Bluegrass Now – April ’06 Review

Sweet Sunny South

Wild-n-Swingin’

This young band might not fit everyone’s notion of a bluegrass or old time string band: after all, there is limited use of a banjo and to top that off, it is a plectrum and not a five-string.  However once you listen, you are going to find a talented, contemporary string band, with obvious and strong ties to tradition.  While some listeners might find it difficult to categorize this music, it doesn’t matter because what you receive is some truly great, original music.

This is their second album, following the very successful, Bell Creek Dance Club, which was released in 2003.  Bill Powers doubles on the mandolin and plectrum banjo, with Cory Obert on fiddle, Shelley Gray on bass and Rob Miller provides rhythm guitar and lead vocals.  Obert’s strong fiddle is dominant in much of the material, contributing to the old-time sound of the band, but the mandolin and bass add a bit more of the bluegrass’ drive to the overall sound.

This album has eight songs by Bill Powers and two by Rob Miller, supplemented by several traditional numbers: a nice mix of material that is pleasing to the ear.

Based in Paonia, Colorado, this young ensemble is more testimony to the growing strength of acoustic music in the Western United States.  My hat’s off to folks working on their own distinctive and enjoyable sound.  DRD

Bluegrass Now – November 2005 Review

Sweet Sunny South

Bell Creek Dance Club

It was love at first sound for me and Sweet Sunny South.  A historian and a romantic, I cottoned to the touching concept of paying tribute to a beloved old barn with a rich history of local Saturday night dances, as the second and third cuts do.  I was entranced by the interspersed reminiscences that serve as introductions and conclusions to the songs.  I cheered their defiant mission statement: “Bluegrass. Old-time. Anytime.”  My essentially old fashioned self was attracted by the groups sepia-tinted web site and I had to laugh at the photo on their home page where they sat, looking for all the world like the Culhanes, smiling with self-aware irony at the camera.  I fell solidly in love when I heard “Me and My Old Still”  (“We rock and we reel…..she’s my knockout, she’s my lover, she’s my copper-headed still…..”)

Sweet Sunny South hails from Paonia, Colorado and consists of Rob Miller on guitar, Shelley Gray on acoustic bass, Cory Obert on fiddle, Bill Powers on mandolin and plectrum banjo, and everybody on vocals.  Adam Burke guests on vocals on “Bell Creek Dance Club” and “Homestead Market.”  Powers and Miller write all songs except three (one of which was written by Stephen Foster and the other by Uncle Dave Macon).  They are not a flashy band, but their songs possess humor and drama.  They imbue their songs with restrained sentimentality, straightforward and matter-of-fact, never cloying or sweet.  They tell stories.  They draw vivid pictures.  You’re so entranced by the subject matter that you take nearly for granted their solid pitch, flawless timing and quietly competent musicianship.

You might ask, “Why haven’t we heard of this band before?”  Well, if you’re reading this, you’ve heard of them now and you have no excuse.  Sweet Sunny South may not be famous, but they make the world a better place any old way.  ELF

The Fort Collins Bulldog

Review of Wild-n-Swingin'

Joshua Zaffos

Summer 2005

Not many bands dare to reconstruct a make-believe car race between James Brown and Muhammad Ali through an instrumental bluegrass ditty.  But Sweet Sunny South doesn’t flinch as it rips through “Cochetopa Ropadopa” on its latest album, the self-produced Wild-n-Swingin’. 

Offering a blend of bluegrass and “old-time” country music –with an occasionally funky swagger – SSS is building a reputation at bluegrass and folk fests across the state.

Their first release, Bell Creek Dance Club, was a nostalgic concept album steeped around a 1940’s era dance hall.  On Swingin’, the Western Slope acoustic quartet continues to flesh out its style and captures more of its live energy.  Vocal harmonies flow; bass lines strut; fiddles, mandolins and banjos duck and bob like Ali in the late rounds.  Once through the album and you’re wondering why you’re not eating watermelon slices and drinking grain alcohol in a field as you hit play on the CD again.

Swingin’ is mostly original tracks, penned by guitar player Rob Miller and mandolin player Bill Powers, whose syrup-and-sawdust voice sounds like it’s coming to listeners through a phonograph from deep in Appalachia.  A couple traditional fiddle tunes let Cory Obert show off his fingers and pipes, and SSS has even crafted a swinging jig to highlight standup bass player, Shelley Gray, a.k.a. Laura Ingalls Wilder-n-Swingin’ herself. 

