Summertown Road has added a new lane, bringing on celebrated fiddler Steve Thomas, and marking the band’s debut as a quintet.
Thomas has performed with a notable array of top bluegrass talent, having worked with Del McCoury, Lost and Found, The Osborne Brothers, The Whites, Lonesome River Band and, most recently, JD Crowe & the New South. He has also made his mark in country music, performing and/or recording with top sellers like Aaron Tippin, Barbara Mandrell, Brooks and Dunn, LeeAnn Womack, Kenny Chesney, John Michael Montgomery, and Lorrie Morgan.
The boy knows his way around a fiddle, and is also a fine guitarist and mandolinist.
Steve was born in the northeast, but here in Roanoke, we claim him as our own. His family moved here when Steve was a toddler, and his talent was first demonstrated as a young man at fiddlers conventions and competitions in southwest Virginia.
With his addition, Summertown Road now consists of Bo Isaac on guitar, Elmer Burchett on banjo, Zach Rambo on mandolin, and Randy Thomas (no relation) on bass. The guys are packing it up and heading for Berlin, MD this weekend and then Nashville next week for the IBMA World of Bluegrass, where they are an invited showcase performer on the main stage.
Jack Hicks, founding banjoist with Summertown Road, has stepped aside with Elmer Burchett jumping in to take his spot.
The band was formed in 2008, and their debut, self-titled album was released on Rounder earlier this year. Bo Isaac is on guitar, Randy Thomas on bass, and Zach Rambo on mandolin.
Hicks had a memorable stint with Bill Monroe in the 1970s, apperaing on the live Bean Blossom album in 1973. His playing was definitive of the popular banjo style at the time, a mix of Scruggs and bluesy, melodic runs.
Burchett has worked with a number of touring acts, most recently Pine Mountain Railroad.
You can find more details about Summertown Road, including their concert schedule, online.
Summertown Road has announced the recruitment of Zachary Rambo to fill the position on mandolin, recently vacated by John Rigsby.
Replacing the recently departed John Rigsby in Summertown Road is up-and-coming mandolin player Zach Rambo of Worthington, Kentucky.
Stalwart banjo player for Summertown Road, Jack Hicks has this to say of Rambo ….
“We are so happy to tell you about our new mandolin player, Zach Rambo. We are very excited, and sure you will be too, about his excellent musicianship and vocal ability. When Zach and Bo sing together you can close your eyes and think they’re brothers. We are so impressed with his openness to work toward the sound Summertown Road wants to present for you.
Zach grew up in a small town in north eastern Kentucky. He began singing at a young age and began playing guitar at age 7. At 12 he began playing the mandolin, recently adding banjo, dobro, and bass the last. He started his bluegrass career with the band, Bottomline. He married his wife, Misty, in the summer of 2008 and in April of 2009, she gave birth to their first son, Hayden.”
In his review of the Bottomline CD Live from Home, writer Joe Ross commended Rambo for “his clean, toneful mandolin breaks.” You can listen to Rambo singing lead on one of his original songs, Hang My Head and Cry, on his MySpace page.
In addition to Rambo on mandolina nd Hicks on banjo, Summertown Road consists of Bo Issac on guitar and Randy Thomas on bass. An album on Rounder Records is expected later this year.
We have posted a few time previously about Summertown Road, a new band composed of veteran pickers and singers from the bluegrass state of Kentucky.
The group consists of Jack Hicks on banjo, John Rigsby on fiddle, Bo Issac on guitar and Randy Thomas on bass, and all have “done their time in the biz.
Hicks was part of a memorable edition of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys (think the Bean Blossom album), who also worked with Lester Flatt, The Whites and Jim & Jesse. Rigsby spent time with Ralph Stanley and Melvin Goins, and has earned the respect of fiddlers far and wide for his unique, aggressive style. Both Issac and Thomas have toured with Dave Evans.
A self-titled CD will hit early in 2010, featuring Summertown Road’s tight traditional sound, close harmony and original material. This debut album is scheduled for a February 16 release on Rounder, and audio for several tracks can be found on the band’s MySpace page.
Karen Kouns of Main Street Entertainment has sent me some news about Summertown Road.
During the past few months the quartet – Jack Hicks (banjo), Randy Thomas (acoustic bass guitar), John Rigsby (mandolin and fiddle) and Bo Issac (guitar) – has been working on songs for their first album, which is to be released on the Rounder label within the next couple of months.
This past weekend, they were a huge success with their showcase performances at the SPBGMA Convention, in Nashville.
