Faris Family

Since their first in 2002, Faris Family has been honored with 38 nominations from the fan-based membership of the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) . From those nominations, the family has received 15 top honors including three time ‘Bluegrass Band of the Year - Traditional’ and four time ‘Entertaining Group of the Year‘.

The entire list includes:

2008 SPBGMA Midwest Awards

Bass Fiddle Performer of the Year - JimBob Faris
Guitar Performer of the Year - Rick Faris
Entertaining Group of the Year - Faris Family

Other 2008 nominations:

Bluegrass Album of the Year - ’Faris Family - Black Horse Inn’ Aurio (AR-CD010)
Male Vocalist of the Year (Contemporary) - Bob Faris
Bluegrass Band of the Year (Traditional) - Faris Family
Vocal Group of the Year - Faris Family
Instrumental Group of the Year - Faris Family
Entertainer of the Year - JimBob Faris


2007 SPBGMA Midwest Awards

Bass Fiddle Performer of the Year - JimBob Faris
Entertaining Group of the Year - Faris Family

Other 2007 nominations:

Guitar Performer of the Year - Rick Faris
Bluegrass Band of the Year (Traditional) - Faris Family
Vocal Group of the Year - Faris Family
Instrumental Group of the Year - Faris Family
Entertainer of the Year - JimBob Faris


2006 SPBGMA Midwest Awards

Bass Fiddle Performer of the Year - JimBob Faris
Bluegrass Band of the Year (Traditional) - Faris Family
Entertaining Group of the Year - Faris Family

Other 2006 nominations:

Guitar Performer of the Year - Rick Faris
Vocal Group of the Year - Faris Family
Instrumental Group of the Year - Faris Family
Entertainer of the Year - JimBob Faris


2005 SPBGMA Midwest Awards

Bass Fiddle Performer of the Year - JimBob Faris
Guitar Performer of the Year - Rick Faris
Bluegrass Band of the Year (Traditional) - Faris Family
Entertaining Group of the Year - Faris Family

Other 2005 nominations:

Vocal Group of the Year - Faris Family
Instrumental Group of the Year - Faris Family


2004 SPBGMA Midwest Awards

Bass Fiddle Performer of the Year - JimBob Faris
Bluegrass Band of the Year (Traditional) - Faris Family

Other 2004 nominations:

Guitar Performer of the Year - Rick Faris
Vocal Group of the Year - Faris Family



2003 SPBGMA Midwest Awards

Vocal Group of the Year - Faris Family

Other 2003 nominations:

Guitar Performer of the Year - Rick Faris
Bluegrass Band of the Year (Traditional) - Faris Family
Instrumental Group of the Year - Faris Family


2002 SPBGMA Midwest Awards

Nominations:

Bluegrass Band of the Year (Contemporary) - Faris Family




- www.SPBGMA.com

by Larry Freeze - © Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., 2008 www.kec.org

How important is family to a certain bluegrass group from Kansas? Let’s just say “family” is their middle name.

Faris Family Bluegrass is a husband and wife duo, along with their four sons, who are quickly making a name for themselves on the North American bluegrass scene.

Their rising star has taken off from, of all places, tiny Ozawkie in rural Jefferson County. The Farises are members of Leavenworth-Jefferson Electric Cooperative, McLouth.

The family’s story began in the musical setting of Branson, MO. That’s where Bob Faris had worked for a time in the local theaters as a musician and traveled with a bluegrass band. But, in 1991 Bob intended to leave music behind and move his family to northeast Kansas to begin a commercial janitorial business in and around Lawrence. His wife, Michelle, had family who had relocated to Jefferson County.

“After living in the Ozarks,” Bob said, “we fell in love with the Glacial Hills region. It’s really a beautiful part of Kansas. It’s been a good place to raise our sons.”

Those sons are James, Richard, Edward, and John whose ages range from 20 to 24. It was only natural for the boys to fall in love with music.

“For me, the interest in traditional roots music has just always been there,” Bob said. “My maternal grandfather was a fiddler. I began playing fiddle and guitar when I was young. By the mid-’70s I was playing music for a living. For the boys, I suppose the music has always been a constant in their lives as well. Between my personal practice time, jam sessions and various band rehearsals at the house, it’s safe to say the influence was always there. Michelle and I feel blessed they were interested.”

James, 24, says music was one of the foundations of his youth.

“I remember my father’s bluegrass band, the Coffey Brothers, rehearsing in our living room in Branson,” he said, “and other friends of Mom and Dad’s that came over to the house to play music. I thought everyone in the world played music.

“When I was six, we went to a friend’s house, and like every other house I went to, I searched all over to find their instruments but there were none to be found. I turned to my mother and she said, ‘Not everyone in the world plays music.’ That was news to me.”