Sweet Sunny South will be all over the state before the summer ends, including at Red Rocks on September 24, where they’ll open the Colorado Grass Roots Festival for acts like John Hiatt and Bela Fleck.  If you catch them live, you’ll find SSS crowded around a single mic, dressed to a T and goofing around between songs.  To grab a copy of the album or find out tour dates, visit sweetsunnysouth.com

TRAVEL TO SWEET SUNNY SOUTH

Paonia's old time bluegrass band does Junction shows

The Daily Sentinel - Out & About

By Anna Beaty Kerr

July 22, 2005

A band with old time sound and bluegrass beats is breaking into the Grand valley music scene. Sweet sunny South, based in Paonia, has several shows booked in the valley in the next week. The band doesn't like to pigeonhole it's sound with labels, but will claim to be somewhere between old time and bluegrass. It's old time sound arrives from the member's style- they play to one standing microphone. The foursome of 30-somethings have had fun learning to master the genre, said Rob miller, rhythm guitarist and vocalist. ít's like being back in the old Grand Ol' Opry, Hank Williams style" he said. "We started out that way to stay simple. But it really adds to the show, people seem to enjoy the energy."

Sweet Sunny South sings almost all original tunes, written mostly by Powers and Miller. Powers plays the banjo and mandolin, Cory Obert plays the old time fiddle.

"We are rather difficult to classify," said Shelley Gray, bassist and vocalist. "We're not just bluegrass or old time, we appeal to people who like all kinds of music."

The band gave people a taste of it's sound Thursday night, July 21, at the Downtown Farmer's Market Festival. It will play at Fruita Brewing Co. Friday and Saturday, July 22-23, starting at 8 p.m. It will also play at the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens on Friday, July 29, gates open at 6:30 p.m., the show will start at 7 p.m.

The bandmates said they look forward to showcasing thier unique sound and stage antics for the valley. "We've never done a two-night stand, we feel like rock stars now," Miller said of the Fruita Brewing shows. The band plays regular gigs at the Paradise Theater in Paonia. Earlier this month it played other statewide festivals, including Westfest in Aspen, Legends of the West in Ridgway and the Crested Butte Music Fest.

"Part of what we created has sort of sparked a scene" in the Paonia area Miller said. "It seems to fit with the folks around here."

The bandmates met at Paonia's community radio station, KVNF, where they are all DJs.

Miller, Powers and Obert have been playing together for four years. Gray, Powers wife and the newest addition, joined more than a year ago. "It's cool because we all started out as friends," Gray said. "We all have children and we do a lot of stuff with the families. When we play, our closeness comes through. We have to work around the microphone, so we're always communicating to each other on stage." Sweet Sunny South's talents were recently noticed by The daily Sentinel. It will be one of the 15 bands on the "Grand Valley Tracks 2" music compilation, set to release in August. The chosen selection came off of sweet Sunny South's first full release, "Bell Creek Dance Club." The albums title was taken from the story of the old dance hall of the same name between Hotchkiss and Paonia. Sweet Sunny South will continue touring the state through the end of the summer. For information about Sweet Sunny South's tour or music, visit it's web site at www.sweetsunnysouth.com.

Local Oldtime Music Band Releases New CD Wild -n- Swingin'

By, Thomas Wills

Merchant Herald

June 21-July 18, 2005

On Sweet Sunny South’s first CD, 2004’s Bell Creek Dance Club, a concept album featuring the voices of locals sandwiched in between the cuts, Ward Holder says, “When you hear some of this good music you can’t just sit there.  Your feet get to moving and you want to get up and dance.”  Holder was talking about the old time music played at area dances in the 1940’s, but he might as well have been talking about Paonia based neo-oldtime/bluegrass band Sweet Sunny South.

Bell Creek Dance Club which keyed music to local history was a hit and won the band critical praise across the region. 

The new CD which was released just in time for the group’s appearances at the North Fork Valley Bluegrass Festival, is titled Wild and Swingin’ which refers to the high energy dance tone of much of the music.  The CD contains several new standout classic songs including the two opening tunes: Four Eyed Boy and Burlington Northern.  Both were written with lead vocals by the group’s creative sparkplug and primary songwriter Bill Powers.  The third standout is a song about farm life through the seasons written by guitarist/vocalist Rob Miller with Powers – Chuck O’Connor’s Blues.

