Lonesome River Band & Friends

Come enjoy a musical feast with The Lonesome River Band and Friends! A special Floyd Country Store 40th Anniversary musical event featuring host Sammy Shelor and The Lonesome River Band on Saturday, November 30, 2024. Sammy and LRB will plate up an evening of musical offerings featuring LRB’s classic bluegrass signature sound as the main course, with sides of legendary guest performers sitting in throughout the evening.Featuring special guests such as Allen Mills (from Lost & Found), Jeff Midkiff, Junior Sisk, Rod Riley & Jerry McMillan! Tickets are $36 general admission, $42 reserved seating, kids 12 & under $18 — available for sale online and in the store.

Tonight’s event is presented in partnership with the Crooked Road and has been sponsored in part by the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, Appalachian Regional Commission and Virginia Tourism Corp.

ABOUT THE LONESOME RIVER BAND

Since its formation decades ago, Lonesome River Band continues its reputation as one of the most respected names in bluegrass music. Five-time International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Banjo Player of the Year, and winner of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, Sammy Shelor leads the group that is constantly breaking new ground in acoustic music. With two stellar lead vocalists, Jesse Smathers (guitar) and Adam Miller (mandolin), and the impressive talents of Mike Hartgrove (fiddle) and Kameron Keller (bass), the band seamlessly comes together, performing the trademark sound that fans continue to embrace.

ALLEN MILLS of The Lost & Found

The Lost & Found formed in 1973, the original lineup of the band consisted of bass player Allen Mills, banjo player Gene Parker, mandolin player Dempsey Young and guitarist Roger Handy. The band became quite popular playing bluegrass festivals, with Mills’ exceptional songwriting contributing much to the group’s fame; “Love of the Mountains,” recorded by the original lineup, has become a bluegrass standard. We are excited to have legends Allen Mills and Gene Parker with us for this evening of music!

JUNIOR SISK

Junior Sisk is widely recognized as one of today’s top bluegrass vocalists and is a constant reminder that traditional bluegrass is still alive and well. A longtime resident of the Virginia Blue Ridge, his bluegrass pedigree runs deep. Influenced by a father who wrote songs and played guitar and a mother who sang, Sisk first learned to play around age 14.

His early influences included The Stanley Brothers, Larry Sparks, and Dave Evans, but he often credits the Johnson Mountain Boys with inspiring him to pursue bluegrass professionally. Sisk first made his mark in bluegrass as a songwriter in the early 1990s, penning classic Lonesome River Band songs like “Game (I Can’t Win)” and “Tears Are Blinding Me.”

JEFF MIDKIFF

A composer, mandolinist, and clarinetist, Jeff Midkiff is a musician who feels comfortable in more than one musical setting. Jeff grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, where bluegrass music thrived. Given his first mandolin at the age of 7, he moved quickly into the world of fiddlers’ conventions and contests. Midkiff earned a degree in music education from Virginia Tech. While studying classical repertoire, he continued to gain attention as a mandolin and fiddle player. In 1983 he joined the Lonesome River Band, which would eventually become one of bluegrass’s most acclaimed groups. After performing, touring, and recording two albums, he left the band to earn a Master of Music degree in Clarinet Performance from Northern Illinois University. Jeff has spent the last thirty years balancing both musical loves. He has played clarinet in numerous orchestras and has also performed mandolin with the Milwaukee Symphony. His solo CD, Partners In Time, has gained international acclaim. He is an orchestra director in the Roanoke City Schools and received the 2017 Yale Distinguished Music Educator award.

Midkiff’s Mandolin Concerto, “From the Blue Ridge,” was composed and premiered in 2011 for the Roanoke Symphony and their Music Director David Stewart Wiley. The piece has been performed by the Rochester Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Knoxville Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Williamsburg Symphony, Bryan Symphony, Northwest Florida Symphony, Symphony of Southeast Texas, Ohio Northern Symphony, Cal Poly Symphony, Carmel Symphony, Signature Symphony at TCC, Oak Ridge Symphony, Bryan Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Yale Concert Band and The Boston Symphony Orchestra.