Benton Flippen and The Smokey Valley Boys

[PhilGE]

I posted something about this over in the Old-Time section, but I thought folks over here might enjoy watching this video stream. The Smokey Valley Boys are a kind of hybrid between old-time and bluegrass. I believe Verlon Clifton and Benton were members of the Camp Creek Boys.

There's lots of great old tunes on the video. After the first tune, the sound quality improves and you can clearly hear and watch Verlon play excellent rhythm. It doesn't get much more authentic than this...


Here's the link (http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=SMKYMTNBYS#)

-Phil

[Paul Kotapish]

Thanks for the heads-up, Phil. Very cool.

I had the honor of being an honorary Smokey Valley Boy for a week at a time on several occasions back in the '80s when Benton Flippen, Paul Sutphin, and Paul Brown came out to the west coast to play at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. They added on me on mandolin and Paul Hostetter (also a poster on these boards) on melody guitar so that the band included four Pauls and a Benton. Tremendous fun and a great privilege. Kind of confusing whenever someone would call for "Paul," though.

Banjo maestro Paul Brown is a familiar voice to anyone who listens to Morning Edition of NPR, where he is one of the radio journalists. He's done some nice features on string-band music for NPR, too.

On a sad note, Paul Sutphin, a delightful, kind man and powerhouse rhythm guitarist who played with Benton for many years (before the time of this video) passed away on August 26, 2004, one year ago today. He is missed.

Here's a nice memorial about Paul Sutphin by Paul Brown in this
Old Time Herold article. (http://http://www.oldtimeherald.org/here+there/paul-sutphin.html)