If you are a bluegrass purist you will definitely note that Wild and Swingin’ is probably more 1940’s style roadhouse country with a bluegrass flavor than traditional bluegrass.  For one thing the music is mandolin and fiddle melody lines with occasional plectrum played banjo with standup bass and guitar keeping a sometimes rockabilly like back beat, not dominated with clawhammer banjo rolls.  But that is just jargon, what matters is the music does make you want to get up and dance.  At the 2005 North Fork Bluegrass Festival, during Sweet Sunny South’s finale set, there were scores of people up and dancing in the grass.

The 15 song album also contains a cd-rom Quicktime video and a hidden track of a different mix of Four Eyed Boy.

The new CD, along with the debut CD Bell Creek Dance Club will be available locally at Expressions Books, Homestead Market, Paonia Farm and Home Center as well as online at www.sweetsunnysouth.com.

Sweet Sunny South

Bluegrass Now-general bands section

March 2005

Sweet Sunny South, a funky bluegrass and old-time musical group based in Paonia, CO, has released their debut CD, Bell Creek Dance Club. Band members include Rob Miller on guitar, Bill Powers on mandolin, Cory Obert on fiddle, and Shelley Gray on bass. They all contribute on the vocals. The band began in 2000 based on their shared love of old-time music and immediately became successful, based on their musicianship and energetic live performances. This is a fun group with great talent and their music will definitely be appreciated by bluegrass fans.

Sweet Sunny South liner notes.....

writen by producer, Mark Nanni   

April 21, 2005  

Syracuse, NY

Sweet Sunny South. Who are these guys? Well, I’ll tell you what I know. . .

Being on board to assist the band in producing this recording was a beautiful experience. They flew me into Denver from my home town in New York where I make my living playing music. I arrived on a Sunday evening, and we were in the studio by 9 o’clock Monday morning. We awoke at 7:30am every day for four days and put the recording in the can – all of it. I thought they were nuts. I’d certainly never had anything to do with making music at that hour unless I was still up from the night before. But the energy was wonderful and inspired. They were extremely well rehearsed, had a vision and were ready to make this record. One just has to admire that kind of work ethic, and when I assessed the results, it was obvious that it works.

This is the way SSS approaches music. It’s constantly moving; always evolving. The amount of development I’ve seen from the band since I started following them only a few years ago just makes me think that they’re still in the infant phase of their potential, despite the fact that they’ve already carved out a sound all their own. And to me, that’s the real point I want to make: Sweet Sunny South is a band of innovators.

As with all of the great innovators of any discipline before them, they’re out on a limb. They certainly give the respectful nod to the traditions which precede them; it cannot be denied. Yet Sweet Sunny South is not another traditional string band . . .

Look at Miles Davis, Vincent Van Gogh, Apple-Macintosh’s Jef Raskin and Steve Jobs. Not everyone was ready for Miles’ sounds, Van Gogh’s visions (he never sold a painting in his lifetime), and Mac’s ideas. Now, they all represent the pinnacle of their respective fields. They are all leaders which their peers now follow.  

Innovators start out as odd ducks until folks allow themselves to remember the power and beauty of human individuality. Innovators are leaders; conservationists, followers. And though some things are certainly worth conserving, one should consider following our leaders’ ways of thinking, not just their thoughts.

With that being said, it’s important to note that although the band’s ideas are their own, the music is still completely accessible. The vocals are lush and full of personality, the playing is rock solid, the songwriting is strong and catchy. Upon returning home from the sessions, I found myself haunted by this music, seemingly unable to remove the ruffs from my CD player. . .

So, what should we do with this Sweet Sunny South?

Enjoy them. Experience their joyful energy. Appreciate their creativity. Feel their love.

Sweet Sunny South: Wheeler Opera House, Aspen Colorado

Dr. I. Bearly Holdanote

New York City April 2005

I have a thing for small, rough-cut mountain towns. And I really have a thing for small towns with small string bands that make sweet acoustic sounds. In the Western Colorado hamlet of Paonia you will find such an ambient pairing of old-timey mountain folk and the old time sounds of Sweet Sunny South, a one-mic band with a battery of feisty original tunes and a sense of history (and décor) that reaches back to days before coal was hauled out of their valley with pick and mule.

