The New Grass Express Bluegrass Band

Left to right: Gary Martin, Keith Hall, Gordon Myers, Steve Brown

The New Grass Express Bluegrass Band

At the end of 1973 and 1974 I moved from Morganton NC back home with my parents and attended Wilkes Community College to study Electronics. It was in the mid 1970's we organized the New Grass Express Bluegrass Band. It consisted of Keith White acoustic guitar, Steve Brown dobro, myself on bass guitar, Gordon Myers on banjo, and Gary Martin on guitar. Bluegrass music was gaining popularity in the 1970's by young people where everyone was just like we were transitioning from the folk rock genre. You had Seldom Scene, New Grass Revival and the Country Gentlemen rearranging a lot of tunes written by Bob Dylan and other folk hits. Bluegrass music had a new genre in that period called New Grass which is where we got our name. Let's not leave out the Osborne Brothers and even some of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs later leaving and organizing the Earl Scruggs Revue. It was a new time of creativity. We were all in the midst of it. Being lesser known we opened shows for the  Country Gentlemen at Lake Norman Music Hall a large venue for Bluegrass on Highway 150 outside of Mooresville North Carolina. We later opened a show with the Seldom Scene in Statesville. We entered the Sunbonnet Festival talent contest in 1978 that the Yadkin Arts Council was sponsoring and competed against many types of talent and were the winners. The winners performed on WXII TV station and also at Carowinds Amusement Park in Charlotte NC. It has always been frowned upon to have an electric bass in the traditional bluegrass bands but The Osborne Brothers were innovators changing the ways of tradition. I have always stayed faithful to my electric bass in all genres of music.