TWO NEW FACES

Hey Everybody !!
If you haven’t seem our show in the last six months, you probably haven’t heard that DDWRB has a couple of new members. First, I’ll start with Stan Wilemon. Stan re-joined the band, on guitar, after being away for a number of years. Alot of you might remember Stan as the group’s bass man in 1987, then 1990 through 1994, also a part of our 1993 Rounder recording, “Sounds Like Home” plus many of the recordings we did for Ray Davis’ Wango label in the early ’90’s. Stan has played a large role in the band since he left in 1994 through his songwriting. We have recorded three of his songs on our last three Rebel recordings, “Lonesome Cry of the Whippoorwill”, “It’s Just An Old Body” and “Willow Valley”. Stan has been on the road since 1994 with groups like The Larry Gillis Band and our Alabama buddy, The Gary Waldrep Band, playing guitar and mandolin and singing a bunch of different parts. It feels real natural having Stan back in the band, pretty much like he never left. I always loved to sing with him, we grew up pretty close together and we always just fit together musically and personally. He’s blessed with a ton of talent, we’re really glad to have him back!
Next, let’s get you acquainted with Ben Sanders, from Madison, Wisconsin. Ben joined the group last October, playing fiddle. He and his wife, (she’s a great fiddle player, too !) live in Nashville, Tennessee. We’ve really been blessed over the years to have great fiddle players in the band, from Al Lester to Charlie Cline, Bill Sage right on up to Owen Saunders, (who left the WRB last October after a 12 year stint). Ben is Super talented, a true professional in his attitude with a great work ethic toward the music and being prepared to show well each time he gets on stage and to complement the band around him. That’s really all you can ask from a person. Everybody in the band is real high on Ben and how he’s fitting into what we’re trying to do, musically.
As a bandleader, it’s always potentially tough when there are band changes, sometimes it’s really hard to get someone who fits, both personally and stylistically, sometimes it takes a while and a lot of effort has to be made to get that “right fit”. This time, it just seemed to fall into place real, real quick. I know Marty Hays and Robert Montgomery, as well as “your’s truly” were thankful for the easy transition!
We’re really looking forward to seeing you on the road this year ! We’ve been travelling alot in the first five months of 2012 and beginning to really get busy for the next few months. I’ll get you a blog with our personal appearances as soon as possible. Our webmaster, Josh is busy building us a new Band website at this time and should have it up very soon. Until then, I’ll try to keep you current on the band and band happenings. If you have specific questions, just let me know and I’ll try to get you a good answer. Hope to hear from you!! Until next time, David