concert reviews

Thursday Night Legends Concert - ROMP 2008

By Sam Houston ⋅ July 14, 2008 ⋅ Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

ROMP opens every year with an indoor concert performed by a mix of musicians who have already achieved legendary status and those who might join them as legends in another decade or two. Those shows have always been something to look forward to, but this year’s Legends Concert will be the one that people talk about for years to come.

Everything about this one was perfect. Ron Thomason, front-man for the Dry Branch Fire Squad, kept the crowd laughing during his introductions of three legendary bluegrass gospel groups that were to open this year’s music celebration (The Sullivan Family, The Lewis Family, and the Isaacs), setting a nice, friendly tone for the rest of the evening.

First onstage was the Sullivan Family, a band that came together in 1949 and is led by Enoch and Margie Sullivan. The Sullivan Family band includes longtime standup bass player Joy Deville who, together with a young fiddle player, combined with Enoch and Margie for a rousing, toe-tapping start to the evening. Enoch’s stories and Margie’s rousing vocals were the highlights of their set.

Lewis Family, “America’s First Family of Bluegrass Gospel Music,” was next on stage and, with “Little Roy” Lewis leading the way, their pace was at times a frantic one. The Lewis Family, with its beginnings in the early 1950s, today consists of the three sisters, (Miggie, Polly and Janis), Little Roy and Janis’s son, Lewis Phillips. But most eyes, as usual, were on banjo picker, Little Roy, who has an intensity on stage that few performers can even come close to matching. The Lewis Family show is a nice blend of comedy, stories, and old time gospel music guaranteed to leave the crowd hollering for more.

Then it was time for the highlight of the evening: more than 60 first generation bluegrass legends introduced one-at-a-time and seated on stage so that the audience could express its appreciation for the accomplishments of each of them. The sheer talent and history on that stage was so overwhelming that it became a little difficult to keep up with all those there to be honored but I remember: Eddie Adcock, Martha Adcock, Homer Bailes, J.D. Crowe, Doug Dillard, Rodney Dillard, Ramona Jones, Jesse McReynolds, Tex Logan, William McCormick, Jimmy Case, Bobby Hicks, Haskel McCormick, Hisashi Ozaki, Yasushi Ozaki, Bud, David and Ralph Reed, Roni Stoneman, Bob Moore, Rose Maphis, Mac Martin, Tom Morgan, Gloria Bell, Al Hawkes, Carl Pagter, and Paul Williams (with apologies to those I’ve failed to mention).

And who amongst us will ever forget Roni Stoneman’s fake swoon into Doug Dillard’s lap and where his hands “innocently” ended up when he so chivalrously kept her from falling to the floor?

Little did the Thursday night crowd know that, because Hazel Dickens would be unable to appear on Friday afternoon, we would be treated to a Legends Jam Band performance at Yellow Creek Park the next day, almost an hour of bluegrass standards by some of the people who started it all. Watching these guys pull songs together on the fly and perform them to such a high standard was an impressive thing for the Friday afternoon crowd to witness.

But before that wonderful surprise performance, many of us were treated to a story-swap between some of the legends who gathered Friday morning to continue their reunion with friends, many of whom hadn’t seen each other for several years. Among the interesting tales told, it was particularly fun to hear Rodney Dillard describe how the Dillards ended up in Hollywood rather than in Nashville and how they so quickly made their way to the Andy Griffith show.

The Isaacs closed the Thursday night show with a performance of gospel and inspirational music that served as a nice bridge between the old and the new. The Isaacs include Lily Isaacs, her two daughters, Sonya and Becky, and her son, Ben, the group’s standup bass player. Although the Isaacs were noticeably younger than most of the others on stage Thursday, they have been a family band since the ‘80s and have 30 albums to their credit. They are not as straight forward traditional bluegrass gospel as the Sullivan Family or the Lewis Family but their music is equally inspirational and the audience loved them, and its enthusiasm was rewarded by a nice encore presentation.

Yes, we’ll be talking about this one for a long, long time.

Lewis Family, Chicken Song: