Join us for The Floyd Radio Show on Saturday, January 5, 2019 at 7:30 pm: a night of music, stories, skits and jokes; live at the Floyd Country Store and broadcast online during the event. Guests for this month’s Floyd Radio Show include the young bluegrass sensation ShadowGrass, old time stringband The Thundering Tardigrades, and Hoppie Vaughan with Bob Casey! Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 day of show.
ShadowGrass
ShadowGrass is a group of young musicians from Western North Carolina and Southwestern Virginia who crossed paths at local fiddler’s conventions in the summer of 2014. They began a musical journey that has led them to play and compete together.
Although they have their own style, ShadowGrass is honored to be playing in the shadow of great bluegrass legends. Holding to their bluegrass roots, fast picking, and fresh arrangements have earned the band numerous awards in youth and adult competitions across the region. In 2016 they placed 5th in the adult bluegrass band category at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention. ShadowGrass has had the privilege of playing at exciting venues, including Heartwood and The Crooked Road,The Blue Ridge Music Center, The Lincoln Theatre, The Historic Earle Theatre, and at festivals such as the National Folk Festival, MerleFest, HoustonFest, the Richmond Folk Festival, SPGBMA, and IBMA. They were honored to be chosen as a featured youth band for the IBMA World of Bluegrass Festival in 2016 and 2018.
Their foot-tapping music and charming personalities continue to draw a crowd and gain encouraging fans with each new place they visit. ShadowGrass is looking forward to contributing to the heritage of bluegrass music for years to come.
The Thundering Tardigrades
Featuring MJ Epps, JoeBass DeJarnette, David Winston and Mary Winston, The Thundering Tardigrades are a spectacular old time string band with some of Virginia’s finest!
See the band’s last performance from the October 2016 Radio Show on YouTube.
Hoppie Vaughan
A native of Union, SC, Hoppie or “Hop” as he is fondly regarded became serious about his music career at the ripe old age of 12, when he heard his then 17-year-old brother playing drums in a garage band. Soon, he had a bass guitar in his hands and was practicing constantly. By age 14, he was playing brass 1970s music in his first band, The Horseheads, a USC, Aiken pep band that also played the club circuit, aka the “Chittlin’ Circuit”, all over the Southeast. He was writing original songs by 16. Hollowpoint came next, a regionally popular SC and GA band, which recorded in James Brown’s Third World Studio in North Augusta, SC and E. Avalon Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL, circa 1977.
Today, as he delivers potent, unbridled, seemingly effortless vocals that invoke Wilson Pickett, Al Green, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke, it’s hard to believe that he never set out to be a singer. Things changed one night when Hollowpoint’s lead singer literally collided with a train while rushing to a gig. Fortunately, the singer escaped without injury, but he didn’t escape losing his lead singer position to Hoppie Vaughan. Prior to this serendipitous event, Hop had been content to sing a couple songs and do a little back up. Suddenly, Vaughan was on! By 1978, he had moved to Huntsville, AL and was singing and playing with “Rage”, officially chasing the rock star dream, performing showcases for major record labels, and once again recording at the famed Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama. After “Rage”, Hoppie returned to Augusta, GA for a while and played with “Wichita”, a regional country rock band. A bona fide road scholar, he refers to those early years of moving around and playing music he didn’t particularly like as his real education. With humor and humility, he was paying his dues and learning to be adaptable in an unpredictable industry.