Over the last few years Sweet Sunny South has ventured beyond their cozy fruit-growing valley and landed themselves in larger, more polished mountain towns like Aspen and Telluride, laying down their smooth-hewn sounds for toe-tapping and slack-jawed audiences.

And in March when they found themselves opening for Bluegrass/Jazzgrass superpower Psychograss at Aspen’s historical and cavernous Wheeler Opera House, Sweet Sunny South casually sauntered onto the vast stage as if it were their own living room and unpacked their convivial wares: a tight, six-tune set of homegrown ballads, laments and balls-to-the-wall fiddle tunes.

With Cory Obert on an inspired fiddle, the lovely nuptial team of Bill Powers (Mandolin and Banjo) & Shelly Gray (AKA Laura Ingalls Wilder on Doghouse Bass) and anchor Rob Miller (guitar) sharing time on vocal leads and harmonies and swapping licks as if they were cherished cherry pie recipes, Sweet Sunny South has melded the intimacy of small town living with the well-healed virtuosity and vigor of a big town ensemble. Meanwhile their welcoming presence makes you feel like you’re eating good old comfort food at Grandmas house, and you certainly aren’t ashamed to holler for a second helping.

After hearing their six song sampler of Breakin’ Up Christmas, Burlington Northern, Bell Creek, Chuck’s Blues, Laura Ingalls and Gray Cat on Tennesse Farm in Aspen, my appetite for a second portion of their sweet fare was awarded to me a month later at Steve’s Guitars in Carbondale, Colorado, a venue that is as intimate as the Wheeler is grand.  And let me tell you folks, they charmed the good mountain folks of the Roaring Fork Valley until they chortled for more and more, ultimately rallying Sweet Sunny South for a solid four driven and danceable encores.

With their forthcoming album Wild-n-Swingin’  (their second album in a year), Sweet Sunny South has demonstrated that they have the talent and tenacity to become as much a tried and true tradition in our extended bluegrass community as they are troubadors of the traditional sounds itself.  Add in their inherent joy of playing together and sharing it with their participatory audiences and you witness a band that has a clear understanding of their roots and their ability to ascend to a higher place in the Bluegrass universe.

By, Dave Bowman
For The Montrose Daily Press-The Scene June 2004

"Sweet Sunny South came shining our of Paonia about three years ago.  In that short time they have become a West Slope institution, constantly playing around the area and throughout the state.  They have built a local following, in part due to their loyal support of the area's fines radio station, KVNF 89.1, but mainly because of their musicianship and energetic live performances." 

Sweet Sunny South Release Their First CD

By, Amy Reinholds
For Pow'r Pickin' June 2004

The Paonia band Sweet Sunny South's first CD Bell Creek Dance Club, released this month, reveals not only the band's bluegrass and old-time roots but also a love for the history of the Western Slope town.

Listening to the CD makes us all want to move to Paonia, but if we can't, at least we can listen to the CD, and hope to entice the band to play in our towns.

Sweet sunny South is Rob Miller on guitar, Bill Powers on mandolin, Cory Obert on fiddle and Shelley Gray on bass, with all on vocals.  About four years ago, the band grew out of a love of bluegrass and traditional music from DJs of the bluegrass show on Paonia's community radio station KVNF - Rob, Bill and Kevin Dirk.  Originally a five piece with Kevin on (Scrugg-style) banjo, the band has evolved to incorporate more of an old-time feel, especially as a four-piece after Kevin left the band to work on building a house and spend time with his newborn daughter.  Bill adds old-time banjo sound on Bell Creek Dance Club with plectrum banjo.

Bell Creek Dance Club   is named after a song Bill wrote inspired by a decaying building on the back road between Paonia and Hotchkiss.  He read an article in the local paper about the history of the dance club building and sat down to write about how "the band stomped out the rhythm, while the crowd called out for more, they'd fly around that place 'til they were sore."  The story of Saturday night dancing and socializing became the theme of the project when the band talked with their producer, Adam Burke, about interviewing locals who recall their memories of introducing aspects of each song and tying it all together into a sweet an powerful package of Colorado rural history and timeless themes of love, dancing, and good times.  Although the project is inspired by history, most of the songs are original, with seven written by Bill and one by Rob.

