"You are listening to WRFG, 89.3FM, Atlanta, the only station playing Bluegrass Music in the Atlanta area. Listener supported WRFG is now at 100,000 watts." If you are familiar with radio station WRFG you have heard the above many times.
WRFG was formed as a listener-supported radio station in early 1973. It's purpose is to provide free expression to people who normally would not have access to the airwaves. Community involvement is crucial to the station, since it depends upon volunteer assistance to bring programming to the Atlanta area. Originally the output power was 10 watts!!! and the listening range was five to eight miles in all directions from mid-town Atlanta. The power was increased to 1,250 watts in 1974 and 24,300 in 1980.
There are countless stories of the superhuman efforts of loyal listeners trying desperately to receive the sometimes erratic "voice of RFG..." Leaning out a second story bathroom window with a small transistor radio in hand turned at a 45 degree angle to the chimney, hours of circling in the car within a 4 square mile area of best reception in order to hear the Bluegrass Festival on Wednesday night, WRFG's longest running program. Others spent small fortunes on electronic gadgetry in an attempt to surpass and out-wit mountain ranges impeding the weak 24, 300 watt FM signal.
After years of planning and hard work, WRFG finally reached its goal of operating at 100,000 watts in the summer of 1995. This was an extremely important move for the station. It means that WRFG now has a strong, clear signal for its loyal core listening group, a group that has indicated its need for the station by supporting WRFG'S effort to reach marathon goals of hundreds of thousand of dollars. It also means that WRFG now has the ability to reach thousands of new listeners that were unable to tune to its previous lower watt signal.
A big part of WRFG has been Bluegrass programming. The Bluegrass volunteers at WRFG have sponsored The Peachblossom Bluegrass Festival each spring. Profits from the festival are given to the radio station. 1996 will be the 20th annual. Groups and artists who have appeared in previous Peachblossom Festivals look like a who's who of Bluegrass music. Dave Evans, Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys, The Osborne Brothers, the Bluegrass Cardinals, the Lost and Found, Del McCoury, Larry Sparks, the Virginia Squires, Tony Rice, the Lewis Family, the Crowe Brothers, the Reno Brothers, the Gillis Brothers, Bill Grant and Delia Bell, Petticoat Junction, the Stevens Family and others.
The festivals have been held in the spring at various local locations. Approximately 7 years ago, Southern Tech in Marietta offered their gymnasium as a permanent home for the Peachblossom. The gym was not available until after the basketball season, however. Basketball ended sometime after the middle of March. After looking at the calendar and not wanting to conflict with other festivals in the Atlanta area, it was decided that the Peachblossom festival would be held on the first Saturday of April.
Local bands have always been a big part of the Peachblossom. One or two national bands are booked and local bands complete the program. Local bands that have indicated they will appear at Peachblossom 1996 are Good Medicine, Same Old Boys, Born Gypsy, the Everett Brothers, Georgia Bound, the Sunnyside Mountain Boys, Curtis Jones and Misery River, Brushfire, Center Stage, Phil Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, Cheyenne and others.
The headline bands for the 1996 festival are The
Nashville Bluegrass band and Claire Lynch and the Front Porch
String Band. Both of these bands are finalists in the 38th annual
Grammy Awards. Both bands are nominated in the Best Bluegrass
Album category. Claire Lynch for her album entitled "Moonlighter"
and "Unleashed" by the Nashville Bluegrass Band.
Claire Lynch was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and moved to Alabama at the age of 12. After high school she decided that she wanted to work in music. Claire and her future husband, Larry, had been friends since the ninth grade, but didn't develop a relationship until a couple years after high school when they met again. Larry was playing in a bluegrass band called Hickory Wind while he was attending the University of Alabama. They had a gig in Huntsville, where Claire was working and that's were she ran into him. Eventually the band asked Claire to sing with them. There was a band in Washington, D.C. called Hickory Wind and so they changed their name to Front Porch String Band. They landed a job in Birmingham, Alabama playing four or five nights a week.
After a 10-year absence from performing (to be with her children), Claire Lynch returned to the music scene in 1991 with her husband (Larry Lynch) and the Front Porch String Band. In 1993, she signed a recording contract with Brentwood Music as a solo artist. Claire has also worked as a session vocalist with such artists as Dolly Parton, Kathy Mattea, Patty Loveless and Emmylou Harris.
Alan O'Bryant of the Nashville Bluegrass Band was in the Front Porch String Band some years back. He sang the call-and-answer part of "Paul and Peter Walked" on the Claire Lynch CD entitled "Friends for a Lifetime" which was released in 1993 on Brentwood. This album was reviewed favorably in Bluegrass Unlimited in January 1994.
The recently issued album "Moonlighter" on Rounder (Claire Lynch & The Front Porch String Band) is also getting rave reviews. That album included David Grier, Gene Libbea, Larry Lynch, Alison Brown, Randy Howard, Jerry Douglas. Dave Pomeroy, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Adam Steffey, Kathy Chiavola, Rob Ickes, Kenny Malone, Ronnie Simpkins, Glen Duncan, Thom Bresh and Ronnie Simpkins. What a lineup. No wonder it has been nominated for a Grammy Award.
The Nashville Bluegrass Band was formed by Alan O'Bryant and Pat Enright in 1984. They rapidly became one of the most popular bluegrass bands in the country. It has been said of the Nashville Bluegrass Band: "They put the blues back in bluegrass."
Alan O'Bryant (banjo) is originally from Reidsville, North Carolina. He began his musical career in 1974 with James Monroe (Bill Monroe's son). He later joined the Front Porch String Band and for several years worked as a studio session musician in Nashville.
Alan has a trademark style of singing in which he holds the head of the banjo up near the microphone while he sings "into" the banjo. Alan originally did it to get the weight off his diaphragm, thus giving him more vocal control. He noticed the "echo" effect acted somewhat like a natural reverb, and on the acapella numbers, he discovered that he could hear the tuning of the banjo in the vibration of his head, helping him to stay on pitch.
Other members of the group include Pat Enright (guitar, formerly with the New England-based band, Tasty Licks), Roland White (mandolin, formerly with the Country Gazette), Stuart Duncan (fiddle) and Gene Libbea (bass).
The Nashville Bluegrass Band was the first bluegrass group to ever perform in Red China. They performed at a 10-day American Festival at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, People's Republic of China in 1986.
The Nashville Bluegrass Band has won numerous International Bluegrass Music Awards, among them: "Vocal Group of the Year" (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993); "Entertainer of the Year" (1993); "Song of the Year" ("Blue Train" 1992). Fiddle player Stuart Duncan has been Fiddle Player of the Year every year the award has been given by IBMA (1990-1995)!
The February issue of Bluegrass Unlimited has "Unleashed" rated number 2, up from 3 the previous month and "Moonlighter" is rated 5th. Both albums have 2 songs each in the top 30. Claire has number 5, "Pee Wee and Fern" and 16, "Second Wind." The Nashville Bluegrass Band have the 11th and 29th songs, "Tear my Stillhouse Down" and "Blackbirds and Crows".
We hope to see you April 6, 1996 at Southern Tech for the 20th Annual Peachblossom Bluegrass Festival. WRFG has leaped to 100,000 watts and has a "100,000 watt" Bluegrass Festival planned. We like to call this a FUN-raising event for WRFG.
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