[dcab-l] More about those venues and bands

I enjoy all the stories about the bands and venues we've had around here for the years.  They bring back lots of thoughts.

 

First, yes I knew Scotty Stoneman, played with him on some occasions.  There may be more accomplished fiddle players, but for shear enjoyment of a performance, Scotty can't be beat.  He was intense.  That intensity was likely induced by alcohol.  His tone, his choice of what to play just screams out "Listen to me. Watch me.  I have something important to show you."  He won so many contests, he was banned from entering again, so he claimed another name and tried to enter anyway.  Let me tell you about a memorable night of music.  I got called for a one-night engagement with Patsy Stoneman in the late 1960s at one of those bluegrass bars, the Annandale Grill maybe.  She said her band included the great Chubby Wise on fiddle; and what's more, Scotty would probably show up and join in.  So, before the gig, I called some friends to tell them of what was up.  Sure enough, Scotty did come in and got up and played.  Those two great fiddle players had so much respect for each other, they both just played it safe, not wanting to show up the other.

 

There was a mention of Bennie and Vallie Cain.  They played lots of bars, and I was a member of their band off and on for years.  When I was still in high school, a group of us teenagers (Monte Monteith, Bill Torbert, Bob Lindter, Ron Roswell, Jerry Stuart)  would go listen to them in some of the bars on 8th St. SE in D.C. across the street from the Marine barracks.  They also played a joint on 14th St. NW called the Harvard Grill, near Harvard Street in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, long before it started gentrifying.  A few years later, I played for a long time with the Cains at the Centreville Truck Stop, the Vienna Grill, and a joint on Rte. 28 going into Manassas.  The name Erico's comes to mind, but I'm not sure it that was the joint in SE D.C. or the one near Manassas.  Benny and Vallie's band included such known players as Bill Emerson, Pete Kuykendall, Jimmy DeLozier, John Hall, Johnny Whisnant (a great banjo teacher), Don Mulkey, Scotty Stoneman, Joe Tanner, and of course their son Andre Paul.  All the Cains have passed away years ago.

 

Another band who made a big splash at the Red Fox in the 1970s was Country Store.  I was told then that the Scene now has some serious competition in that group which I believe included Jimmy Gaudreau, Bobby Bryant, Chris Stifel, and Bill Rawlings.

 

Nuff said for now,  Tom Gray