Nightfyler Archives - Bluegrass Today

On the ground RudyFest 2013

Bill Warren is at RudyFest this weekend in Grayson, KY, and sent along a few photos from the first two days’ stage shows.

Darrell Webb Band at Rudy Fest 2013 - photo by Bill Warren

Mansion Entertainment launches Bluegrass Valley

Nashville’s Mansion Entertainment, an established Southern Gospel label and audio/video production facility, has announced the formation of BlueGrass Valley Entertainment & Records.

Singles from Brad Davis, Detour and Nightflyer will be pushed to radio later this month, and more artist announcements are expected soon.

Bill Traylor, who works with artist management at Mansion, says that moving into bluegrass was a natural thing for them.

“We’ve considered branching out into the bluegrass arena for quite some time due to a number of friends in the bluegrass community that have wanted to see us apply the same relationship models to bluegrass as we’re using for Mansion Entertainment and Pathway Enterprises in regard to radio and television.

It’s a transition that just makes sense for us, and we’re excited to have some great new bluegrass projects in the works that we can’t wait to share with bluegrass fans.”

Radio programmers who would like to be serviced by Bluegrass Valley should contact John Mathis by email. New tracks are also posted at Airplay Direct.

Nightflyer in the studio

We posted once before about Nightflyer, a new band recently formed by Rick Hayes, who spent many years as the mandolinist with The Gibson Brothers.

Hayes, along with Richard Propps on guitar, Tim Jackson on dobro, Ronnie Stewart (not this one) on banjo and Tony Kakaris on bass are in the studio finishing up a debut recording.

Until the CD is available, here is a brief video from the studio and a couple of live clips to give you an idea of what Nightflyer is all about.

You can hear some audio samples from Nightflyer on the band’s web site.

Rick Hayes: Nightflyer, Shawn Lane and Hayes guitars

We checked in this week with Rick Hayes, who most of us know from his many years playing mandolin with The Gibson Brothers. Rick left the group in November 2008 to focus his energies on his instrument-building work, and has had success with his Hayes guitars and mandolins.

But no matter how much you try to leave, performing always seems to win out in the end, and Rick is now back with a new group of fellow Ohioans, billing as Nightflyer.

Working with him in the group are Richard Propps on guitar and lead vocals, Ronnie Stewart on banjo, Tony Kakaris on bass and Tim Jackson on redo guitar. Both Rick and Ronnie share in the vocals, both lead and harmony.

Lyn Hayes, Ricks wife and Nightflyer’s booking representative, sent along a couple of audio samples of bluegrass favorites the guys recorded to offer a taste of their sound.

99 Years: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/99years.mp3]

White Freightliner: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/freightliner.mp3]

More information about the band can be found on Nightflyer’s web site and Facebook page.

Rick also had some big news on the luthier side. The newest endorser for his Hayes Guitars is Shawn Lane from Blue Highway. Shawn was given his guitar at the MACC festival (Musicians Against Childhood Cancer) in Lockbourne, OH this past July.

After playing it this past four months, Shawn had nothing but praise for the instrument.

“This Hayes guitar is just too good to describe with words. You have to see it, feel how it plays, and hear it to really know how awesome it is. The attention to detail on Hayes instruments is second to none.”

Find out more about the Hayes guitars and mandolins online.