Bristol, Tenn.-Va. (October 28, 2020) – Pinecastle recording artists Merle Monroe will appear on WBCM Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time with The Wildmans, a family band based in Floyd, Virginia, on Thursday, November 12 at 7:00 p.m. The program is presented by the Birthplace of Country Music (BCM) and will stream live on Radio Bristol’s Facebook page.
Merle Monroe is a band created by musicians Tim Raybon and Daniel Grindstaff. Using their collective experiences as professionals in the music business, Merle Monroe’s sound is vocally driven and has a mix of hard-driving Bill Monroe-style bluegrass proficiency with tear-at-your-heartstrings Merle Haggard balladry. Merle Monroe believes bluegrass, gospel, and traditional country music is America’s music; stories of the common man and sounds of the mountains.
A young neo-traditional string band, the Wildmans have been performing at fiddler’s conventions and jams for nearly a decade, creating a new Appalachian sound that draws from the past while looking into the future. The band consists of award-winning and classically trained musicians that harness tight instrumentation and beautifully blended harmonies into a sound all its own.
Farm and Fun Time is hosted by 2020 International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Award winner and Radio Bristol producer Kris Truelsen with his house band Bill and the Belles. The vintage-style program is now syndicated on three PBS stations across the Southeast including Blue Ridge PBS in Roanoke Virginia, East Tennessee PBS in Knoxville, Tennessee, and UNC-TV North Carolina Public Media.
WBCM Radio Bristol, the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, and the annual Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion music festival are owned and operated by the nonprofit Birthplace of Country Music (BCM) organization. Radio Bristol is a public, listener-supported station and operates a low-watt FM signal in the Bristol area at 100.1 FM in addition to an online media center at ListenRadioBristol.org and a free radio app. The show also streams live on Facebook at Facebook.com/WBCMRadioBristol.