Echo Park at Mountain Valleyfest May 16

Folk & Dagger, Lost Faculties, Forget-Me-Nots, Amantha Mill, Surefire Bluegrass to perform

Echo Park will be the final band playing the kid-friendly Mountain Valleyfest in the Green Valley Park (on Big Hill Road between the Green Valley School and Todd) at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 16. 

The event is cosponsored by the Mountain Pathways Montessori School and the Green Valley Community Park Association. 

Echo Park performs progressive rock with both covers and originals from their newly released CD. The band’s current members are Rusty Blanton, guitar; Jamie Blanton, drums; Bill Fisher, bass guitar; Steve Roark, keyboards; and Bob Rochelle, vocals. The band is known for “tight vocal harmonies, complex time signatures and driving bass.”  For more information, check them out online at www.echoparkband.com.

Music starts at 11 a.m. with the band Folk and Dagger, which is led by Doris Bazzini-Crothers and has a folk sound with originals and covers.

Lost Faculties is a local band that brings together Bob White, Tom Whyte and Ed Midgett. They are known for a sound described as “seasoned, not really bluegrass” and as an act that is “solid, entertaining and original.” Their photo is online at www.sugargrovemagazine.com/farmheritagedays.html.

The ever popular almost all-girl group Forget-Me-Nots returns at 1 p.m. to the Mountain Valleyfest and to the newly completed band shell (overlooking the playing field overlooking the New River). This fine, young Celtic-influenced group of string musicians unites Willa Finck, Maura Shawn Scanlin and Ledah Finck (with David Finck on backup guitar). For more information, check them out online at www.theforgetmenots.com.

Amantha Mill is known for solid traditional and original bluegrass and is scheduled at 2 p.m. The members of the band are singer-songwriter Rebecca Eggers-Gryder on bass, Billy Helms, who spent seven years playing at EuroDisney in France on banjo and guitar, Randy Pasley, who is a three-time Dobro champion from the Galax Old Time Fiddler’s Convention, Jack Cockman on fiddle, with his brother Ben Cockman singing harmonies. For more information, check out the band out online at www.amanthamill.com.

The Surefire Bluegrass Band, another dynamic, youthful group, features Tom Isaacs, who is a singer and instrumentalist, John Bryan on banjo, and Robby Norris with baritone vocals. They start at 3 p.m. and are described as “young, talented bluegrass singers and pickers.”  See their Web site for information and photos at www.surefirebluegrass.com.