Franklin Station Joins Lineup for 24th Annual Bath Bluegrass Jamboree

There’s a certain kind of musician you find in bluegrass — the kind who didn’t chase the music as much as they grew into it.

That’s where Steve Worley starts.

“I guess around 12 years old,” he said. “That’s when I got my first guitar.”

From there, it wasn’t a straight line. It was church. Family. Playing with friends. Learning songs the way most people in this region do — by being around them long enough that they start to stick.

And then one day, you look up, and it’s just part of your life.

“I just kind of grew into it,” Worley said. “Playing with friends and neighbors… and then the festivals.”

That path doesn’t come with a defining moment. No breakthrough show. No single point where everything changes. Just time, consistency, and a willingness to keep showing up.

Worley will turn 70 next month. He says it plainly, without ceremony. But there’s weight behind it — decades of playing, singing, and staying connected to a kind of music that doesn’t move fast, but doesn’t fade either.

That’s the lane Franklin Station operates in.

They don’t try to reinvent the genre. They don’t rush it. What they bring is a mix that people in this region recognize immediately — bluegrass standards, old country songs reworked in a bluegrass style, and gospel woven in throughout.

“We do a mixture,” Worley said. “People seem to enjoy that.”

It’s simple, but it works. Not because it’s new, but because it’s familiar in the right way.

And over time, that familiarity turns into something else.

“We’ve developed a following,” he said. “Sometimes we’ll drive a distance and some of the locals show up.”

That line tells you more than anything else.

In bluegrass, especially here, loyalty isn’t built online. It’s built in rooms, over time, one set at a time. When people are willing to drive to see you play, that’s not casual. That’s earned.

Worley’s influences track exactly where you’d expect — Flatt & Scruggs, Reno & Smiley, The Country Gentlemen. But what stood out wasn’t the names. It was where his attention is now.

“I was up at Floyd… and these kids, 10, 12, 13 years old, playing almost professionally,” he said. “That made me feel good.”

There’s no nostalgia in that. No sense that the music belongs to the past. Just an understanding that it moves forward the same way it always has — through people picking it up and carrying it on.

That’s part of what makes the 24th Annual Bath Bluegrass Jamboree feel like more than just another stop on the calendar.

This year, the event lands in a different moment for Allegheny Mountain Radio.

After the 2025 federal rescission that cut funding to stations like ours, the Jamboree isn’t just tradition — it’s part of how we keep going. It’s how we continue to provide local news, emergency information, and programming that doesn’t come from anywhere else.

And it’s where bands like Franklin Station fit in naturally.

They’ll open the evening on April 11 at Bath County High School, setting the tone with a set that moves between upbeat driving songs and slower, more reflective ones.

“It’s not always rip it up and go,” Worley said. “Sometimes the slow ones kind of fit the scene.”

It’ll also be their first time playing this particular event.

“We’re really looking forward to it,” he said.

And that’s the through line here — not hype, not buildup, just a group of musicians who have been doing this long enough to know what matters, stepping into a new room with the same approach that’s carried them this far.

The full interview with Steve Worley is available now.

And if you want to hear what a lifetime in bluegrass sounds like up close, you’ll get that chance on April 11 at the Bath Bluegrass Jamboree.