        June
2006 |
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Celebrating the Good Life in Northern Virginia |
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reprint
by permission - copyrights apply |
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for Love of
Music |
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by Pamela Oldham When his father passed away in 1991, Randy Collins inherited his dad's prized possession: a Martin guitar. "Up until then, I played a 'cheapo' Japanese guitar. Martin is the Cadillac of guitars. I never could afford one, and Dad never let me play it when he was alive. 'You'll get this when I die,' he always told me. Well, I had to do something with it. Otherwise, it would have been kind of like having a Ferrari in the garage and never driving it," he says. |
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Undoubtedly, Randy's dad would be pleased with how his son has handled his legacy. A gifted vocalist and guitarist, Randy is a founding member of Loudoun based Flint Hollow, a traditional bluegrass band whose long awaited debut CD will be released this month. In addition to Randy, the other band members include leader Vince Diem of Winchester (vocals and mandolin), Loudouner Chris Athey (banjo), Dave Miner of Bowie (vocals and resophonic steel guitar) and Silver Spring's Mike Marceau (standup bass). The band's repertoire ranges from 1950s standards made famous by Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers and other legends to contemporary bluegrass music that includes original compositions written by Hint Hollow's members. Randy, a Virginia native whose family has strong roots in the Shenandoah Valley and Albemarle County, had no real interest in forming a bluegrass band when he arrived in Loudoun in 1995 to serve as executive director of the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce. Still, he wanted to play and continue learning the music he and his dad had enjoyed together. "There were no places to learn it, no teachers for bluegrass music. You learn by going to jams and festivals, by watching musicians perform it," Randy says. He took his dads guitar to area jams and at first, stood in the background for a while, watching and learning. Slowly but surely he worked his way from the outer edges of the musicians' circles to front and center. "You get your turn to play and sing," he says, adding that it wasn't too long before he'd "caught the fever." "Every Tuesday night for eight years, we played music to residents in a Leesburg retirement home and it grew into a bluegrass jam because another thing about musicians amateurs and pros is that all they want to do is play, for one person or 100. That jam session is still going on today," Randy says proudly. (No longer with the Chamber, Randy now works for a local insurance agency.) Randy, Chris and Vince knew one another from playing at the Leesburg jam. "Vince had been in other bands and was determined to start a new one," says Randy. "Over time, he convinced us we were all too good to play in jam sessions only. He came up with the name of the band and we organized in the summer of 2004." Mike and Dave joined Flint Hollow in 2006, replacing earlier band members.
Flint Hollow in a rousing performance on May 6, 2006 at the Cultural Arts Center in Frederick, Maryland Vince Diem, whose day job is with the Town of Herndon was exposed to bluegrass as a young boy when his parents took him to concerts in southern Pennsylvania where he grew up and learned to play percussion instruments. After he entered high school, his interest in bluegrass waned for a time But later, the genre again beckoned to him. "I went to see a show after college and it just drew me back in," he says. After serving five years in the Army, Vince began participating in bluegrass jams, singing and playing the mandolin, an instrument he took up in 200 1. "The mandolin *is a good fit for me because it acts like percussion like a snare drum to the bass. Both the bass and the mandolin set the rhythm for the band," he explains. Chris Athey, a Loudoun County Deputy Sheriff, discovered bluegrass in the 1970s, after listening to his brother’s albums. Chris began taking banjo lessons in 1978. "[The music] is an unbelievable escape for me in my line of work. It allows me to get away from whatever I have to deal with at work," he says. His original composition, "Belmont Ridge," appears on Flint Hollow's new CD, along with his "Ridin' the Circuit," which was inspired by his great grandfather, Samuel Milton Athey, who was captured at Gettysburg and spent three years in Point Lookout Prison. While in prison, he befriended a gentleman who taught him to be a Baptist preacher. He rode the circuit in southern Loudoun, until he founded the Salem Baptist Church [now Marshall Baptist Church] in 1872," Chris says. Chris grew up inside the Beltway, near Baileys Crossroads. His father was a guitarist who played in bands in the '60s and '70s. When Chris was just starting out in banjo, his father liked to play along to whatever songs his son happened to be learning at the moment. "Those memories are precious to me. I don't know if I'd have the patience. God bless my parents for putting up with that," says Chris, whose father died in 1984. When not performing resophonic steel guitar artist Dave Miner works for NASA He was raised around old time country music, and his dad was a "big time" fan of Hank Williams and Hank Snow. His grandfather farmed in western Pennsylvania and played violin and guitar. "He was into music and played fiddle. I'd bring my guitar and we'd play and listen to music in his parlor. A lot of that rubbed off on me. He was very enthusiastic about music," says Dave. Dave explains that the steel guitar player's job is to complement the vocals. "If somebody's crying, I'll slur the music; if somebody’s in a bad mood, I'll play more bluesy. I support whatever the singer is saying. I'm really into lyrics," he says. Like Chris, Dave is a music writer as well as a performer. He wrote a resophonic piece called "Lover" while sick with a fever: "I was half asleep and half awake when I dreamed of the song. I don't know how to read or write music, so I went downstairs to record it." Newest member Mike Marceau is a D.C. area native, and a member of the DC Bluegrass Union board of directors, a resource for bluegrass musicians and listeners. "My parents signed me up for music lessons accordion when I was 10,” says Mike. "After the accordion, I played acoustic guitar and took the instrument with me to Vietnam for my own amusement. I was seriously injured in 'Nam, lost the use of my left arm and hand almost didn't make it back alive. I taught myself to play bass and on a whim, bought a standup bass in 1981 and started going to open mikes to play the thing." He says he "accidentally' became part of a band in 1983, and has been playing in bands ever since. "The bluegrass community is like a big family. You'll never meet a better bunch of people in all the world," he says. Flint Hollow will appear at Leesburg's Acoustic on the Green concert series on June 17 (see Calendar for details). For more information about the band and its scheduled events, visit www.flinthollow.com. |
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