As most who know the story’s end can tell you, as a bassist I make an excellent guitarist, and 3 years later– when I finally began my stint in Little Feat– I would never have guessed that I would be here writing these liner notes to yet another chapter in the now storied life of a band that has been my life, and a true labor of love.”

Truth is, there really is no story’s end yet, and Little Feat have indeed led a storied life ever since they formed in 1969. From then on, their unconventional signature of earthy, organic appeal and polished, first-rate musicianship wrapped around eclectic and memorable songs–clearly delivered as an authentic labor of love–has been a lasting fixture on the musical landscape. As American as apple pie–and rock ‘n roll itself–Feat’s music transcends boundaries, a freewheeling fusion of California rock and Dixie-inflected funk-boogie. In the mix as well are strains of folk, blues, rockabilly, country and jazz, inventing a hybrid sound that is truly Little Feat’s own.

That story is about to add a major new chapter – the 2008 release of Join the Band, a very special project in Feat’s history. Keyboardist Bill Payne came up with the idea of a CD that included many things, but featured major Little Feat hit songs as played by a band that included Feat and some very special friends. When you have friends like Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Bob Seger, Bela Fleck, Brooks and Dunn, Chris Robinson (Black Crowes), Vince Gill, Mike Gordon (Phish), and Inara George (band founder Lowell’s daughter) – you have musical treasure in your hands. Join the Band is going to make some noise.

Rhino/Warner Bros. also saluted Little Feat’s accumulated musical history with the comprehensive retrospective Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat, a project initiated and co-produced by Bill Payne and Paul Barrere. Released in 2000, the deluxe 4-CD, 83-track boxed set features hits from all of Little Feat’s classic albums as well as fan favorites, alternate takes and hand-picked rarities from the band’s eventful past.

Time has loved these musical heroes for more than three decades now, as have legions of fans and countless fellow musicians, many of whom they’ve played with over the years. Feat’s fabled collaborators have included Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Beck, Brian Wilson, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Lang, and Leftover Salmon (for whom Bill Payne recently produced an album). With the success of Hot Tomato Records, an endeavor powered by an inspired band of musicians continuing to create exciting new material both individually and as a group, Little Feat will no doubt be sailin’ into the future with no end in sight.

