Deliverance “Banjo Boy” Actor Billy Redden the Focus of Fundraising Effort

on By

A Southern California bluegrass band is leading an effort to compensate the former child actor for his iconic “Dueling Banjos” scene in the movie Deliverance. A GoFundMe campaign is underway.

Los Angeles, CA – March 12, 2024 – A Southern California-based bluegrass band is leading an effort to raise funds for Billy Redden, the one-time 15-year-old local Georgia boy who was cast as “the banjo boy” in the 1972 landmark motion picture Deliverance. Redden played the part of “Lonnie” who gets locked in a musical duel – “Dueling Banjos” – with actor Ronny Cox in one of the films enduring and iconic scenes.

Continue reading "Deliverance “Banjo Boy” Actor Billy Redden the Focus of Fundraising Effort"

Interview with Pasadena Weekly

on By

Scott Diehl and Lance Frantzich of The Storytellers speak with Christina Fuoco-Karasinski, Pasadena Weekly Executive Editor on February 6, 2022

What can fans expect from your show when you play the Coffee Gallery?

Lance: Attendees can expect a carefully curated collection of our favorite songs from our considerable song list. Songs with compelling stories, lyrically and melodically speaking. They can expect three-part harmony singing, tight rhythms and soulful inspired lines from our soloists. That’s what we’re shooting for anyway. And they can expect to hear our original song “The Ballad of Bob Stane”, our tribute to the owner of Coffee Gallery Backstage.

Continue reading "Interview with Pasadena Weekly"

The Grateful Dead, Jerry, and Bluegrass

on By

The late, great Jerry Garcia two-timed the band he is most associated with – the Grateful Dead – to perform a purer bluegrass style of music in the 1970s.

Let it never be forgotten that the first instrument Jerry Garcia performed on was the banjo. The iconic lead in the iconic band, the Grateful Dead, first picked up the instrument in 1950 and played it for more than a dozen years before working up the nerve to audition for bluegrass legend, Bill Monroe.

Continue reading "The Grateful Dead, Jerry, and Bluegrass"

An Overview of California Bluegrass Festivals

on By

The 2020 coronavirus might have, at best, taken the banjos, guitars and fiddles to YouTube. But with luck the acoustic strings shall return in 2022.

If one appreciates bluegrass music, one need not hire a bluegrass band to hear it, nor need they follow the social media page of the best local bluegrass band in the city. They need only be in the know of where and when their favorite California bluegrass festival is scheduled.

Continue reading "An Overview of California Bluegrass Festivals"

Hiring a Bluegrass Band for Your Corporate Event

on By

Will toe-tapping banjo and fiddle riffs ruffle feathers at a business party? Maybe – if you’re lucky. Bluegrass is absolute fun and a universal crowd pleaser.

The corporate event planner sometimes has to go way out on a limb when selecting musical entertainment. What will be “just right” for the occasion? What genre is “in” with the attendees – or, should you surprise them with something unexpected?

Continue reading "Hiring a Bluegrass Band for Your Corporate Event"

Hiring a Bluegrass Band for Your Wedding Reception

on By

Why go with bluegrass? Maybe the question is why not get some fiddle, bass, guitar and banjo music when it comes to tying the knot?

Bluegrass music for a wedding or wedding reception might not be for everyone. But neither are Pachelbel’s Canon, Wagner’s Bridal Chorus, or Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (the latter of these sounds a little sexist anyway). Neither is pop, funk, or disco.

Continue reading "Hiring a Bluegrass Band for Your Wedding Reception"

Bluegrass Instrumentation: How the Music is Made

on By

The guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass fiddle, fiddle, and dobro come together to produce arguably the most American of music genres, with 17th century roots.

For many, the bluegrass style of music might have established itself in their ears as the banjo and fiddle most prominent from those all-time greats, Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt. But pull up some of the wonderful videos of their band, The Foggy Mountain Boys 7, on YouTube and you’ll see the other instruments that complete the sound: a standup bass, acoustic guitar, sometimes a mandolin and the dobro.

Continue reading "Bluegrass Instrumentation: How the Music is Made"

What is Jamgrass? How Does it Differ from Bluegrass?

on By
Banjo,Player,In,The,Country,Band

In short, jamgrass is a freer and more expansive version of traditional bluegrass. But it helps to view it in terms of how all music, like language itself, evolves.

Music is a language. And as language evolves, so too does music.

Some would say the sensory and atonality of of Debussy (said to be influenced by a literary style in France in the late 19th century known as Symbolism) somehow was the progenitor to American-born jazz. And jazz, known for its improvisational jams, could well be what evolved traditional bluegrass music to jamgrass sometime in the latter half of the 20th century.

Continue reading "What is Jamgrass? How Does it Differ from Bluegrass?"

All Souls’ Day Bluegrass Music Celebration Announced at Molly Malone’s

on By

A “Sinners & Saints Soiree” bluegrass music celebration has been announced at the Los Angeles landmark venue. The lineup features jamgrass specialists The Storytellers, The Rattlesnakes bluegrass band and the much anticipated reunion of Sugar in the Gourd.

October 25, 2019, Los Angeles, CA – RootsGrass Promotions and Molly Malone’s Irish Pub has announced an All Souls’ Day roots music celebration on November 2, 2019. Dubbed a “Sinners & Saints Soiree”, the lineup includes the notable reunion of the storied all-woman Americana band Sugar In the Gourd, as well as the California bluegrass stalwarts The Rattlesnakes, and the hippie jamgrass outlaws The Storytellers.

Continue reading "All Souls’ Day Bluegrass Music Celebration Announced at Molly Malone’s"

The Storytellers: Bluegrass Music in Harmony at 432 Hz

on By

Does the Earth’s vibration have anything to do with music? The science of “scientific pitch” seems to think so, and this band understands the resonance.

What does it take to rise in less than two years from a band that was busking the streets of Pasadena and Santa Barbara to being a favorite on the circuit of bars, taverns, and festivals all around Southern California?

Continue reading "The Storytellers: Bluegrass Music in Harmony at 432 Hz"