Mountain South Musicians
Music flows like water here in the mountains. Rocking lyrics and the lilt of the fiddle, the bass and the banjo seem a natural extension of the sweeping vistas and the quirky hollows. Some of the musicians here, like the incomparable Oak Ridge, Tenn.-born Edgar Meyer, are easy to claim as favored natives. Others, like D.C.-born Jimmy Thackery, we embrace more by enthusiastic long-term association. Many of them, like Doc Watson and Rhonda Vincent, are already renowned—but then we feel it’s equally important to address the legends-in-the-making, like brightly rising Jag Star and Devon Allman.
Whatever the venue—an intimate listening room or open-air festival stage—these musicians stand apart for their intense skill and energy. We now cast our feature spotlight on them as part of the outstanding musical patchwork quilt our region enjoys, and invite you to catch up with them whenever and wherever the opportunity arises.
April Taylor
A radio contest changed her course. For, although contemporary country singer and Bristol, Tenn., native April Taylor keenly felt a sense of musical tradition—one of her great grandfathers actually wrote music with the legendary Carter family—she contented herself with sharing her talents only with her church and family.
That is, until a radio contest caught her attention several years ago. Out of thousands of entrants, Taylor placed among three finalists; after a final showdown performance, she emerged as the winner.
“That’s when it hit me. I left that night with something in my heart going, ‘I need to be doing this forever,’ ” Taylor says.
Jag Star
With a punchy, radio-friendly power-pop style and a bounty of media exposure, Jag Star is a band that’s poised to go far. Actually, they have gone far—as far away as Afghanistan and Pakistan to perform for American troops. Although shows in their home state of Tennessee, at venues such as the World Grotto in Knoxville, are a “blast,” lead singer and songwriter Sarah Lewis explains that some of their favorite shows and most receptive audiences have been abroad.
“The soldiers were so wonderful to play for, and the energy was through the roof. We are very supportive of them, and now they are of us, too!” she says.
Rhonda Vincent
For bluegrass vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Rhonda Vincent, it’s been a continual process of discovery and development during her four-decade-long professional music career. She began at the age of five playing the drums with her family’s band, the Sally Mountain Show, and took up the mandolin and fiddle while still of grade school age. Today, lovingly called “Mandolin Mama” by fans, Vincent has the chops to execute breathtaking, blistering fast runs on the mandolin. She has earned wide critical acclaim and was named “Female Vocalist of the Year” for an extraordinary seven years in a row, starting in 2000, by the International Bluegrass Music Association.
Cory Branan
It’s hard to pin down a fellow like Cory Branan. The often-heard comparisons to artists such as Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes don’t exactly hit the mark. Impressively, Rolling Stone magazine and The Late Show with David Letterman have featured Branan, yet in conversation he comes across as being modest, down-to-earth, pensive and even self-deprecating at times.
Literally pinning down Branan is also difficult, as he’s a habitually touring musician who grew up in Mississippi, made his mark on the music scene in Memphis, Tenn., currently resides in Fayetteville, Ark., and plans on moving to Austin, Texas this summer. Branan appreciates his “green country” stops in the Mountain South, a welcome change from the “barrenness” of Midwest highways, and mentions Asheville and Barley’s Taproom in Knoxville among his favored destinations.
Devon Allman
While it’s never been easier to grab a sliver of instant fame—there are entertainers today who strive to make it the hard, old-fashioned way, working toward fame that’s lasting. Take, for example, Devon Allman, the front man of the four-piece St. Louis-based group Honeytribe. Recently performing at Mountain South venues in Asheville, N.C., Maryville and Johnson City, Tenn., Allman has been touring constantly for nearly two years.
Devon’s last name should rightfully ring a bell—his father is Gregg Allman, the legendary co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band and an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Jimmy Thackery
A member of The Nighthawks until 1987 and captain of his own power trio The Drifters since the early ’90s, Jimmy Thackery knows a thing or two about life on the road. He’s been rocking fans with his driving guitar licks almost every day of the year for decades.
Thackery got his first guitar in ’66. His inspiration? “Hormones.” Originally from Washington, D.C., some of his D.C. guitar heroes (in the original sense of the term) include Roy Buchanan, Danny Gat, Tom Principato, Bill Kirchen and many others. Thackery also has strong ties to the Mountain South from years of performing here. Back when the live music scene was more vibrant than it is currently, he could always count on the Mountain South’s love of music to sustain the band.
Edgar Meyer
Some musicians have a meek, almost browbeaten aura to them—you can practically smell the hours of coerced practice time spent in a little room while the other kids ran wild.
Then there’s master double bassist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Edgar Meyer. A few minutes with him and you can easily envision a young Meyer picking up an instrument like another child might approach a new toy. He seems to have no tethers to genre, style or stereotype, no preconceived limitations of what the bass, or any instrument, can do. “I think that sometimes people who play a certain instrument may want to have certain definitions of it, but [growing up] I was excited about music in general … ” says Meyer, a native of Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Doc Watson
It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of Arthel “Doc” Watson and harder still to find a serious musician who hasn’t been influenced, or at least greatly impressed, by his music. Doc is, after all, a pioneer who helped change the acoustic guitar’s role in traditional music from a supportive rhythm instrument to shining lead.
You’d never know it from talking to Doc, though. Despite all his accomplishments, his decades of success, what is most striking about this charismatic octogenarian—besides his precise musicianship, peerless voice, quick wit and disarming stage presence, of course—is his humility.
For the complete story, please read the Spring 2008 issue of Marquee Mountain South.
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