By Lana Michelin - Red Deer Advocate
Published: February 19, 2010 5:00 AM
Bluegrass musicians don’t come with more hill country-cred than the members of the Lonesome River Band.
Take the group’s banjo player-vocalist Sammy Shelor, for instance.
One of his grandfathers toiled in the West Virginia coal mines from 1927 to 1931, labouring for the only mining company paying in gold coins instead of scrip that could only be spent in company stores. That allowed his grandpa to tuck away enough coins to start up his own sawmill at the height of the Great Depression.
His other grandfather also worked hard but was rarely seen without his banjo. “He used to play it all the time and he got me interested at about the age of six,” recalled Shelor, who will perform with the Lonesome River Band at Red Deer’s Festival Hall on Sunday, Feb. 28.
The band’s tune We Couldn’t Tell, off the latest release, No Turning Back, pays homage to the creative and hardworking people of Shelor’s grandparent’s generation.
Life in general was so hard for these Appalachian Mountain folks that many couldn’t tell there was a Great Depression going on, said Shelor. “They were so far away from Wall Street and the business world. . . . They were just making their own way and doing the best they could.”
As the song says: “We didn’t know the difference when the mighty dollar fell ’cause we didn’t have a dime. . . . ”
No Turning Back is the band’s 12th album. It produced a No. 1 hit, Them Blues, which the Lonesome River Band recently played to open the International Bluegrass Music Association awards show. Read on...
Published: February 19, 2010 5:00 AM
Bluegrass musicians don’t come with more hill country-cred than the members of the Lonesome River Band.
Take the group’s banjo player-vocalist Sammy Shelor, for instance.
One of his grandfathers toiled in the West Virginia coal mines from 1927 to 1931, labouring for the only mining company paying in gold coins instead of scrip that could only be spent in company stores. That allowed his grandpa to tuck away enough coins to start up his own sawmill at the height of the Great Depression.
His other grandfather also worked hard but was rarely seen without his banjo. “He used to play it all the time and he got me interested at about the age of six,” recalled Shelor, who will perform with the Lonesome River Band at Red Deer’s Festival Hall on Sunday, Feb. 28.
The band’s tune We Couldn’t Tell, off the latest release, No Turning Back, pays homage to the creative and hardworking people of Shelor’s grandparent’s generation.
Life in general was so hard for these Appalachian Mountain folks that many couldn’t tell there was a Great Depression going on, said Shelor. “They were so far away from Wall Street and the business world. . . . They were just making their own way and doing the best they could.”
As the song says: “We didn’t know the difference when the mighty dollar fell ’cause we didn’t have a dime. . . . ”
No Turning Back is the band’s 12th album. It produced a No. 1 hit, Them Blues, which the Lonesome River Band recently played to open the International Bluegrass Music Association awards show. Read on...
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