Within a year of releasing their self-titled debut, the Nashville-based six-piece far surpassed their own expectations, winning a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album and earning six awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Now, with their first live album, Earls of Leicester offer up a selection of songs that fully capture the pure joy and supreme musicianship that propel their every performance.
Recorded over two nights at Nashville’s CMA Theater, The Earls of Leicester Live at The CMA Theater in The Country Music Hall of Fame bears a boundless vitality that makes songs from over a half-century ago feel irresistibly fresh. Despite the band’s painstaking precision in recreating the catalog of Flatt and Scruggs’s Foggy Mountain Boys, the album unfolds with an easy warmth that honors the essence of traditional bluegrass, which Douglas describes as “music that was meant to be played on back porches.” Earls of Leicester Live is also accompanied by a DVD that shows the complete splendor of their live set: the throwback attire, the off-the-cuff but illuminating between-song banter, the relentless hotfooting required of their stage setup. “Our goal is to go out and reacquaint everybody with the music of Flatt and Scruggs just the way they did it, which means fewer microphones and a good amount of choreography,” says Douglas. “We’re trying to put as much as we can into the music before it even reaches the speakers.”
Made up entirely of songs from 1954 to 1965, Earls of Leicester Live combines classic tunes with more obscure numbers unearthed thanks to the band’s encyclopedic familiarity with Flatt and Scruggs’s body of work. To that end, the setlist includes notorious crowd-pleasers like “Martha White Theme Song” (originally penned as a jingle for Martha White Self-Rising Flour) and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (a breakneck-paced, banjo-driven instrumental popularized thanks to its use in Bonnie and Clyde), as well as the harmony-laced “You Can Feel It in Your Soul” and the sweetly crooning “All I Want Is You.” Earls of Leicester Live also serves up several tracks integral to Flatt and Scruggs legend—including “I’m Gonna Sleep with One Eye Open,” a song famously banned from the Grand Ole Opry—along with more oddball offerings like the gracefully sprawling two-part instrumental “Steel Guitar Blues/Spanish Two Step.” And in one of the album’s most poignant moments, the Earls of Leicester deliver the wistfully lilting “Reunion in Heaven”—a song the band performed at Foggy Mountain Boys mandolin player/vocalist Curly Seckler’s gravesite earlier this year, as per Seckler’s personal request.
Throughout Earls of Leicester Live, the band wholeheartedly channels the spirit of Flatt and Scruggs while allowing each member’s distinct charm and singular musicality to shine through. And though their unbridled passion instantly stirs up a freewheeling energy, a closer listen reveals the profound mastery of skill infused into each performance. “This is the result of years and years of trying out different instruments, different string gauges, different techniques to try to create these sounds,” Douglas notes. In that process, he adds, the Earls of Leicester eventually dug up decades-old instruments in order to achieve the ideal texture and tone they were seeking. “Everybody in the band plays something old,” says Douglas. “This music just sounds so much more true to form when it’s played on old instruments.”
For Douglas—a 14-time Grammy Award-winner who founded the Earls of Leicester and produces all their material—that approach builds on a lifelong dedication to studying the music of Flatt and Scruggs. Soon after hearing the Foggy Mountain Boys at age seven, he devoted himself to deconstructing their recordings, paying particular attention to the captivating Dobro work of Josh Graves. “I remember sitting by the record player and trying to figure out what Josh Graves was doing,” he says. “There was no one to teach me, so I just had to listen.”
Douglas attended a number of Flatt and Scruggs concerts as a kid, and later played with each musician on separate occasions. Although his own prolific career as a musician and producer has kept him more than occupied over the years—including appearing on more than 1,600 albums, recording with the likes of Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, and Elvis Costello—Douglas was unable to shake his vision of one day revisiting the music of Flatt and Scruggs. “I probably could have stayed focused on everything else I’ve got going on, but this just haunted me,” he says.
As Douglas points out, the most crucial factor in forming the Earls of Leicester was replicating the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry that long fueled Flatt and Scruggs. “I looked for years to find the group I needed for the alchemy to work,” he says. In the end, Douglas landed on the lineup of Shawn Camp (Garth Brooks, Blake Shelton), Jeff White (Vince Gill, Loretta Lynn), Charlie Cushman (Jimmy Martin, Mel Tillis), Johnny Warren (son of Foggy Mountain Boys’ Paul Warren), and Barry Bales (Alison Krauss & Union Station)—and found himself beyond floored by their immediate synergy. “I had to stop the band in the middle of the first song, because I was scared to keep going—it felt like Flatt and Scruggs were going to jump right out of the wall,” he says in reflecting on their first meeting. “I’d hoped it was going to be even half that good, and it ended up just taking my breath away.”

Jacobs and his ace four-piece band stopped by Mountain Stage on Oct. 6, 2019 for a show at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va. to share his latest tunes with an appreciative audience.
Host Larry Groce said Jacobs was obviously a super talent, as evidenced by the company he keeps; Jacobs has opened tours for Steve Winwood, Sturgill Simpson and just collaborated on an album called Neville Jacobs with iconic New Orleans musician Ivan Neville of The Neville Brothers. “He is in tall timber and rightly so. He can play, he can sing, he can write songs and he has a fantastic band,” Groce said. “Since he got married, he and his wife have had two little girls and his life has changed, as it should, and his songs have just gotten deeper and better.”

