Bath BG Jamboree features David Parmley and the Cardinal Connection, Mountain Highway and Southern Rail Express

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a Bluegrass Jamboree coming up.  Allegheny Mountain Radio spoke with David Parmley leader of the Cardinal Tradition, who will be the third band to play on Saturday evening at Bath County High School.  The history of the Cardinal Tradition goes back a while, but these days,

“We’re based out of the Nashville Tennessee area; everybody lives within an hour of Nashville, put it that way”.

“And have you all been traveling together for a while?” 

“Yeah, everybody in this group has played with me in different bands;  I used to have a group called David Parmley and the Continental Divide.  And Ron our bass player, and Steve the fiddle player, well Ron Spears and Steve Day, our fiddle player, and Dale Perry, the banjo player used to play with me in that group.  So we’ve know each other for a long, long time”.

And before Continental Divide, was the Bluegrass Cardinals . . .

“That was the first thing I did in my career.  I did that with, me and my dad had that band together and I was with them for eighteen years.”

(musical insert)

“Well, you know a lot of people have different opinions about what bluegrass music should be.  To me you know when you have a banjo and a fiddle, and they have the driving rhythms, I think it needs that to be bluegrass.  There’s a lot of acoustic music out there, and they call themselves bluegrass, and it all fits within the genre, but I don’t think that’s traditional bluegrass.”

Speaking again of David Parmley and the Cardinal Tradition:

“The band was put together to be a tribute band to the Bluegrass Cardinals, which is a band I was the lead singer of for eighteen years.  And we do a lot of the Bluegrass Cardinal Material also.”

“What are some of the things that if people want to get a pre-listen they can look for?”

“Well, the latest project that we have out right now with the band is just a self-titled CD project.  That’s David Parmley and the Cardinal Tradition. And we put this band together about three years ago, and we did that CD project, and that’s the only one we’ve put out at this point.  We are working on a new one right now, but it’s not ready yet.  So that’ll be about the only one that has the current band.”

“Can you tell us a little bit about what the audience can expect?”

“They can expect a very high energy, traditional Blue grass show.  We play traditional bluegrass, even if it’s new songs, it’s songs that fit that format.  And we also do some country ballads and gospel.  So there’s a big variety of music, some instrumental stuff.  Steve Day is just a great fiddle player, and Dale Perry is just a great banjo player. So, I think most people will walk away very pleased.”

One look at the band’s schedule shows dates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arkansas, Indiana and California over the next couple of months.  I asked what it’s like to travel by bus, and unload and reload equipment.

“It’s real simple.  We don’t have much equipment that we have to set up.  We do a real simple set-up and we just play our music and everything works out easy.”

“Will you have CDs for sale?”

“Yes we will.

I asked David if there’s anything he’d like to say to listeners in addition to:

“Please get yourselves here.”

“Go, go grab some friends, and you know, come out and see the show.  I think they’ll find they’ll find they have a real good time, and we’re all really looking forward to it.”

The Bluegrass Jamboree is Saturday evening April 6th in the auditorium at Bath County High School. Doors open at 5, and food will be available.  Tickets for adults are $12, ages 13-18, $5 and children twelve and under are free.  With questions: 839-5400 or 839-2060

Story By

Bonnie Ralston

Bonnie Ralston is the Assistant Station Coordinator at WVLS and a Highland County news reporter. She began volunteering at Allegheny Mountain Radio in the fall of 2005. In 2006 she became an AMR employee and worked in Bath County for eight years as the WCHG Station Coordinator and then as the news reporter there. She began working in radio while in college and has stayed connected to radio, in one way or another, for more than thirty years. She grew up in Staunton, Virginia, while spending a lot of time on her family’s farm in Deerfield, Virginia. She enjoys spending time outside, watching old TV shows and movies and tending to her chickens.

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