Umpqua Valley Bluegrass Band's mountain-styled
"tight & twangy" traditional bluegrass sound features banjo, mandolin,
fiddle, guitar, bass and vocals. The group formed in 2010 when they saw a newspaper ad for a "Bluegrass Band Needed for Pig Roast BBQ." The rest is history!
The band now keeps very busy playing at
fairs, festivals, pubs, restaurants, coffeehouses and special events. Connect with them on their Facebook Page to stay current on where they're appearing.
Band Members are Liz Crain, Gene Hodson, Mac Parker, Francis Stephenson
and Joe Ross. They have many decades of experience playing bluegrass, gospel,
country, western, Celtic, old-time, western swing and other styles of music.
Let's meet each member of Umpqua Valley Bluegrass Band.
At age 12, Liz Crain recorded her first bluegrass song
(“Sweet Little Miss Blue Eyes”) on a 78-rpm vinyl record paid for by grandma.
Liz is a multi-instrumentalist but sticks to fiddle with Umpqua Valley
Bluegrass. She's chairperson of Oregon
BluegrassAssn.'s Roseburg Chapter that hosts a monthly jam at Evergreen Grange
Hall from 1 – 4:30 p.m. on the third Sunday each month. Besides fiddle, you
might also see Liz playing guitar, mandolin, bass or banjo there. In the 1990s,
she performed with the “Girls Can Jam” Bluegrass Band. The all-woman group
released two albums, “Cookin’” and “Wild Oregon Jam.” She also played with folk
group ERIDOR in the mid-90s. Today, Liz also performs with The Slow Ponies, Shasta
Ray & the Downhome Band, Rolling Waves, Accordion Club of Roseburg,
Soromundi and Oregon Oldtime Fiddlers. Liz is a rancher who spends her time
with a herd of 12 Icelandic horses when she isn’t working up a new song to add
to her extensive repertoire of music.
Gene Hodson has been playing music in the Sutherlin/Roseburg
area for eight years. He started his bluegrass interest when he hooked up with
the Colliding Rivers Band. Currently,
Gene plays bass for the Umpqua Valley Bluegrass Band and also plays bass for Mountain
Creek, an acoustic variety show. Gene has also been playing the doghouse for
Oregon Oldtime Fiddlers’ of Roseburg for a number of years. Gene’s interest in
bluegrass music has evolved over the years from childhood. He was born in
Modesto, Ca. and moved to the San Francisco Bay area where he lived most
of his life. There he started his own country band. They called themselves the
“Country Fever Band.” They played a variety of music from country standards and
bluegrass to 50, 60, 70 & 80’s light rock. They were the same members for
25 years.
Jon “Mac” Parker began his musical career playing
four-string banjo at age 14 and guitar at age 16. Self-taught, he played rock ‘n roll, folk, bluegrass and country/western music.
He taught himself 5-string banjo at age 17 and helped put himself through
college playing folk music with The Californians. At about age 45, he began
playing fiddle to help his son Travis who became a California state champion
fiddler and professional musician. Mac performed with The Buffalo Brewing
Company, a country/western band for 15 years. Mac worked as a professional
actor for three different acting troupes and was acclaimed as an
actor/director/writer. Mac taught high school English for 34 years at the same
California school and achieved several teacher-of-the-year awards. He
retired in 2002 but did substitute teaching for three years. Mac moved to
Oregon in 2013 and began playing banjo for Umpqua Valley Bluegrass Band. He
also plays banjo, guitar and fiddle for his own band, Mountain Creek, which
debuted in December 2014. As a musician, Mac loves good vocal harmonies and
appreciates the warm, family type comradeship and highly professional talents
of all his band members. Mac belongs to Oregon Bluegrass Assn.,
Oregon Oldtime Fiddlers' Assn., & Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Francis Stephenson was born in 1932 in New Brunswick,
Canada, 100 miles north of the Maine border. He grew up loving and listening to
Wilf Carter and Hank Snow on the radio, who were Canada's two country heroes,
during the early 40's of World War II. But, around 1941, he started pulling in
a radio station hundreds of miles to the south, known as WWVA, Wheeling, W.V.
On their Saturday night jamboree, from 8 p.m. to midnight, they had some great
old- time artists like Hawkshaw Hawkins, Little Jimmie Dickens, and Cowboy
Copas. But, the husband/wife duo Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper (and especially
Wilma Lee's voice) was the one that compelled Francis to sing and play guitar.
So, in 1946, at age 14, Francis got his first guitar, and started to play and
sing. Francis, and nobody else, knew at that time, that Wilma Lee and Stoney
Cooper's sound would be the closest sound to bluegrass this world would ever
hear, until Bill Monroe announced in 1946, that he had invented a unique music
and named it bluegrass. In 1955, at age 23, Francis moved to Ventura, Ca. Early
in 1956, Francis heard real authentic bluegrass for the first time. It was the
Stanley Brothers' first Columbia LP. Before that LP finished playing, Francis'
heart switched from country to bluegrass, forever. After living in Ventura for
12 years, and then Santa Barbara for 43 years, Francis moved to Roseburg in
2010. Even though Francis now has many favorite bluegrass artists, Ralph
Stanley is still at the top of the list.
No one can resist Joe Ross’ invitation to have fun when
he’s performing his interactive “edu-taining” shows with various instruments. Born in Virginia and raised a “military brat” in Japan, his music
career started on electronic organ player in 1960s rock/soul bands. He heard his first strains of bluegrass on Armed Forces Radio's Far East Network. He began playing bluegrass
and Celtic music in the 1970s at University of Oregon. Ross
has played in many bands over the past four decades, from Celtic to Country,
Latin to Hawaiian, and Gypsyjazz to Swing. Joe’s albums (available at Amazon and CDBaby) span various genres
and emphasize originality, eclectic influences and award-winning
accompaniment. Besides UVBB and in
various duos and trios, he currently performs with The Celtic Tradition, KeynotesPolka Band, The Liberty Players, Alamojo Western Swing Band, and Oregon Oldtime Fiddlers. Joe also presents a storytelling program (Folk Tales of Old
Japan), gives lessons at Absolute Music in Roseburg, and writes regularly for music
magazines, blogs and websites. Now retired after 34 years working for the Bureau of Land Management
and U.S. Marine Corps, he works full-time to share the “enjoyment, fun and
camaraderie of making music together.”
Together, the Umpqua Valley Bluegrass Band has released two albums. In 2012, they put out "Live at the Siskiyou Bluegrass Festival." In 2014, "Old Growth Bluegrass" hit the streets with many fan favorites. When they perform live, you might be surprised by their attire. If not in their formal and traditional dress of black and white, they might be donning an old-time pioneer or some other look.
