07/04/10
Mark here from BBG. Just thought I’d take a few minutes to share some of the experiences we’ve had on our musical journey thus far with our friends and fans. It has been an exciting year for BBG, and I just felt like sharing. This thing started out in Nov. of 2008 when we had our first official practice session. That very first night we knew we were on to something good so we decided we would see how far we could take it. Our very first public performance was in Jan. 2009, in our hometown of Maysville, GA. at a local bar-b-que restaurant, mainly for family, friends, and a few local patrons. Half way through our first set, four men walked in. Jim White, and Joe Matteson of The Buzzard Mountain Boys, along with Curtis Jones and David Peterson. Before the night was over all four came up and sat in with BBG on a few songs. How cool is that. What a start. BBG will be forever grateful to these four men. They just don’t know what an inspiration and encouragement they were that night. Not long after that first "gig" we started booking dates around the area. Before we knew it, we were busy. In March of 2009 we lost our friend and mandolin player, Tony Ianuario and his wife Ann in a tragic car crash. It had been through Tony that the four men showed up at our first show. He was friends with Jim and Joe. This was a very hard blow to the band and to all of us personally. Just a few months into this thing and we were all wondering what might become of BBG. Tony wrote one song while with the band called, "Changing Gears" and we took that as a message from him to keep doing that very thing. A couple of months after Tony’s death we were playing a show in Braselton GA. and an old music buddy of mine Lee Davis came to hear us. Lee owns his own studio and production company. He was impressed with what he heard and told us to come in and do a CD. A year from the date of our first practice, BBG released our first CD of original music. We had a CD release party at our favorite music venue the Crimson Moon and sold the show out. We did this show with our now good friends Jim and Joe, The Buzzard Mountain Boys.
During the time we were recording our CD, an independent film maker from Ga, got in touch with the group. He was hunting some bluegrass soundtracks to go into a movie he had just finished filming. He picked out "There is a Time" and " Burning Bridges " off of our CD and we wound up recording the intro soundtrack to the movie also. In April of 2010 the Bear on the Square music festival booked us to kick the festival off on Friday night. The previous year we were at the festival just jamming with everyone else and hoping that maybe someday we could be an act on the main stage. To top it off, Glenda Pender a member of the festival committee chose BBG to help promo the festival by making three television appearances on three different stations the week before the festival. That was a blast. To bring us up to the present we just played a festival over July 4th weekend in Athens Ga. with Cherryholmes as the headliner, also a blast. We are currently recording a song by Ricky Fitzpatrick along with T Graham Brown, John Berry, Dustin Wilkes, Nathan Shepard, and Wayne Baird to help raise money for a local park. Just finished up enough new material for our next CD and we are excited about getting a new project unerway. Well, that’s pretty much what’s been going on in the BBG camp. It’s been a great year!! Thanks to everyone who has supported us.
We want to make you proud.
Take care and God bless.
Mark Garrison
12/05/09 "Mill Grinder's Blues" is hot off the press and we are very excited. Just had our CD Release party in Dahlonega, Ga at the Crimson Moon and The Melting Point in Athens, Ga. They were both a huge success. We sold a lot of CD's and played to a sold out house in Dahlonega. It was amazing! After having a baby break to welcome our newest addition, Barrett Dylan, we are up and ready to go!
