Blue Highway and Everett Lilly to Headline Song of the Mountains TV Taping June 13th in Marion

The award winning bluegrass band, Blue Highway will share headline status with the legendary Everett Lilly and the Lilly and his Lilly Mountaineers on the Public Television taping of Song of the Mountains on June 13th at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia.

This show offers a rare chance to see some of the pioneers of region's music perofmring along side of the best contemporary practicioners - Blue Highway.  2009 marks Blue Highway's fifteenth year performing together as a group and band member Tim Stafford serves as a member of the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center Artistic Council.

Also on the show will be Jeff Orr and Wildwood Rhythm and the band Pathway.  Tickets: $20 General Admission and can be purchased online at www.thelincoln.org

Information about the performers:

Blue Highway is composed of Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro and Weissenborn-style slide guitars), Shawn Lane (vocals, mandolin, fiddle, guitar), Tim Stafford (vocals, guitar), and Wayne Taylor (vocals, bass), Blue Highway has developed a streamlined, flexible take on the bluegrass tradition that makes them among the most influential bands in the genre today.  Each member is among the most distinguished performers on his instrument of choice, and the band, individually and collectively, has collected a number of awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association, including Album of the Year (for 1996’s It’s a Long, Long Road), two awards for Gospel Performance of the Year, 1996’s Emerging Artist of the Year honor, and nine Dobro Player of the Year awards for Ickes.

The Lilly Brothers, Everett and Bea, and Don Stover were pioneers in bringing professionally performed southern Appalachian music to the upper northeastern region of the United States . Originating from Clear Creek, a community near Beckley, West Virginia , Everett and Bea began their career by singing in churches and at area shows. Everett toured with Flatt & Scruggs in the early 1950s, participating in fourteen influential recordings that included classic duets with Lester Flatt.

The Lilly Brothers had become the first Bluegrass act to take their music north when they relocated to the Boston area, performing at the popular Hillbilly Ranch playing an amazing sixteen-year gig, seven nights a week, fifty weeks a year!  The Lilly Brothers were also the first Bluegrass band to do a professional tour of Japan and, on their next tour, invited Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys to come along. On October 17, 2002, The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover proudly became the 20th Inductees into the International Bluegrass Music Association's Hall of Honor, the highest honor that Bluegrass can bestow.

Everett Lilly has passed his love for music on to his sons, who carry on this family tradition by performing in the band now known as The Lilly Mountaineers.

Jeff Orrs' love of his roots run deep in his music, best described as his own brand of     "True Blue Country" by the storyteller himself, Tom T. Hall. Orr is a published writer   with Tom T. and Dixie ’s' Good Home Grown Music and the sole artist on their Blue Circle Country label. Orrs' songs reflect the everyday complexities of life, love and loss from the heart of a true blue country boy. Jeff Orr and Wildwood Rhythm combine the original compositions of Orr performed by the singer-songwriter in an all-acoustic setting, complimented by the ever present, tasteful sounds of Vic Graves on Dobro.

Pathway, a bluegrass and gospel band originating from Mount Airy North Carolina , also known as Mayberry, birthplace of Andy Griffith and Snappy Lunch. Pathway consists of three brothers, Mitchell Freeman, Mark Freeman & Scott Freeman; Mark’s son, Justin Freeman; and two good friends of the family, Jake Long and Cayce Byrd.

Mitchell and Mark started playing in 1977 with Barry and Kenneth Berrier in a band called Interstate Exchange. After a couple of years, Kenneth moved on and Eric Silver who was 16 at the time joined the band. Eric played about a year and then moved to Nashville and became a studio musician and eventually wrote some great songs for Diamond Rio, Brooks & Dunn, Martina McBride and Shania Twain. Other notables who played with the brothers include, Alan Bibey (IIIrd Time Out, Blueridge & Grasstown) and Sammy Shelor (Virginia Squires & Lonesome River Band). The brothers played a while longer and then took time off to raise families.

In 2007, with families grown, Mitchell and Mark started playing again and were joined by Justin, then Jake and Casey. The group writes many of the songs that they perform and their shows include both traditional bluegrass, old time songs and bluegrass gospel; they are both exciting and inspirational.
 
For more information, including a schedule of upcomign performances and broadcasts, visit www.songofthemountains.org