Sweet Sunny south is celebrating their CD release June 3 at the Paradise Theater in Paonia, they are the host band for the North Fork Bluegrass Festival at Delta County Fairgrounds in Hotchkiss June 11-13, and they have several upcoming shows.

All four members of the band are DJ's on KVNF.  Bill and Shelley are self-employed making antler chandeliers and furniture and handmade mica lampshades.  Rob works from his home in the medical equipment sales field and runs Pickin' Productions, which books acoustic music in Paonia, and Cory is an independent contractor.

"Each person in the group brings some great skills, and there is a lot more to having a band than just playing songs," says Bill.  "We have the same goals and that is so much of why it works.  And we have fun with all the aspects of having a band."

Bill started playing guitar with friends in College in Texas, was a Grateful Dead fan, and even played in a band that had four drummers.  Touched by Jimmy Martin tunes on the Will The Circle Be Unbroken album and knocked out by bands like Strength in Numbers at the Telluride 1990 festival, Bill was pulled toward bluegrass and newgrass.  "What grabbed me about the music was that I played guitar well enough, but to think I could never play like that.  So I guess it was the technique that got me," he says.  "When I first started doing the bluegrass show on KVNF I was  on an endless search for progressive bluegrass, Bill Monroe didn't appeal to me at all.  Kevin Dirk, our original banjo player, was the one that helped me to see the light.  Once I started to get traditional bluegrass I really loved it."

Bill describes his songwriting as a way that he can contribute something new and different to traditional roots music today.  "We haven't been at it that long and I've never felt like I was adding much at all to what people were doing on traditional numbers.  the onl thng for me to do was to try to offer something new so as not to be compared to everybody before that have played the not out of those songs.  I feel like I should learn because they are lessons in how you do this or that, but if I spent my time learning all that, I wouldn't have time to come up with my own stuff."  but it's also just natural to write songs, he says, "The stuff just comes out.  I can't really stop it."

Rob explains that the David Grisman Quintet drew him into bluegrass and traditional music.  "At first I heard jazz, and then the roots, which pretty much pointed me to Bill Monroe."

"We all have influences, and at this point we're not so fixated on playing traditional bluegrass, as we are experimenting within our different styles, while still allowing bluegrass to be found at the core," Rob says.  "I am a DJ, I hear a lot of different music and I can't quite define our style myself.  It's unique, it works, it's old time, and it's bluegrass."

Cory came to the band through Kevin who was getting together to play music with Bill, Rob and original bass player Willy Kistler, dubbed "The Brewglass Boys" at one of their early gigs at the "Pizza My Heart" restaurant in Paonia.  "He kept inviting me over to play some tunes, which I finally did, after much procrastinating.  We had a great time, and they invited me to join them shortly after that."

Cory started playing fiddle in 1993. "I really wanted to learn how to play Cajun fiddle, in the style of Michael Doucet.  Ironically, I didn't learn a single Cajun tune until a few months ago when I learned "La Betaille", which is on our new CD.  What sidetracked me was seeing Alison Drauss on Austin City Limits, when she was about 18.  I was only slightly familiar with Bluegrass music at the time, and I think that her band's smoother style kind of grabbed me, although in time, my taste has drawn me to the more edgy sounding stuff like The Johnson Mountain Boys and Open Road."

The band has become more of a family affair since Bill's partner, Shelley, joined the band on bass.  Shelley started out in Sweet Sunny South's alter-ego kids' jug band "Duck Duck Gray Duck," which includes fun acoustic sing-along songs for her and Bill's 5-year-old and 2-year-old, Rob's 2-year-old, and children throughout the Western Slope.

"I had always been drawn to the upright bass and at Bill's suggestion, we bought one.  I had never played before, but with a book and some tips form the guys, I learned to play," she says.  "We decided to start up a kid's band, and Cory and Rob joined us.  It was through this that the four of us clicked and less than a year later when the line-up of the band changed, I was invited into SSS. We now do both bands."

Shelley's first experience with bluegrass was also through the Telluride festival the first year she moved to Colorado.  "We just got more and more into it as the years went by until it became a big part of our lives."

All four band members agree that the band stands out for its original songs, relaxed and fun performances, and mixed bag of traditional influences.

"While SSS started out wanting to play bluegrass in the strictest sense of the word, we've broadened our horizons to include old-time fiddle tunes, jugband music, and even honky tonk, while still playing bluegrass in the traditional style, around a single mic, which I think is more interesting for us and the listener," says Bill.

