We received a note recently from Shayne Bartley informing us that he and Ray Craft were in the process of reforming Unlimited Tradition. The band was a popular fixture on the festival circuit in the mid-to-late 1990s and officially disbanded in 2000.
During their tenure, the band has included such members as Scottie Sparks, Randy Kohrs, Steve Huber, Harold Nixon, John Lewis and Jason Hale in addition to Craft and Bartley. They released two CDs, Lost In Time (self-produced) and She’s Gone on Doobie Shea.
After the band broke up, Craft went on to perform with the short-lived Rock County, and Bartley did time with 1946 and Karl Shiflett – and spent the summer of 2003 on tour with country super stars Brooks and Dunn.
Shayne says that Bobby Hicks will be joining them on selected dates this summer, and that more details about the new band membership will be announced shortly. He also mentioned that they are in discussions with a number of labels now, and hope to have a new recording later this year.
There is no Unlimited Tradition web site at this time, but anyone interested in talking with them can find Shayne on MySpace, or reach him by phone (859-321-9874) or email.
UPDATE 3:30 p.m. Shayne just contacted us to say that they do now have a MySpace page for Unlimited Tradition. It shows that Shayne will be playing banjo, Ray will be on guitar and Nick Chandler on mandolin. You will also find their shows for this summer to date.
