This past weekend we headed over to Smithville, TN, to compete in the 37th Annual Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree. We had a lot of fun, and actually didn't get home too late - 12:30 a.m. (Well, that's early for a contest, anyway!) The main highlight of the day was when Abby won 1st place in the National Championship Country Musician Beginners guitar competition! We are all really excited about that! Sarah also placed 2nd in the banjo competition, which was pretty exciting as well!

This coming weekend, we're planning on competing at Uncle Dave Macon Days in Murfreesboro, TN. Hope to see ya there!

Rebekah

Howdy!
I just wanted to let everyone know what we've been up to. This past Saturday we went to the Dickson fiddlers Jamboree. We placed 3rd in Bluegrass Band! Also, Esther placed 3rd in Junior Fiddle and I placed 2nd in Bluegrass Banjo! We are looking forward to several more contests this year! Hope to see yall there!

Sarah

It's just a little over 27 hours until we open for Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver! We are really excited, and we've been busy all week practicing and getting ready. We'll be leaving for Cullman, AL, pretty early in the day in order to get everything ready. Hope to see y'all there!!!

Here's a video of Sarah pickin' the banjo. She is playing "Train 45," one of the songs that is on our instrumental CD.

Rachel

I had a request to video tape Esther playing "Amazing Grace" on her fiddle. I uploaded it to You Tube. I thought some of yall might like to see it, so I decided to put a link to it here on our website.

Rachel

Don't forget about the Shelbyville Bluegrass Gospel Festival coming up this weekend! This festival, which hosted by Cross Point String Band, will be held on Friday, May 16th, & Saturday, May 17th, at the H.V. Griffin Park in Shelbyville. We will be singing, as well as several other groups. Click here to view the flyer announcing this event. Hope to see ya there!

Rebekah

Hey!
We hope everyone's doing good! We just got back from a week-long trip to Florida. We were able to spend quite a bit of time with our family, and also had the privilege of playing at a few places including Bible Baptist Church, Floridatown Baptist Church, and the Farmers Opry.
If you're new to this website, please drop us a note and let us know what you think about it. We are excited about all the places we'll be playing at in the next few months, and hope to see y'all there!

Hannah

Here's a video from a contest that we attended last week in Clarksville, TN.

Due to the relocation of our web hosting company, our website will be unavailable for a short amount of time. This is scheduled to begin at midnight on Friday, March 28th, 2008, and should last for a period of 24-48 hours.

We've just added some more music clips. These are from our latest cd, Old Time Favorites, which is being reproduced at this time and should be ready in a week or two. We put thirteen instrumental songs on this one - five Gospel and eight bluegrass tunes. So check out the new clips on the Music page!

I know several people have asked us about getting tickets for the concert on June 6th, in Cullman, AL, where we'll be opening for Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. Well, the tickets are available now, so send us a note if you would like more information concerning this.

Hey, everybody, we've got music on our website now!!! So be sure to click on the "Music" page and listen to some samples! As of right now, we've just got clips from "Step On Out" but be sure to check back soon to hear clips from our new instrumental cd, "Old Time Favorites."

As the days passed by, the need to record a instrumental CD became evident. Always before we have done our own recording, but this time we went to a recording studio. Two days at Arctic Sound Studio and our CD was recorded! We all agreed it was so much faster! But it wasn't finished yet! After it was mixed, we took it home and listened and listened to it; and also gave it to a few others to listen to. Taking it back to the studio, some other changes were made. Now it's ready to go to Nashville to get reproduced!

"Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalm 106:1

"Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints." Psalm 149:1

Dad preached on those verses this evening. He mentioned that the last five chapters of Psalms all begin and end with the same phrase, "Praise ye the Lord." God has been so good to each one of us! He sent His Son to pay for our sins, so that we could live with Him one day in Heaven. All we have to do is accept this gift! And if that had been all, we could still say that the Lord is good! But He gives us so many little blessings to make our life better. Ain't God good!

We hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving! We'll be visiting our family down in Pensacola, FL, for a couple of days. We've really been looking forward to it, and this time even our brother, Seth, is getting excited 'cause we're going to see Granny and Papa! :-)

"O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good..."

Saturday, September 22nd, we attended a bluegrass festival at the Honeysuckle Hill Farm near Coopertown, TN, and Hannah placed 3rd in the guitar competition.

The following Tuesday we sang at the Faith Baptist Church of Cross Bridges, TN, (about 20 min. from us) for their Revival meeting. It was a good service, the people were really friendly, and we enjoyed our time there.

Then on Wednesday our grandparents, along with Dad's aunt & uncle, came up for a visit. We had a great time while they were here. Thursday morning, we got up early and headed over to Chattanooga, TN, and spent the day at Ruby Falls & Rock City. We didn't get very many good pics at Ruby Falls, because after the half mile walk, we only got to see the Falls for about five minutes. :-( But we were able to take our time at Rock City, so there are plenty of pics from that. :-) It was so pretty, especially from the top where you can look out and see for miles and miles. What a beautiful world God has created!

Friday & Saturday we attended the Lincoln County Bluegrass Festival in Fayetteville. We placed 3rd in the Bluegrass Gospel Band competition, & Hannah placed 2nd in the Junior Guitar competition. Soon after our family left to go back to Florida, we had to leave the festival to go sing at the Dellrose Outreach Center, which is way, way out in the country somewhere near Fayetteville. The people were so kind, and we enjoyed the chicken stew & other food, and even some homemade ice cream!

