Navy Bluegrass Band

[greg_tsam]

I was watching a PBS special called Carrier and in the ten hours of show I never show a mandolin and got curious. Surely there are some mando pickers in the Navy and, sure enough, I found them on youtube. The mando maniac is Chief Musician Patrick J. White, a native of Williamsport, Md. http://www.navyband.navy.mil/white_patrick.shtml


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpJrZBU5l4M

[re simmers]

Pat is a super picker from about 8 miles down the road in Downsville,MD.....near Williamsport. His main 'hoss' is the fiddle. Pat is easily in the top 10 fiddlers in the game right now....if you were to rank them. If I remember the story correctly, I think Pat passed his audition for Country Current before he even completed his number..........Orange Blossom Special. A great picker.

Bob

[mandobassman]

The guitarist looks like he's been studying some Karl Shiflett foot work.

[greg_tsam]

Yep. The guitarist was fun when he was cutting a rug. I like to see that kind of energy on stage. Had a bass player that was puerto rican and would dance salsa steps in the background and made all kinds of facials. He was always a lot of fun but he can't compare to this Korean drummer.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPWjNX4PBlI

[allenhopkins]

Banjo great Bill Emerson (Country Gentlemen, Red Allen & the Kentuckians, Emerson & Waldron) used to be in Country Current, which is the Navy's country/bluegrass band; in fact, the band's website (http://www.navyband.navy.mil/country_current.shtml) names him as the founder:


This seven member ensemble employs musicians from diverse backgrounds with extensive high-profile recording and touring experience in the music scenes of Nashville, Tenn., New York City, New Orleans and more. In the tradition of country music, each member is a skilled performer on multiple instruments. The band utilizes banjo, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, fiddle, electric bass, upright bass, dobro, pedal steel guitar and drum set.

Formed in 1973 by legendary banjoist Bill Emerson, the band has a rich legacy of notable alumni including Wayne Taylor, Jerry Gilmore, and Frank Sollivan. They have performed at the Grand Ole Opry, for presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and overseas in Stockholm , Nova Scotia, and Beijing. With a fun-filled and family-friendly stage show , Country Current has been delighting its fans for nearly 40 years with their musical virtuosity and humor.

A staple of the bluegrass scene, Country Current has shared the stage with music luminaries Rhonda Vincent, Dailey and Vincent, Mountain Heart, Little Roy Lewis, Third Time Out, The Lonesome River Band, Josh Williams, The Seldom Scene, J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson, Ned Luberecki, Chris Jones, and many others. Country Current routinely performs at bluegrass festivals such as Darrington, Windgap, Gettysburg, Lake Havasu and Grass Valley. In 2011, Country Current became the first military band to perform at the South by Southwest music festival.

Country Current performs regularly for the president, vice-president, the secretary of the Navy, the chief of naval operations, the chairman and vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff, the master chief petty officer of the Navy and numerous other dignitaries. Reaching out to communities both locally and nationally, they regularly perform for veterans, elementary schools, and in support of our active-duty Sailors.

[Phil1580]

I thoroughly enjoyed that, great find.

[Wayne Stuvick]

Patrick White gave a good mandolin workshop when the Navy’s Country Current band performed at the Anchorage Folk Festival about eight or nine years ago. Frank Solivan (Dirty Kitchen) joined them on stage a couple of times during their sets and later spent six years playing guitar, fiddle and mandolin with them. I’m not familiar with all of Country Current’s present lineup and I don’t remember hearing them when Bill Emerson played with them in the ‘70s but the lineup of Wayne Taylor (guitar & vocals now with Emory Lester in the band Appalosa), Keith Arneson (banjo) Patrick White (fiddle and mando), Frank Solivan and Joe Wheatley on bass was a group that would be hard to beat on talent. If you ever get a chance to attend one of Frank Solivan’s great mandolin workshops, don’t miss it. It was probably the product of the many he did when he was with the Navy band.

[mandopete]

I recognize that stage. It was filmed at the Darrington Bluegrass Festival in Darrington, WA. I thiknk I even saw that show. These guys always put on a high quality, high energy show. Pat is one the best to be sure. I think there were a couple of times when he and Frank Solivann would do a twin mando thing.

[SternART]

I remember Country Current playing Wintergrass, and I think it was a year later in Bakersfield at short lived Supergrass.......I talked with Frank at Wintergrass when he was about to join the band. He was sporting a new Michael Lewis mando at the time & sounding great..

[re simmers]

I saw Country Current for the first time at a high school in about 1978 or '79. At that time they had one band, not a country AND bluegrass band as they do now. I had just started to be a grass fanatic, and went to see Emerson! He played Rocky Top, Foggy Mt Breakdown, and I think Beverly Hillbillies. That's it. It was almost like the banjo was a novelty. Emerson is my favorite banjo picker, probably the most "musical" of all. I saw the band again a few years after that first show and Emerson brought the house down. The Navy country band is outstanding also, with Brad Corbin playing a fantastic steel guitar.

Bob

[Wayne Stuvick]

Frank is still playing the Michael Lewis and he changes the strings on it everyday. I think he must have perfect pitch as he sure is fussy about it being exactly in tune. He's quite a player. I'd like to have heard him and Pat do the twin mando thing!