Brit (and former Westport performer) joins high-profile US band

John Lawless announces on Bluegrass Today that the Tennessee Bluegrass Band (whose founder members include fiddler Aynsley Porchak, a leading disciple of the late Kenny Baker, and banjo-player Lincoln Hensley, keeper of the heritage of the late Sonny Osborne) has taken on two new members, both from family-band backgrounds.

Anissa Burnett (bass) is a distinguished alumnus of the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) bluegrass, old-time, and roots music course. Geary Allen (guitar) comes from the Allen Family Band based in Margate, England, who made a solid contributions to a past Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival. A 2014 photo of the Allen Family. showing Geary as he was then, can be found on the BIB.

The story of how both new members came to join the Tennessee Bluegrass Band is told in detail in the Bluegrass Today article, which includes two YouTube videos of them making their indvidual contributions to the band's sound. In the photo above, Anissa and Geary are first and second from the right respectively.

© Richard Hawkins