As this next semester approaches, the ETSU Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music program is preparing to take the sounds of Appalachian bluegrass on a cruise.
The program will be participating in the Goodwin Brothers’ annual “Friends and Family” cruise from Feb. 16 to 20. The cruise, hosted by Carnival and will take passengers from Jacksonville, Florida, to the Bahamas and will include a wide variety of entertainment.
“We haven’t done a cruise in a while,” said sophomore Jason Gainer. “Our last cruise was supposed to be in 2020 when the pandemic hit. We are so excited to be partaking in it this year.”
Gainer is a member of ETSU’s Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots program and helps promote merchandising for the program. He is also in a lot of their performances as the spokesperson who usually brings laughter to every audience the Bluegrass Pride Band encounters.
“Some of the other artists that will be performing [alongside] the group include ‘American Idol’ star Alex Miller, [who] made it big with Luke Bryan…the ‘Voice’ star Holly Forbes, Turning Ground, [which is] another bluegrass band, and the Alex Leach Band,” said Gainer.
The Bluegrass Old-Time, and Roots program just celebrated forty years, making them one of the oldest bluegrass music programs in higher education. They invited famous alumnus, Kenny Chesney, to speak at the celebration, who was given an honorary doctorate degree from Dr. Brian Noland.
The members of the Bluegrass Pride Band, led by Professor Dan Boner, are still being chosen to perform on the cruise in February. The current members are: Lizzie Cahalin on the guitar, Will Potts on the bass guitar, Will Hart on the lead guitar, Lydia Hamby on the mandolin, Steven Ivey on the fiddle and Gabriel Hebert on the banjo.
“We’ll be performing a lot of bluegrass songs, gospel songs, the pride band do a lot of different material, there will be lots of jokes, usually when I’m available I’ll help out with a lot of that stuff,” said Gainer.
The Bluegrass Pride Band had the opportunity to perform in the spring as a part of the TEDx event hosted by ETSU. Gainer mentioned how big of an opportunity that was for the band to be selected out of the forty other entries. He also mentioned that they were honored to play alongside their artist in-residence, Mike Compton, who is known for his work in the film “O’ Brother Where Art Thou.”
“We want to thank East Tennessee State University for being so helpful and outgoing with our program. Not a lot of people know what bluegrass is, they think it’s just hillbilly music, and so higher education is so important in learning all this in the music business,” said Gainer. He also extends thanks to Dr. Noland on behalf of the program in always being supportive and attending the program’s big events.
To learn more about ETSU’s Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music program please visit etsu.edu/cas/das/bluegrass or call 423-439-7072.