You can find video clips of 7 songs from their SPBGMA set for the good people at Good Home Grown Music online. Watching these clips allows a close appreciation of their individual and combined talents, and what we have to look forward to on their debut CD.
The songs on video include You’re Not That Easy To Forget, Workin’ Man’s Way, If I Win Or If I Lose, Talk To Your Heart, Fiddlin’ John and the instrumental, Going Home To See My Baby. All are expected to be of the aforementioned CD, as is the Osborne Brothers’ favorite, Rock Of Ages.
Jack Hicks spoke about recent developments…
“We have been working on this project ever since we got together. We had a couple of record deals but we just kept waiting on the best deal we could get. We think Rounder is the way to go. We appreciate what Rounder and Ken Irwin have and is going to do for us. Ken is constantly helping us with things that we would have never thought of. We are very humbled to have the experience and knowledge of such a reputable company. This is so much more than we could have ever asked for.
As for the project we have written a lot of the material on it. John wrote one, Bo wrote two (I’m Leaving You and For the Love of the Game), and myself and Shayla Huffman wrote five (including Fiddlin’ John – about John Rigsby – and Too Much Of A Good Thing), Karen Kouns, our booking agent, wrote one song (Winds of Change). We did one song that Tom T Hall wrote for us about Kentucky (That’s Kentucky).
We are nearing the finish of this project and have a big start on the next one with songs we have written. We hope it will be released sometime in early summer. Again we are very thankful for Ken Irwin and Rounder records for giving us this opportunity.”
The tracks were recorded at Hicks’ studio, Jacksplace. Mixing will by Steve Chandler at Hilltop studio in Nashville, Tennessee.
Thanks to Karen Kouns of Main Street Entertainment we have learned of the formation of Summertown Road, a fresh and creative new band from that bluegrass music hotbed, the Ashland area of Kentucky.
The name, Summertown Road, came from a Marty Raybon song with the same title.
The elder statesman in the quartet is Jack Hicks, innovative banjo player and former Blue Grass Boy (April 1971 – September 1973), who has had a long and varied musical career. He has also been a part of such legendary groups as Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys, the Whites, Lester Flatt, Sonny James and Conway Twitty, with whom he worked for about 10 years.
Alongside Hicks is guitarist Bo Isaac, a part of the Kentucky Opry and a member of the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. Isaacs has played with the Ernie Thacker, Dave Evans and Larry Cordle. He has also made guest appearances with IIIrd Tyme Out and Marty Raybon. As a soloist, Bo’s first single stayed on the bluegrass charts for 10 months. His eponymous solo album has earned rave reviews. He has been nominated for the IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year award.
The other two members are John Rigsby and Randy Thomas.
Rigsby is a Grammy award winner for his talent on the mandolin and fiddle. He started out his musical journey with Dwight Whitley and Sideroads while he was still in high school. Rigsby has played with such notables as Ralph Stanley and Melvin Goins. He is cousin to Don and Ron Rigsby.
Thomas (bass) has made his name working with Dave Evans, Tony Rice, Hylo Brown, Don Reno, the Marshall Family and Bo Isaac and the Wheelwrights.
The foursome has been working together for about four months. Rigsby and Hicks have known each other for many years, but they didn’t get the idea to play together until quite recently while both were working with Melvin Goins. Hicks met Isaac and Thomas not very long ago through Rigsby and was very impressed with their vocal and musical ability. Isaac and Thomas have been playing together in the Bo Isaac Band for a few years.
They have already been in the studio recording, laying down tracks for nine songs, of which seven were written by band members. Jack Hicks and Boyd County Middle School teacher Shayla Huffman wrote three songs, Rosalee, What’s Not To Love, and Dennie Braden, and Bo Isaac wrote I’m Leaving You. These four songs can be heard on a demo CD that Summertown Road is distributing to interested parties.
Jack Hicks tells me that they have three more songs to do; working as they have been doing in his motor- home-converted-to-recording-studio. He adds:
“We are working on a record deal as we speak, I can’t say for sure yet. The CD should be out after the first of the year.”
Summertown Road signed up with Main Street Entertainment earlier this week and they are already booked at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Uncle Pen Days Festival, September 24-27, Bean Blossom, Indiana and a Prince Edward Island festival in Canada (July 4 & 5, 2009). They are also going to be a showcase band at SPBGMA (February 12-15, 2009).
You can hear audio samples on the band’s MySpace page.
For booking information contact Karen Kouns with Main Street Entertainment (606-922-2313).