"We have hung on to some of our older sound and now have some old-time sound too, and original stuff that tends to be sorta in between, and I think that keeps it interesting for us and the listener," says Bill.

Shelley says, "We're not really bluegrass and were not really old-time, but somewhere in between.  The original songs are usually what grabs people's attention, the loose, fun stage presence, humorous banter and the ability to appeal to many different types of musical tastes."

Rob says audiences who normally wouldn't be interested in bluegrass find the band approachable.  "I think, when we're with an audience that's not so exposed to bluegrass, just good ol' music lovers, I'd say we stand out because we have fun and put on a good show.  Folks seem to be able to really identify with our music."

Bill and Rob like how the appearance is part of the whole package.

"We wear hats and ties-and a dress- and play around the single microphone.  But that doesn't mean we're sweet up there," Rob says.  "We like telling it like it is; we usually don't hold back when we're up there.  We tend to do a lot of drinking and killing songs.  We just like having fun, really.  The music keeps growing, and we keep having fun."

"When you live in a place like Paonia where there really isn't much call to dress nicely," says Bill "Dang, it's fun! I like trying to find suits for cheap at thrift stores."

It turns out that the Sweet Sunny South clan are the unofficial ambassadors of Paonia.  No wonder we all want to move there!  The band is sponsored by Paonia Homestead Market and included Bill's song "Homestead Market" as the final cut on the CD, touting "local all-natural elk, bison, beef, lamb, and pork.....USDA-approved and hormone-and-antibiotic-free."

For more information about the band, check out www.sweetsunnysouth.com.

Sweet Sunny South's "Bell Creek Dance Club," A Musical, Historical, Collectible
 

By, Tom Wills for The Mercant Herald

If you missed the last hour of the North Fork Valley Bluegrass Festival on June 13, you missed a quintessential moment in local music history.  The great Paonia based bluegrass band, Sweet Sunny South met their idols, The Wilders from Kansas City, and the two groups formed a sort of super group for a few minutes.

SSS are on a roll.  On June 3rd they held a release party at the Paradise Theater for their first CD entitled the Bell Creek Dance Club, a song which sets the theme for the whole record.  The majority of the songs on the album are written by band front man Bill Powers, with one piece by guitarist/vocalist Rob Miller and a couple of traditionals.

What makes the album absolutely unique, besides the fine songs and lead vocals by Powers, are the pieces of interviews with local oldtimers concerning dances at Bell Creek in the 1940's and 50's.  The interviews blend seamlessly with the songs forming a whole that will be particularly meaningful to long time North Fork residents.

While Bell Creek Dance Club is a fine song, it is Power's Me & My Old Still that cuts the deepest on repeated listening.  It is a very original play on three different themes of country/bluegrass: moonshine, unrequited love, and murder.

All in all, the album makes a very nice choice of an official soundtrack of the North Fork through the summer.  In the North Fork you can get your copy at Expressions Bookstore, Paradise Theater, Homestead Market (you have to hear their jingle on the album) and Hardin's Natural Foods on Rogers Mesa.  Or www.sweetsunnysouth.com

By, Tom Wills
Editor North Fork Merchant Herald - May 2004

I'll admit to not being a dyed in the wool bluegrass fan despite once trying to learn claw hammer style banjo and taking lessons in playing fiddle tunes on the guitar.  Bluegrass has always seemed to me a long on showing off technical skill and short on content.  So, it came as a revelation when I attended a recent show with Sweet Sunny South opening for Uncle Earl.  This was more than music stripped down to just the instruments and voices.  The musicians made a genuine connetion with the audience with funny, warm and even informative between song patter.

Hearing Bell Creek Dance Club by Bill Powers and Rob Miller's wry Chuck O'Conners Blues for the first time I was impressed.  One song was a classic about local history and the other, one that any farmer or ranchr could relate to.

Great tight harmonies and picking (and Cory Obert's fiddling).  My only complaint is that Shelley, the bass player, didn't get to sing lead on anything.  Great voice.

Sweet Sunny South releases CD about historic dance club in the North Fork

Wednesday 26 May 2004
By, Kami Myers

Local and regional favorite Sweet Sunny South -- the funky bluegrass and old-time musical group -- is releasing its first full length CD titled "Bell Creek Dance Club.

