Lone Mountain Blog

The 3 Sisters Festival in Chattanooga is always one of our favorite events. It's on the Tennessee River right downtown, and the weather this year was incredible.

This year's entertainment line-up was great. On the ticket was: The Dan Tyminski Band, Lou Wamp & Swingshift, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Chatham County Line, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, The John Cowan Band, Blue Highway, The Steel Drivers, The Dismembered Tennesseans, Mike Cleveland & Flamekeeper, and us - the Lone Mountain Band.

Festivals like this are always fun for us because we get to see so many of our friends. It's no wonder though, an event like this, in one of the most beautiful spots in Chattanooga, and no admission fee brings out a lot of folks.

We'd like to thank the Fletcher Bright Company for sponsoring this event, and most of all, for inviting us to play.

We hope to see you all there next year!

Roy's a contest playing fool...

Well, you probably already knew that, but just in case you didn't know Roy has won a couple of cool guitars already this year. He scored a great new Gallagher by placing first at Gallagher's contest up in Wartrace, TN. The second place finish at the Ossipee Valley contest in Maine (yes, Maine) earned him a Bourgeois!

Be sure to stop by his MySpace page and tell him howdy.

Go Roy!

-=Jim

We had the privilege of playing at Kettner's Mill this year. This year, however, we had the opportunity to split a set with Randall Franks - probably better known as Officer Randy from the show In the Heat of the Night, but he's a fine fiddle player too.

We played our half set then brought up Randy on the fiddle. He played some spirited fiddle tunes and we kept up as best we could. All and all it was a fun experience. Hopefully we didn't slow him down too much.

Hope to see you all again next year at Kettner's Mill!

If you didn't make it out to the 3 Sisters Festival in Chattanooga this past weekend, you missed a fantastic event. The weather was wonderful, the crowd was huge, and the music was awesome. We had opportunity to talk to a lot of old friends and make some new ones too!

I had a chance to take only a very few pictures (here and here) at the festival, so I went looking online for more, and found some of the Lone Mountain Band! We'd like to send a big thanks to "doyouknow" at Flickr.

You can see his photos here.

We like Roy's guitar playing! Obviously the judges at the Walnut Valley Festival and National Flatpicking Contest liked it too. Roy brought home 3rd place and a Taylor guitar!

Great job Roy!

We met Marie Spaeder Haas a couple of months ago. We spotted her in the front row with a pad and pen, and noticed her writing - drawing - making notes... well, we didn't really know and just forgot about it. Later we got an email from Marie, and she told us that she was an artist and was making sketches inspired by the bands that were playing, and that she may be posting some sketches of us in her gallery.

We saw Marie again this past weekend at the Ducktown, Tennessee Miner's Homecoming. The next evening we got an email from Marie that she had posted some sketches in her gallery! We're very honored and flattered. We think these are just great.

From her website:


Marie has these for sale on her website, and we think you should go and buy one, or all of them. You could have some original Lone Mountain Band art to hang in your living room or office. We'd be honored and Marie would appreciate it too.

So here's a big thanks to Marie for allowing us to inspire her - again, we're flattered and honored. We look forward to seeing more of Marie and her art in the future!

Hope to see you all soon again! Oh, and here are the sketches of us.

About a month ago Becky Taylor from World Wide Bluegrass asked if I would be available for an interview on her show. Interview? Me? Internet Radio? Well, sure, why not. Looked like a good opportunity to get a little publicity and have some fun at the same time.

I took an early lunch to come home and set everything up. Found my way to the World Wide Bluegrass chatroom, and from there Becky contacted me through Google Talk. After fiddling with my settings on this end and discovering that I had somehow changed my recording settings from Mic to Line in we were on the air.

Becky provided such an introduction I almost wondered who she was bringing on. Turns out it was me. We discussed my early interest in banjo and music and how I learned. There was talk about some of the other bands I've performed with through the years, and about the current group I'm with, The Lone Mountain Band.

Becky played a couple tunes from Highway of Regret (Ten Mile Tennessee and Stoney Creek) and I also had the opportunity to play a few banjo tunes live. For those that are interested, my 3-finger bluegrass selection was Ring of Fire. I played to clawhammer tunes: Cluck Old Hen and Angeline the Baker.

We also spent some time talking about the Banjo Lounge and what I'm trying to do there. Becky is one of the moderators at the Banjo Lounge and has been very helpful in promoting the "Lounge."

Everyone was very great there, Becky, Gracie, and everyone in the Chatroom. I hope I didn't scare away too many of their listeners with my playing and scattered comments.

Be sure to visit World Wide Bluegrass!

-=Jim