Needless to say, as the years passed, any plans for a janitorial business for Bob disappeared. The group is in such demand, most of their days are spent traveling and performing. During a recent two year period, the family spent 344 days touring through 31 states in the U.S. and Canada, appearing at 176 events.

Instead of being a grind, though, travel has always appealed to Bob.

“I grew up in Scott County, Iowa, about a mile from I-80 near Davenport,” he recalled. “I remember being six or seven in my bed listening to the distant hum of truck tires against pavement on hot summer nights through my open window and wondering where they were going.

“I love to travel. I love it as much as the music. The family is in our 11th year on the road. Touring as our sons have grown has been especially gratifying. It’s what we do.”

James agreed.

“As far as I’m concerned, if we’re not on the road playing somewhere, I get stir crazy,” he said. “I love being on the road There is nothing greater in this world to me than performing with my family on stage for people all around the country.”

The family has carved it’s niche by carrying on the time-honored tradition of close-knit family harmony and tight instrumental work that began in Appalachia in the late 1920’s.

“We say our music is the fresh sound of tradition,” Bob said. “Our family’s musical style honors this tradition while bringing a freshness to this important legacy for a new generation.”

Honing their abilities in classic bluegrass through the years has not only been a joy to the Farises but it has earned them a host of honors and awards. Last December, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) announced it’s list of nominees for the 34th annual Midwest Bluegrass Music Awards. SPBGMA’s fan-based membership nominated the Faris Family for nine top honors, including Bluegrass Album of the Year, Bluegrass Band of the Year - Traditional, and Entertaining Group of the Year.

James has been awarded SPBGMA Midwest Convention Bass Performer of the Year five years running.

“Each nomination and each award has meant so much to me,” he said. “To have someone enjoy your playing so much that they take the time to write your name on the line and say they think you are the best is an honor. I’m thrilled and humbled that they felt that way and acted on it. Our fans are the best.”

Rick, 23, was honored this year as SPBGMA Midwest Convention Guitar Performer of the Year for a second time.

“It inspires me to expand my knowledge of the instrument and increases my desire to entertain those who have supported our family for all these - Kansas Country Living magazine October '08 issue

by Terry Rombeck 06-24-07

OZAWKIE — The crowd can’t contain their hollering as the band onstage sings about mommas, daddies, trains, mountains, Jesus and young love.

It’s a Friday evening, and the sun has gone down just enough to ease the June day’s heat. Four ceiling fans circulate the air in this old barn, which now serves as the only music venue on Perry Lake.

The barn’s back wall was long ago knocked down to give way to a balcony that’s built into the adjacent hill. The sides of the balcony open to the outdoors to allow for more breeze, but it also allows the occasional mosquito, barn swallow or raccoon to find its way inside.

Aside from the lighting, stage and speakers, this still looks like a barn on both the inside and out. It’s decorated like an old farmhouse, with horseshoes, teddy bears and paintings of owls on the walls.

Bob Faris sees this rustic barn and thinks it just might become a mecca for bluegrass fans.

He and his family band have transformed this site into the Bluegrass Barn Theater, holding concerts here from the spring through fall this year. When the Faris Family isn’t in town, other bands fill the concert slots.

“This,” Faris says, “is an atmosphere that matches the music.”

The Farises — Bob, his wife, Michelle, and their four sons, ages 19 to 23 — have been touring professionally for a decade, averaging 180 road dates a year.

But in leasing the barn at Apple Valley Farms, they’re hoping music fans will come to them. The concerts started in May and run through October. So far, they’ve been averaging 50 people a show, which are at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

It’s a family-friendly venue, with no alcohol allowed and children 15 and under admitted free when accompanying an adult. Adults pay $10.

“It’s an opportunity to see live music where you wouldn’t mind bringing your 6-year-old, 8-year-old or 80-year-old grandmother,” Bob Faris says. “There are very few family venues where you can see live music.”

Reborn barn

The barn hasn’t been used for several years. For decades, it housed melodramas staged by Dale Easton and Ric Averill. Its 140 seats often were filled, and the Homestead Restaurant’s chicken dinners were known throughout the region.

The Homestead Restaurant is gone now, but the Grainery Saloon 100 yards away serves burgers, steaks and shrimp.

Averill, director of the Seem-to-Be Players at the Lawrence Arts Center, thinks the site is ready for another regular entertainment option. He was involved with the melodramas from 1978 to 1997.

“It should work well as a music venue,” he says. “It’s a beautiful little theater.”

Judy Coder is sold on the theater. She and her band, Pride of the Prairie, played the Bluegrass Barn in May.

“I loved it,” says Coder, who lives in Topeka. “My first impression was, ‘Oh, this is going to be great.’”

She thinks the site could be a major draw for people throughout the area.

“There’s a lot of room for variety,” she says. “There’s a chance to have something there for everybody. If the quality is good enough, people who have family from out of town will want to take them there.”

