393 MTSU SOPHOMORE WEILER JOINS BLUE CREEK RAMBLERS

Date: April 18, 2006

Editorial contact: Office of News & Public Affairs, 615-898-2919
To contact Rebekah Weiler: 615-785-1196


(MURFREESBORO) — MTSU sophomore Rebekah Weiler plays old-time music with men who are more than three times her age.
This weekend, their group, Delmer Holland and the Blue Creek Ramblers, will play their biggest show to date. The fly from Nashville Wednesday, headed to San Diego to play April 22 in the 33rd annual Adams Avenue Roots Festival.
The Blue Creek Ramblers are scheduled to play two 45-minute sets Saturday at the festival that features a mix of music including Irish, Americana/acoustic roots, Texas and Delta blues, cowboy and train songs, Appalachian, their own style of mountain music and others.
The Blue Creek Ramblers were extended the invitation to perform by Adams Avenue Roots Festival music director Lou Curtiss. Curtiss, a longtime music business owner and roots music follower, received an endorsement for the band by the late Dr. Charles K. Wolfe, former MTSU English professor emeritus, folklorist, country music historian and author of more than 20 books on the subject. Weiler performed at the March 14 Wolfe memorial service at MTSU.
“It’s becoming harder to find genuine string bands that are keeping the rich, old-time sound alive and in front of the public,” Curtiss said. “When you listen to the Blue Creek Ramblers music, you know that they are the real thing, and we’re looking forward to having them at our festival.”
Weiler, a three-time dean’s list honoree who is nearing her junior year and a just-declared history major, plays clawhammer banjo for the group that also includes band leader Delmer Holland, 72, of Waverly, on fiddle and lead vocals; his first cousin, Leland Holland, 67, of Waverly, on rhythm guitar; and William Moore, 72, of McLemoresville, on upright bass. At MTSU, she plays with the Stones River String Band.
The Blue Creek Ramblers, reigning State of Kentucky Old-Time Band champion, recorded their second CD, “Ain’t Dead Yet,” in March. On April 15, Weiler won the old-time banjo contest in the 50th annual West Tennessee Fiddler’s Championship and Bluegrass Jamboree in Holladay. Multi-talented MTSU junior recording industry major Tyler Andal placed third.
Weiler and the band have earned numerous awards in the four-plus years they played together. The Blue Creek Ramblers will play June 9-10 during MountainFest in Gatlinburg, at Fall Creek Falls State Park’s Mountaineer Festival Sept. 8-9, in Estill Fork, Ala. (Paint Rock Valley Sept. 16) and other festivals contests this spring, summer and fall.
Moore and the Hollands wear blue overalls and personal choice of hats when they perform. Weiler wears vintage-looking dresses, shoes and trademark white hat and sunglasses.