Sisk
Years of Farming will be ending our 2021/2022 season on Sunday, May 22 with another fantastic show at Double S Entertainment, 150 Foster Street at 2 p.m.
Junior Sisk Band, winner of 2022 Song and Album of the Year, will be performing with Back Up and Push as the opening band! Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door for $20. Children 12 and under accompanied by an adult are admitted free. Attendees will have the chance to win door prizes provided by our sponsors including two tickets to our October show.
Junior Sisk is widely recognized as one of today’s top bluegrass vocalists and is a constant reminder that traditional bluegrass is still alive and well. A longtime resident of the Virginia Blue Ridge, his bluegrass pedigree runs deep. Influenced by a father who wrote songs and played guitar and a mother who sang, Sisk first learned to play around age 14.
His early influences included The Stanley Brothers, Larry Sparks, and Dave Evans, but he often credits the Johnson Mountain Boys with inspiring him to pursue bluegrass professionally. Sisk first made his mark in bluegrass as a songwriter in the early 1990s, penning classic Lonesome River Band songs like “Game (I Can’t Win)” and “Tears Are Blinding Me.”
As a member of Wyatt Rice and Santa Cruz and Blueridge, he helped define the sound of driving, modern traditional bluegrass. Sisk founded Ramblers Choice in 1998, releasing Sounds of the Mountains on Rounder Records. After leaving Blueridge in 2006, he reformed the group and began a successful career with Rebel Records. His 2011 album Heart of a Song helped bring the band into the spotlight and eventually was named IBMA Album of the Year in 2012. Its single “A Far Cry from Lester and Earl,” which Sisk co-wrote, became a rallying cry for a resurgence of traditional sounds in bluegrass and received the 2012 Song of the Year Award from the IBMA. Sisk was further honored when he was named 2013 IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year, while his band earned the 2014 SPBGMA Bluegrass Band of the Year award.
In 2016, “Longneck Blues,” a collaboration with noted singer-songwriter Ronnie Bowman, was named Recorded Event of the Year by the IBMA. Most recently, Sisk received the 2017 Male Vocalist of the Year award from SPBGMA. He and his band now record for Mountain Fever Records and are currently promoting their third album for the label, LOAD THE WAGON. LOAD THE WAGON, spent a consecutive six months at the No. 1 spot on the National Survey Chart in 2020 and became Junior’s most successful album to date amidst the pandemic. A brand-new single has just been released, “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” the first from a forthcoming new album due out at a date yet to be announced by Mountain Fever Records.
Solidifying the success of the latest album, Junior Sisk received a landslide of nominations in the IBMA Awards for 2021, including Album of The Year, for Load the Wagon, Song of The Year, for “Just Load The Wagon” and Male Vocalist of The Year. SPBGMA also recognized Junior’s recent music releases with two wins in February 2022, for Album of The Year, for Load the Wagon, Song of The Year, for “Just Load The Wagon!”
Mountain Fever has released two singles ahead of Junior’s next album so far, with “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” and “Patches on My Heart,” and there is no doubt that the album anticipation is building among his fans worldwide.
Back Up and Push is a traditional bluegrass band out of southern Ohio led by Seth Carkeek that focus on tight harmonies and keeping the crowds entertained. JM Tolle on banjo has played bluegrass and gospel music for 30 years. starting at 14 and has a deep appreciation of “Crowe” style banjo. Seth Carkeek on guitar started young while following his family’s band all over southern Ohio and Kentucky. As the bass player, Bill Lykins “Quarterback” has been on stage for years as a multi-instrumentmusician. The “youngsters” of the band, Chandler Tolle plays lead guitar and sings. Also singing and playing mandolin is Jachin Irwin. This band brings a new element to the bluegrass stage.
Our goal is not only to provide bluegrass music in our area, but also to promote our local businesses. These businesses employ a lot of people in our community! Most of our sponsors have sponsored all our shows we have scheduled since 2011. We appreciate our sponsors whether this is their first show to sponsor or if they have sponsored all and we hope you will thank them for helping us bring such great groups to Flemingsburg.
Keep checking our website www.yearsoffarming.comforupdatesin our schedule. For more information, tickets or to tag (reserve) seats, you can contact Paula Hinton at (606)748-0798 or [email protected].
