Lonesome River Band at the 2024 Remington Ryde Bluegrass Festival – photo © Bill Warren
The Remington Ryde Bluegrass Festival has finished its 2024 run. MC Arlin Bradford kept the show moving while new promoter Larry Efaw’s crew worked hard to keep everything smooth.
Host band, Larry Efaw & the Bluegrass Mountaineers opened the Friday stage show. They provide old time mountain music in the style of Ralph Stanley.
Lorraine Jordan brought the Carolina Road boys to the show. Her stay was cut short as her father, Royce, took ill and they needed to head for home. Our thoughts and prayers go out for Royce’s quick recovery. Danny Paisley and Junior Sisk joined Lorraine to sing their hit, Why Can’t Bluegrass Be Truegrass Again.
Danny and his band, The Southern Grass, gave full measure of the old time style that the Paisley and Lundy families have nurtured over many years.
Junior followed with his brand of Virginia bluegrass. He and Danny have both been selected as IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year in the past. Both are well deserving. Junior’s band, with his blessing, are recording under the Red Camel Collective name. Heather Berry Mabe is one of the strongest vocalists on the bluegrass circuit. They will be doing a few shows down the road.
The Lonesome River Band closed out the Friday stage show. Sammy Shelor has recruited one of the strongest bands playing today. LRB has been a top shelf band for over 40 years.
Saturday kicked off with performances from Tomorrow’s Bluegrass Stars. Youngsters from Pennsylvania, Canada, and Michigan presented music. They all joined together for a grand finale. It is always a pleasure to see youngsters smiling and playing bluegrass music!
The previous host band and promoter of the festival, Remington Ryde with Ryan Frankhouser, followed the youngsters – this is always a difficult spot. 😊They put on a fine show. Ryan always honors the late James King by singing several of his tunes.
The Feinberg Brothers also came in from Long Island, New York to entertain the Grange Park crowd. This was a new band to me and I enjoyed their music.
Larry Efaw brought his band back for Saturday sets and more old time bluegrass.
Nothin’ Fancy got all the way to their end of their first set when the MC announced that a storm was moving in, and the evening sets would be delayed a bit. Less than a minute later the storm hit with sixty mile per hour wind and sideways rain. One of the few popup tents to survive the wind was the sound crews tent over the sound board. The rest in the stage area were a tangled mess. Many of us sat under the big tents until the storm passed. They survived well.
The show was delayed for a couple of hours. The sound crew went to work and dried out all of their equipment and reset the stage. Larry, his crew, and the sound guys did an excellent job of getting the show up and running in the evening. Rhonda Vincent & the Rage opened the evening show and came back later and closed out the festival. Rhonda’s daughter, Sally, was at the show. She and her daughter, Faye Monroe, joined Rhonda on stage to sing a couple tunes. Faye’s eyes were glued to the mandolin. At the end of her first set Rhonda was surprised by Tomorrow’s Bluegrass Stars who presented her with their Mentor of the Year award. She was delighted and surprised.
Larry is already planning next year’s show. Stay tuned for the details.
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