Lost and Found scheduled for Saturday’s 12th Annual Bath Bluegrass Jamboree

 

This Saturday’s 12th Annual Bath Bluegrass Jamboree is going to feature some great old-time and bluegrass artists. One of the bands folks will have a chance to meet and hear is Lost and Found.

Allan Mills, from the Woolwine, Virginia area, is the original bass player in Lost and Found, since the guys got together in 1973.

“The banjo player and I had been involved in other musical bands in the Danville, Virginia area,” says Mills. “The guitar player and the mandolin player were in another band out of the Franklin County area, and we were about to start doing a weekly TV show on the cable in Martinsville, which was real, real new. So I asked the guy ‘what about some bluegrass on your TV show?’ He said ‘okay, how about Thursday?’ I said uh-uh, can you give us a few weeks?’”

They needed time to rehearse to get something together, and that’s when Mills came up with the band’s name.

“It wasn’t even an organized band,” he says. “It was just pickin’ around the house for the enjoyment, and it occurred to me one night after a rehearsal session that we had all played together but had never performed as a unit. It just come to me it’s like a bunch of guys being lost and somebody finding them and putting them together. So I told the guys the next week, I said ‘well what about Lost and Found?’”

According to Mills the other band members were less than thrilled.

“Worst I’ve heard,” he says. “I said well let’s use it Thursday and we’ll get something else for next week. And it just stuck.”

The original Lost and Found line-up has changed some over the years.

“The mandolin player and I were together until his death in December the 10th 2006,” says Mills. “We was together for 33 and a half years. Ronald Smith is the singer, other than myself, banjo player from Roxboro, North Carolina. Scott Napier is from Clay City, Kentucky, our mandolin player since 2007, and Dan Wells is our most recent addition, a guitar player, he’s a young man originally from western North Carolina.”

Mills said playing with Lost and Found has provided him a chance to play all over the world, and they’ve recorded 15 or 20 studio albums since they got together.

“We play all over the United States and Canada, and I did a very successful European tour in 1982,” he says.

Mills said he has been to the area before.

“Early on when Lost and Found started performing,” says Mills. “We was working the summer months with a gentleman named Buddy Pendleton that knew the Commissioner of Virginia State Parks and Recreation and we honed our skills some at Douthat State Park. Also, early on, Ronceverte, was over just outside of Lewisburg, I think. There was a festival, we worked that several times.”

Mills said he’s excited to be back in the area.

“Definitely so. Aboslutely! Boy that’s one of the most gorgeous places,” Mills says. “My wife and I enjoy coming up and staying the night just outside of Warm Springs. We love that part of the country. It’s a beautiful area and a lot of great people.”

Mills said Lost and Found has never played at the jamboree before.

“This will be our first time to do that,” says Mill.s We jumped at the opportunity to do that. When Willy made a call and said ‘would you like to do it?’ I said ‘sure, we’d love to,’ because I enjoy that atmosphere and the people, and I know what your station is all about and why. It’s listener-supported. I appreciate that. It’s a great opportunity to get to visit with those folks and say howdy to them.”

The Bath Bluegrass Jamboree is scheduled for Saturday, April 12, at the Bath County High School from 6 to 9 p.m. Admission will run you $10 for adults, $5 for students, and $1 for anyone under 12.

Story By

Angelo Jiordano

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