Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220164
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KRISTEN KAMMERER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: TROUTDALE LENGTH: Medium
But today, five years after its debut, the group known as the Flat Ridge Boys is wooing Nashville with a unique blend of music that straddles the fence between old country and hard-core bluegrass.
The band's success comes as a surprise, since it began as a hobby for the five members who all hold full-time jobs.
"On Saturdays, if we're in town, we meet at the Flat Ridge General Store and jam," said the group's guitarist, Elmer Russell, a self-employed farmer. "Sometimes about the only time we can get us all together to practice is during a show!" he added, laughing.
The other band members, who all live on Flat Ridge Road in the community of Troutdale, include Russell's cousin, autoharpist Ron Russell, who works as a professional truck driver; guitarist Wayne Osborne, also a truck driver; electric bassist Gary Shepherd, a foreman of a controls manufacturing company; and the newest member, Doug Galyean, who plays the mandolin and is a mechanic.
The band's roots reach back nearly four decades. In high school, Osborne and the Russell cousins formed a bluegrass group. Eventually, they played at a few school dances. But when Ron joined the Navy and the others began working, the group dissolved.
"Then one day, 23 years later, we had a jam session at my house," Russell said. "By then we'd met Gary and decided to give music another try."
Since forming in 1989, the Flat Ridge Boys have played in Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. They have recorded six cassettes, two compact discs and a 30-minute video.
The Boys attribute their popularity to a one-of-a-kind sound. The difference, they believe, comes in part from their use of untraditional bluegrass instruments, substituting an autoharp and electric bass for the usual fiddle and double bass. This arrangement allows them to add new spice to traditional songs.
They also say that by adding older country songs to their repertoire and emphasizing the lyrics and vocal harmonies over the instrumentals, they have created a style that is fresh and hard to pigeonhole.
Longtime fan George Dewese of Christiansburg remembers hearing the Flat Ridge Boys on the radio for the first time.
"It was different from bluegrass or any music I'd ever heard - and better!" he said. He was so impressed that he called the station to find out who the group was. "Since then I've collected every recording they ever came out with."
The band's "big break" came when they were asked to play in a show put on by Nashville Starseek, held in the Howard Johnson Hotel across the street from the Grand 'Ole Opry.
"The people there were starving for our kind of music," Russell said. "The really liked us."
The success of that show earned the band a second chance to impress Nashville's music fans. This summer, they will travel back to Tennessee's capital city to perform at the Opryland Hotel on June 19. And while they're not giving up their jobs just yet, they said they might consider it if a major label expressed interest.
If you'd like to see the Flat Ridge Boys perform, and can't make it to Nashville in June, you're still in luck. The Boys are bringing their talent to Blacksburg for a benefit concert for the Humane Society of Montgomery County. The performance will be held at the Wesley Foundation on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets will be sold at the door at $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors and kids under 12 are free. All proceeds will go the Humane Society.
BOX INFO;
The Flat Ridge Boys will perform at a benefit concert for the Humane Society of Montgomery County at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Wesley Foundation in Blacksburg.
Tickets will be sold at the door at $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors and kids under 12 are free. All proceeds will go the Humane Society.
by CNB