Darren Beachley and the Brunswick Fundraiser (No. 2)

Bill Yates and Darren Beachley in performance, July 10, 2010

It's real tempting to throw around a lot of superlatives. It's real easy to take the accusative route and say, "If you weren't there, too bad, you missed THE performance of the season." So it was at Brunswick Highschool last Saturday night for the 2nd Annual Brunswick Junior Baseball League fundraiser, produced once more by League member Jill Hossler, with the help of her family and many other League members. I feel very fortunate - we happened upon a notice for this show last year while the Lucketts Bluegrass Season was in full swing. Last year's show (July 2009) was headlined by none other than Darren Beachley and the Legends of the Potomac and Kenny Ray Horton and Friends. I thought to myself: What? Darren Beachley is showing up in Brunswick, Maryland?
It all made sense. Darren calls Brunswick home, and his family is a big supporter of the Junior Baseball League. Enter Jill Hossler, who threw her whole heart into making it a magnificent (and downright inexpensive,) night of entertainment. It was no accident that when the word went out about this first bluegrass fundraiser, bluegrass fans from a hundred mile radius showed up for the 2009 show. I talked to them, took my own personal survey of how far they had traveled and made note of it. They were all Darren's fans who had been closely watching his career since he had established the Legends of the Potomac. So the first Brunswick Fundraiser was a strange coalescence of baseball moms and dads and bluegrass cognoscente. Then came the much anticipated release of the Legends' first CD, Take Off. The rest of the story is history as they say, but not really. Darren Beachley continues to be a 'statement-maker' in the field of bluegrass artists. It's not easy to mount a stage and say "Watch me - and watch and listen to what these guys can do!" but that's exactly what you get when you go to a Darren Beachley performance. He's surrounded himself with some of the best musicians in the business. More on that in a later blog.
This year's show included the addition of Bill Yates and the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band, after Kenny Ray Horton had to bow out due to his U.S. Navy commitments. What ensued were two and a half hours of solid good music and interesting stage camaraderie - all these guys know and respect each other, having all played together in different configurations and there was an ample amount of 'legend' status to go around. Missing was Tom Gray, who was obligated to attend an important family function. Todd and MaryFran Stotler once again provided excellent sound engineering for the evening's music. Even while the show was in progress there was already rumor of a "Year-Three" fundraiser, possibly later in the year so that more people could attend and there wasn't so much competition with the summer sports activities. We'll watch this closely and see how it unfolds. It's a good idea to get your tickets early! Jill Hossler is wonderful about sending out early notices concerning upcoming fundraisers.