Goodbye Biscuit Roller Fans.......

Well after 3+ years since the first Concept of The Biscuit Rollers band, we are retiring the band. We are very sad that we are at this point, but we have had a great run of performing and spreading the true Blues feel for the last 3 years. We want to thank all of our Friends and Fans that we have acquired and personnally met over the years and really appreciate that you "get" what we were doing. We would not have been able to do what we did without your support.

Kelly and Jack started the band in Jack's shed playing the tune "Trouble in Mind" and "Nobody Knows You When Your Down and Out". We soon had 20 songs or so and played a couple of open Mics in Staunton and got some great feedback from the audiences. Soon we were asked to Open for a couple of bands, Hound Dog Hill is the band that stands out as our first. They were great to allow us to open for them a few times. We soon added a great guitarist by the name of Chris Okay to the lineup. Very seasoned and established guitar player extreme. Then we were playing our own gigs, Uncle Charlies in Crozet, Baja Bean in Staunton and the Mojo Room in Danville. We now had 30+ songs and were starting to write out own. We tried other musicians to the mix; Upright bass, mandolin, and drummer, but did not get a great feel from any of these combinations. We competed in the James River Blues Society blues competition and came in 5th. Chris ended up taking another job out of state and soon left the band due to geographic problems.

One night at Queen City Brewing, Mr. Scott Gray came to see the Biscuit Rollers play and introduced himself as a Harp player and would love to sit in with us sometime. We did another Open Mic and asked Scott to sit in for one song, he blew us away... he sat in with us for the rest of the evening. He was accepted open armed into the Biscuit Rollers. Scott brought the energy and talent that Kelly and Jack was looking for. We competed in 3 blues competitions that year with Scott and came in 2nd place in all 3!!! We got to play in more venues, blues festivals and wine festivals. 2008, TBR won the blues competition at Sedalia Center. We had finally done what we wanted to do, not only win but to be reconized for the music that we were making.

We then prepared for our chance in Memphis in the International Blue Competition with over 100 bands from 7 countries. We knew we did not have a chance down there but we wanted to do what we knew we could do, turn some heads with our kind of blues. That Thursday night at the Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale Street, we performed the best we could have ever done. The crowd went crazy and received 9s and 10s for the night (could have been the best of all the bands that night), Friday night things went wrong, broken string on first song... sound problems on harp solo, we just never recovered. We did well but not like Thursday night and the scores showed these problems. But we played on Beale Street and showed we could compete with the big bands of the world.

After returning toVirginia, the band soon fell apart due to financial problems of 2 of the members and having problems agreeing on the direction of the band. We had taken the band through the full evolution, something most band never get to do and we succeeded. We were very proud of what we did and We will always be TBR. I am sure that individually or in some combination, we will still perform, but not as The Biscuit Rollers... Until maybe one day we might, as Kelly says, invade the downtown Mall area for a busking effort, TBR style....

Thanks again to everyone, we still have the only CD from the Biscuit Rollers for sale from that great, great record company and recording Studios Catawba Sound (Thanks Wayne)... Send an email to biscuitrollers@gmail.com if you would like to buy a CD.

Peace

The Biscuit Rollers......