Jacobs and his band (Jonathan Sloane on guitar and backing vocals, Todd Herrington on bass and Dusty Simmons on drums and backing vocals) ease into that deep and wide roots stream on the gorgeously swirling country of “Buffalo Girl,” before revving up and unleashing “Rooster Coop,” a swampy, Little Feat-like funk romp with Jacobs and Sloane trading off measure after measure of tasty chicken-picking and slide guitar solos before interlacing their guitars in harmony.
Jacobs’ vulnerability and soulful singing is on full display as the band’s energy cascades down into the harmony-rich rock ballad, “Afterglow.” Grabbing his cigar-box guitar, Jacobs fast-spits lyrics while sliding gritty and sweet tones amidst a pointed social commentary on the blues burner, “Under the Big Top.” Still armed with the three-stringed cigar box, Jacobs and the band all take blistering turns soloing as a smokestack of Southern rock fire on “Bone Digger,” a hypnotic jam from his album Dust To Gold.

“Dust to Gold is his most complete work yet with a mix of cigar box guitar rockers, soulful pop and countrified ballads.” – The Washington Post
“Cris Jacobs is one of those triple threats– singer, songwriter and guitarist– blessed with a deep, soulful voice and able to traverse a number of genres.” – Elmore Magazine
“Jacobs’ music has a warmth that immediately draws you in… It’s country with an R&B groove, and it displays Jacobs’ wide range of talents.” – Wide Open Country

The band continues to evolve from the Watermelon Park Bluegrass Festival campsite. Adding talented band members and unforgettable original songs, Low Water Bridge Band’s sound shakes the mountains, rumbles through the holler, and fills the river bottoms.

The band creates music that is at times lively and raucous, with spirited fiddle melodies weaving in and around the powerful rhythms of the bass and bouzouki, and other times poignant and poetic, with sublime vocal harmonies beautifully interpreting some of the oldest songs ever written.
Furnace Mountain Band has performed throughout the world, from the Yangtze River in China to the banks of the Shenandoah River, where they are the host band of Watermelon Pickers’ Festival. Furnace Mountain Band plays music from the American Appalachian traditions, as well as original compositions, and songs penned by their favorite song writing friends.

The band features award winning players:
Eli Wildman, first place winner in mandolin at the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention, 2018 and 2019, first place winner at the Mount Airy Fiddler’s 2017, 2018, 2019
Aila Wildman, first place winner in Old Time Fiddle and Best All Around Performer at the 83rd annual Galax Old Fiddlers convention in 2018
Victor Furtado, winner of the 2019 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo, and first place Old Time Banjo at Galax 2015, 2016 and 2019
The group has appeared on stages large and small, performing in festivals such as Red Wing Roots, Chantilly Farm’s Bluegrass and BBQ festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass, Floyd Fest, and The Steep Canyon Rangers’ Mountain Song Festival. They also regularly represent young talent along the Crooked Road in regional fiddler’s conventions.  Having shared the stage with talents such as Bela Fleck, The Steep Canyon Rangers, The Steel Wheels, Danny Knicely, Sammy Shelor, Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, and more., these young musicians are making their way in the American stringband scene.

Each accomplished musicians in their own right, with extensive performance history and accolades,
Jocelyn & Ellen first joined forces in 2018, in Scotland. Since then, the duo has been gracing stages
and captivating audiences in both North America and the UK. They have performed for HRH Prince

Charles, been featured in live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, and will be releasing their much-
anticipated debut album, “All It Brings”, in Summer 2022.
“For this concert, Jocelyn & Ellen will be joined by Maryland-based guitarist, Richard
Osban. The trio will present a lively performance of traditional and original tunes and songs.”

by Eileen Carson and Mark Schatz, with Jon Glik, Danny Knicely, Matt Olwell and Kristin Andreassen. Megan is now the Artistic Director of New York’s City Stompers, calling squares and teaching old-time flatfooting.

From dive bar corners to venue bright lights, each song kicks dirt off the dance floor with story-filled twang. Blending genres, yet always tinged in Cassidy’s blues, they have developed a unique sound that morphs the musical styles of the American past with a voicing that can only be sung by this band’s bright future.