The CD gets its name from the popular dance hall located on J-75 Road between Paonia and Hotchkiss. When Bill Powers, songwriter, lead singer and banjo and mandolin player for the group, saw an article about the dance hall in a local publication written by Claudia King, he knew there was something special about the hall.

The Bell Creek was a popular spot for people of all ages to have potluck dinners and dances on the weekends. The club was considered to have one of the best dance floors on the Western Slope, with people coming from all over to dance to the sounds of local bands. Wendall and Wayne Fobare, twins from Hotchkiss, kept the crowd on their feet with toes tapping and feet flying. The Fobare band often had a saxophone, guitar and piano. Other local musicians like Red Davis, Alva Watson, Shorty Hunten, Lib Atkins and Matt Malaker kept the music flowing over the floor and walls of the Bell Creek.

The club was more active in the days before World War II when it was a private club. After the war, the club was open to anyone.

All types of dancing were enjoyed at the Bell Creek, including ballroom dancing, square dancing, the two-step, the jitterbug and polkas, which came from German and Austrian immigrants who worked in the Bowie and Somerset coal mines.

Powers said within days of reading the article he had composed a song. The title track of the CD is a traditional bluegrass tune about a typical evening at the Bell Creek Dance Club. "The article was so well written that I really felt I knew what was going on at the Bell Creek, Powers said.

Interspersed with original songs by the band is an audio documentary of area residents who remember Bell Creek. The album was mixed and produced by Adam Burke, who did over three hours of interviews to get four minutes of memoirs on the album.

Burke interviewed Dewey Dodge, Jann Ungaro, Harold Martin, Gilbert Wilson, Charlie Todd, Ward Holder, Maxine Bruce Kokes and Marilyn Bruce Tate for interviews.

Burke first got the idea to add memoirs to the CD when he was in physical therapy and he heard an older group of people telling stories. He asked them if they had gone to the Bell Creek, and the project flourished from there.

"It's thanks to the old-timers that we even know this place existed,Ó Burke said. "These people are such a cultural resource.

Sweet Sunny South is made up of Powers; Shelley Gray on upright bass and vocals; Rob Miller on guitar, vocals and songwriting; and Cory Obert on fiddle and vocals.

With listeners from all walks of life, all ages and all sides of the fence, Powers said Sweet Sunny South has managed to transcend the rift in the town. "We're doing something that brings people together, he said.

In 2003, the band took second place at the Rockygrass band contest.

The band will be playing in Crawford, Grand Junction and Cedaredge later this summer. Sweet Sunny South is also the host band for the North Fork Bluegrass Festival in Hotchkiss June 11-13. Check out the website at www.sweetsunnysouth.com for locations, dates and playing times.

Join Sweet Sunny South at their CD release party Thursday, June 3, at 8 p.m. at the Paradise Theater in Paonia. A $5 door charge will buy the opportunity to hear cuts from the CD and to be one of the first waves of people who will undoubtedly snatch up this CD.

Nina Schnipper KDNK's "Smokin' Grass" DJ

Bell Creek Dance Club, the first CD by Sweet Sunny South, was worth the wait. I often don't expect much when a band releases their first CD. Geez, was I surprised!

As a band, they sound tight. "Their sound" features traditional bluegrass music. Cory's versatility as a fiddler has lent them an old-time feel, although most of their tracks are bluegrass. Their song-writing leans on traditional bluegrass themes, drinking and mayhem, love and deceit.  Their respect for the roots of this music is especially apparent in their old-time-inspired-sound, their Bell Creek Dance Club theme, and their song selections and originals.

 On this first CD, however, they pull off something that few other bands ever attempt.They "researched" the Bell Creek Dance Club, an old hot spot in their North Fork Valley.They interviewed and took narratives from folks who visited the club in their younger days. They interspersed these tracks throughout the music on the CD.

  As if this weren't enough to get nostalgic about, this band is also carving their niche by reviving jingles. While other bands simply do covers of the Martha White theme, Sweet Sunny South has been infusing bluegrass in their own community by writing bluegrass-y jingles for a local market and bank.

  Listening to Sweet Sunny South's CD takes you back in time. It pays homage to the roots of bluegrass and mountain music. You wish you were reminiscing about your own Bell Creek memories. It does all this, but at the same time, you can't help but be excited about the future of bluegrass! The future of bluegrass is in good hands with bands like Sweet Sunny South.