen Road, and President of Poor Mountain Records, has announced a merger between his label and Verb Records, resulting in the creation of Merit Music Group. In addition to the two record companies, Merit encompasses three recording studios, their own music publishing outfit, and a variety of services for bands and artists, including video production, engineering, distribution and promotion.

Buckner tells us that the two labels will function as separate divisions within the new company. Poor Mountain will retain its focus on bluegrass, roots acoustic, and country music, while Verb looks after more mainstream styles.

MMG is now the home of Langley, Jonathan Buckner and Chosen Road, Nate Adams, Idletymes, Spoken For, Jessica Bolen, Corey Brooks Band, The Dominion Trio, Remington Ryde, and Kevin Pace and the Early Edition. They also manage The Bluegrass Gospel Hour with John Sentell, which is syndicated to radio stations across the US, and online.

Jonathan shared a few words about how the company came into existence.

“I am extremely excited about PMR being apart of the MMG family. MMG came about after talking with Corey Brooks and TK King, owners of Verb Records. We realized that we were on the same page as far as how we wanted to enable independent artists.

When Poor Mountain Records was started our mission was to enable independent bluegrass artists by giving them the tools they needed to get their music heard. We wanted to give independent artists a place to call home. There are many talented artists who haven’t been able to land the ‘big record’ deal. These artists deserve for their music to be heard and we want to help them do that.

Brooks and King have the same passion that everyone at PMR has. By joining forces with Merit Music Group our artists will have access to more outlets to have their music heard. Anytime we have the opportunity to get our artist’s music to a new audience we will take it, and Merit Music Group is providing that.”

Submissions from new and/or unaffiliated artists are welcomed at the MMG web site.

Poor Mountain Home from Idyletimes

Idyletimes, whose members hail from Ohio and West Virginia, have released their debut album for Poor Mountain Records, appropriately titled Poor Mountain Home.

A first single, Lorraine, is now available to radio programmers at Airplay Direct. It tells of a firefighter battling a wild fire, and thinking of his sweet Lorraine waiting at home.

Members of Idyletimes include Chris Long on guitar, Craig Jarvis on bass, Glenn Jarvis on fiddle, and Ronnie Seebaugh on banjo.

They have put together this preview video to introduce the new record, with a taste of the first three songs they plan to release as singles.

Poor Mountain Home is available from the band’s web site, at any of their live shows, and from all the popular download sites.

Independence Day 2013 at Red, White & Bluegrass

July 4 mixed pouring rain and muggy sunshine at the 2013 Red, White & Bluegrass Festival, according to our on-site photographer, Bill Warren. We have also included Bill’s images from July 3.

Idletymes to Poor Mountain Records

Poor Mountain Records has announced the signing of West Virginia’s Idletymes. The band consists of Chris Long on guitar, Craig Jarvis on bass, Glenn Jarvis on fiddle, and Ronnie Seebaugh on banjo.

They will start work shortly on a new project for Poor Mountain, who have released a single to radio from the band’s last album, Life and Tymes, via Airplay Direct to introduce them to a wider audience. The song is Free, and you can listen to a sample below.

Jonathan Buckner at PMR tells us that…

“Everyone here at Poor Mountain Records is excited to welcome Idletymes to our family of artists. These guys are exceptional at what they do and we are honored to have them on the label. We absolutely love their live show, and we are excited to get them in the studio this Spring. In addition to being a fine group of musicians, they are quite the businessmen, and are now hosting three bluegrass festivals a year.”

Find more information about Idletymes online.