Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
November 2, 2006 issue
Worthless Son-In-Laws Invited to Play MerleFest
Story by David Brewer
It’s likely that local quartet the Worthless Son-In-Laws will be the envy of a number of area bands and musicians. Much to the band’s delight, the members recently received word that they have been invited to perform at MerleFest 2007.
The Worthless Son-In-Laws will play on Friday morning, April 27 at the Americana Stage and Friday afternoon at the Chris Austin stage. They will also give an outreach performance at a Wilkes County school on Thursday morning. Members Jimmy Davidson and Rob Brown will also be featured at a special songwriter’s event on Friday evening.
The Worthless Son-in-Laws include Brown and Davidson on guitars and vocals, as well as Rich Crepeau on bass guitar and Aaron Cummings on drums. They have recently recorded an album with local engineer Steve Greene entitled Sort of Back to Having a Life. The band has played several events around the High Country, including Sugar Grove Farm Heritage Days and the Kraut Creek Festival in downtown Boone.
“It was a really nice surprise for us to be invited to Merlefest,” said Davidson. “There are so many amazing songwriters and musicians who play there. It’s a real honor to be included. We’re all pretty excited. I’m looking forward to seeing Elvis Costello perform too.”
Forming in early 2004, the Worthless Son-in-Laws perform a blend of alt country and indie rock music, primarily consisting of original compositions. The southern sound and mood is rock based but also contains distinctly acoustic elements.
“Sometimes I like to call it ‘new south underground’,” said Davidson. “Lucky for us, MerleFest includes all kinds of music, which is great. I think they really try to showcase a wide variety of acoustic and roots-influenced music. I think that variety has really opened people up to some things they might not have listened to otherwise, and it’s probably one of the reasons MerleFest has been around so long.”
In addition to the Worthless Son-in-Laws’ appearance at MerleFest, the High Country will be represented by local trio the Forget-Me-Nots and storyteller Orville Hicks.
The Worthless Son-in-Laws will perform this Saturday, November 4, at Black Cat Burrito with Johnson City band Feral Throes. The show starts at 10:00 p.m. For more info on the band, click to www.soninlaws.com.