Not only does The Kind play Grateful Dead songs, they also create the same kind of community unity that the Dead always did. Saturday night at Dogntown, my heart was full dancing and singing with Floyd friends who I’ve gone to Dead shows with back in the day. It’s a shared symbiotic celebration, especially for […]
Mesmerizing. Inspired. Awesome. Those were some of the reactions to Robert Bailey’s solo performance of “In Some Dark Valley – The Testimony of Reverend Brand,” which he wrote and brings to life through song and storytelling. The award-winning traveling play opened at the June Bug Center last night with a second performance scheduled for tonight, […]
– The following was first published at Floyd Times on June 23, 2026. An award-winning play is coming to the June Bug’s Black Box Theater on July 10th and 11th, 7 pm to 9 pm. Written and performed by Robert Bailey and directed by Billy Siegenfeld, In Some Dark Valley: The Testimony of Reverend Brand […]
It’s a Wildlife. That’s the name of the band. This never happened before. They stole the show. We all got our smiles back dancing at Dogtown to Wildlife, Richie Ursomarso and the best of MRCO. Richie, who sang a song about getting his smile back, was a mentor to some of the MRCO members when […]
Our DJ Sp_ce Boy opened his dancing through the decades with Season of the Witch, which I take credit for suggesting. I told him please don’t play The Twist. No one likes that song, and if you play Jeremiah was a Bullfrog, I might gag. I suggested I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1964) like I […]
-The following first appeared in Floyd Times on February 5, 2026. Author Jeffery Bennett was hosted by The Floyd County Historical Society for an Author Talk and book signing at the Jessie Peterman Memorial Library on Saturday. Bennett’s book, The Black Belt of Virginia: Untold Stories of African American History details the little-known history and […]
-I was commissioned by Tom Ryan in 2009 to write the following. It appeared on Tom’s Republic of Floyd webpage and Joey’s webpage for a time. Our friend Joey left this world several days ago. A dreadlocked country boy who grew up fur trapping, raising fighting cocks, driving his dad’s 18-wheeler, and playing golf, Joey […]
Even under the influence of ibuprofun for an out-of-whack knee. It was worth the price of admission to dance and sing along with Brown-eyed Women and Red Grenadine and other songs with friends. And see Bobby Weir’s smiling face up in lights. The Sun will shine in my back door someday. March winds will blow […]
The following 2025 review was done by excerpting the first few lines or paragraph in one post from each month last year. You can click on the name of the month for a full accounting. January – The “Nest of Singing Birds” ballad singers lost their town and their monthly Appalachian Ballad Swap venue when […]
1. She spoke at Bobby Weir’s Celebration of Life gathering in San Francisco on Saturday. She talked about her friendship with Bob and all the shows she has been to over the years. 2. After celebrating to Grateful Dead music at the Buffalo Mountain Brewery with friends and our hometown band Rosebud, Joe and I […]
I may not make New Year resolutions, but I sure know how to dance out the old year and ring in the New Year with friends. A New Year’s Eve party is a yearly tradition at our local Dogtown venue, and this year three favorite area bands, Father Sun, The Ambassador and Music Road Co, […]
“I got a new nephew for Christmas. I got a new niece too!,” I heard my son Josh say to someone on the phone driving home from The Hotel Roanoke where we just had an epic lunch and a heartfilled family reunion. Seeing a blockbuster movie at Christmastime is a tradition started by Josh, Star […]
