The Lisa Kay Band

Lisa Kay has been tooling around the bluegrass scene playing with an impressive string of regional bands since she took up the mandolin. She started playing bluegrass almost 20 years ago at 14, with her family band, Crooked Run, and has since played in several bands in the area including Too Far Gone, Badly Bent, Flyin' Blind Bluegrass, Vintage Blend, and Wayne Taylor and Keith Arneson's Appaloosa band, just to name a few. In January 2007 she finally decided to front her own group. Lisa Kay attacks the mandolin mostly in the traditional way, a la Roland White or Country Gentlemen-era Jimmy Gaudreau. She sings impeccable harmony and contributes pure, emotion-filled lead vocals.

Based out of Warrenton, VA, she uses two main configurations of guys--first, Lisa Kay & The Reunion Bluegrass Band, featuring Keith Galle, from Glenside, PA, on banjo and vocals, Bob McConchie of Woodstock, VA, on guitar and vocals, Rob Hopkins of Warren, Maine, on dobro and vocals, and Mike Kiley of south Georgia on bass and vocals. The band has known each other from the festival scene for over 15 years and always felt a musical kinship. Last year they decided to make it official and have now gigged all over the eastern US. An album and video are in the works.

The Lisa Kay Band features folks from Lisa Kay's hometown area, DC and environs. Doug McKelway, news anchor for a DC-based TV station, is a clean, crisp, and imaginative banjo stylist. He also contributes his smooth baritone harmonies to the vocals. Kentucky native John Seebach is a fantastic young guitarist (not to mention mandolinist) who has a unique and beautiful approach to the instrument. He can sing higher than Lisa Kay, too. The band recently welcomes Wally Hughes, of Smyrna, Delaware, on fiddle and dobro. Wally sings all the parts and plays all the instruments, and has performed and recorded with a number of touring bluegrass acts, including Penn Central and The Hughes Family. The legendary bass player Tom Gray (Seldom Scene, Country Gentlemen) often guest stars with the band, adding his perfectly placed bass notes to the sound. We also welcome former Sam Hill bass player Dee Ann Arneson to the Lisa Kay Band, who will be playing some gigs with the group--she's the most solid bass player we know!