Sunday afternoon, after our own church services, we packed up and headed for Fair Havens Baptist in Murfreesboro, TN, to sing at their Homecoming Service. As always, we enjoyed seeing the folks once again, but had to hurry to be back in time for our own evening service. After church we washed clothes and packed and got everything ready for our trip to Chelsea, MI.

We got up bright and early and made the nearly ten hour trip to Chelsea. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we sang at the meetings at got to know the kind people a little more. The ladies fixed three meals a day, and a snack after the evening service, and boy could they cook! It was every bit as good as the cookin' is around here. :-)

Friday morning, we got up early and traveled home, but we didn't have much time to rest because Saturday we sang at a meeting at the Welcome Baptist Church in Piedmont, AL. The pastor and his family are good friends of ours, so we really enjoyed getting to see them again.

Then Sunday through Thursday, we've had Revival Meeting at our own church. Bro. Jimmy Rose preached such good messages each service! It was good to be able to see him and his dear wife again.

Today we sang at Life Care Center here in Columbia, and the rest of the day we've been busy practicing for the Harvest Moon Bluegrass Festival in White House,TN, tomorrow. Next week, I think, we'll be getting a little bit of a break. :-)

Be sure to look at the new pics, and check our schedule out often!

I realize it's been a while since the last update. We've been really busy with a lot of different things happening, especially in the last week. We're looking forward to the bluegrass festival in Fayetteville on September 28th & 29th! www.lincolncountytn.com/bluegrass Our grandparents are planning on coming up for the weekend, as well as our aunt and uncle. We're also hoping to work in a trip to Chattanooga to see some of the sights, like Rock City and Ruby Falls! We'll be sure to include some pics from our trip when we go.

Well, here's something I ran across. Hope you enjoy it! :-)

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that evolution had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.
As he was walking along the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. When he turned to see what the cause was, he saw a 7-foot grizzly charging right towards him. He ran as fast as he could. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in. He ran even faster, crying in fear. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pounding and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up, but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him. At that moment, the atheist cried out "Oh my God!...."
Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving. As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don't exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"
The atheist looked directly into the light. "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?"
"Very well," said the voice.
The light went out. The river ran again. And the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the bear dropped his right paw ..... brought both paws together...bowed his head and spoke: "Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful."

Recently, a man contacted us concerning a singing he's having next June in Cullman, AL. The past several years, the main group has been Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. He has scheduled them for next year as well, and we consider it an honor that he has scheduled us to play on the same program! Even though it's nearly a year away from now, we're already really excited about it!

Just a quick update about we've been doing for the past couple weeks...

Tuesday night, we headed over to Lebanon for a Revival meeting at Temple Baptist. The pastor is Esther's fiddle teacher, so we got there early for a lesson. Then they had Cici's pizza for us, one of our favorites! We really enjoyed it! The meeting went well, and it was good to see the people there once again.

Last Saturday, we attended the Bluegrass Along the Harpeth Fiddlers Jamboree in Franklin, TN. We had a lot of fun competing and talking and pickin' with friends. It was humid throughout the day, but we were thankful that it didn't rain! We came in 4th in the bluegrass band competition.

Monday, July 23rd, we made a trip down to Amory, MS, for a Revival meeting. It was a long trip, but well worth it. The people there are so friendly, and we really enjoyed the fellowship. Bro. Alfred Willis brought a great message on Revival, which challenged us all.

Saturday, July 21st, we had two bluegrass festivals to sing at in one day! The first one was in Rogersville, AL. We really enjoyed playing there, especially because they had several fans blowing on the stage while we were playing. (Not a bad idea, I wish more people would think of it!) Then we headed south towards Cullman to a little town called Fairview. Dad was the sound man for the evening, so we helped him get everything set up and packed it up afterwards. And we even got home earlier than the previous two weekends!

Once again, we've had a great weekend! On Friday, two of Dad's cousins, as well as his sister, came up to see us from Florida.

On Saturday, we got up early and headed over to Murfreesboro for Uncle Dave Macon Days. This was our first year to attend, so we didn't know what to expect. Everyone (except Bethany) entered the individual competitions. Sarah placed 3rd in Bluegrass Banjo. In the Bluegrass Band competition, we placed 3rd as well. We had a great time pickin' with friends, as well as looking at all the different booths. We also had our pictures drawn by Mr. Vick (see the Photo Gallery.) It was a lot of fun. The bad thing about placing, though, is getting home really late, this time at 2:30 a.m.! Here's a couple of sites to check out:
Uncle Dave Macon Days
Crosspoint String Band

This past Saturday we headed over to Smithville, TN, for their 36th Fiddlers Jamboree. Since this was our first time to attend, we were really surprised with how big it was! It was the biggest festival that we've ever attended. We entered the band competition, and made it in the top three. We didn't realize, though, how late it would be before they actually had the finals! We ended up taking 3rd place in Bluegrass Band, Sarah placed 3rd in Banjo, Abby placed 3rd in Beginner Guitar, and Bethany placed 3rd in Beginner Mandolin. (Rachel, Hannah, and Esther were not able to enter contests individually, due to the fact that some were on Fri. and early Sat.) We had a good day, but we weren't really thrilled about getting home at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning! Lol! Please see the Photo Gallery for new pics & make plans to be at Smithville next year! www.smithvillefiddlersjamboree.net