Branson-esque

The comparison, Bob Faris realizes, is inevitable.

A rootsy music venue on the banks of a lake certainly might remind some people of Branson, Mo., which started as an entertainment capital with a single show in 1959 and now has more than 80 live shows drawing around 7 million people to the area annually.

“I think there’s a possibility for that type of thing, although we’re not going to be doing the Branson-type show — we’re doing an acoustic show,” Bob Faris says. “But the idea of family entertainment in a theater in an area that has a draw for tourism, there’s a strong comparison. I’d like to see that happen.”

He lists the things the Bluegrass Barn Theater has going for it:

• There are 1,000 campsites at Perry Lake, with no other entertainment options.

• Topeka and Lawrence are only a half-hour away, with other smaller towns even closer.

• Bluegrass fans traditionally travel a long way for festivals. With gasoline prices increasing, they might look for options closer to home.

“I like it,” says James “Jim Bob” Faris, the oldest son. “It’s a covered place. If it does rain, it doesn’t have everybody running to their cars.”

He thinks the idea could work.

“If it works, we’ll be able to do what we want to do and stay close to home,” he says. “We can bring people to the county. I’m hoping it does (work). There’s a good enough product show-wise that it can catch on.”

Musical dream

“We’re pleased as punch that you’re here, and to try this out this year,” Michelle Faris says to the Friday night crowd.

The band is working its way through its quiver of traditional bluegrass, original and gospel tunes.

At intermission, audience members are asking the band how they can help get the word out about the Bluegrass Barn Theater.

“I love the venue,” says Bill Hamlin, of Eudora. - Lawrence Journal World / Lawrence, KS

The Faris Family offers crowd appeal to fans of all genres and all ages. Many college students - including those who had never heard bluegrass before - came to me after the concert and thanked me for bringing such an entertaining bluegrass group to campus.

Shawn Beattie (concert series director) - from email - Augustana College / Rock Island, IL

By James Beaty
Senior Editor

The Faris Family threw a surprise on the audience at the 30th Sanders Family Bluegrass Festival on Wednesday.

In the midst of bluegrass standards and original songs, they offered something completely different for a bluegrass festival audience — a couple of Western swing tunes.

“Since we’re down here in Oklahoma, we’ll do one called ‘Take Me Back to Tulsa,’” said Bob Faris as the band broke into the classic song by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

Featuring triple fiddles, the rendition by the Faris Family brought an enthusiastic response from the audience — no small accomplishment since bluegrass fans are known for being purists about their music.

In the audience, Orville Chapin, of Garland, Texas, applauded the Western swing songs.

“Bob Wills is all right,” he said.

The Faris Family didn’t stop taking chances though. They also performed “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and “Rank Strangers.

Those are two of the most beloved songs in the bluegrass canon, by the late Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers, respectively. No doubt many of those in the audience had heard Monroe and Ralph Stanley sing those sings live.

The Faris Family captured the essence of both songs, getting more enthusiastic applause from the crowd. They were set to be back on stage today, for afternoon and evening performances.

Continuing through Saturday night and concluding with a Sunday morning devotional, the Sanders Family Bluegrass Festival is once again attracting music fans to the McAlester area.

Tickets are $15 per day, with electrical hook-ups also available.

Following their stage performance, the Faris Family relaxed by the side of the stage. A touring family band from Ozawkie, Kan., the group tours constantly and plays around the United States.

They don’t always throw in some Western swing tunes, though.

“We do it a little more to the Southwest,” said Michelle Faris. “In this part of the country, it’s a little looser.”

Bob Faris, who is married to Michelle and is the patriarch of the band, said the triple fiddle lineup on the Western swing songs is carrying on a family tradition.

“A fiddle was my first instrument. I’ve encouraged my children to learn it. My grandfather was a fiddler,” he said.

He also referred to the Monroe and Stanley Brothers songs the band plays.

“It’s a good measuring stick, to see how we measure up,” he said.

“It’s a challenge.”

Published: June 08, 2006 11:58 am - McAlester News-Capital / McAlester, OK

Wow! The impact of this extraordinary project just takes your breath away. If you enjoy listening to good old fashioned straight ahead Bluegrass music then this CD is for you. It will definitely feed your traditional roots. This CD starts out strong and continues that way until the last note of Dirt Road Blues. I was totally mesmerized while listening to this CD. I just loved the original thought provoking songs. This project needs to be played several times in order to get the full impact from these great lyrics. The singing was soulful and the instrumental work was superb. It was everything it was supposed to be! I played the entire CD and my request line was constantly ringing. I know that I will be playing requests for many weeks to come. Thoroughly entertaining!
- Al Shusterman / KCBL - Sacramento, CA

“Great song with a great performance. Hopefully, this will get the group more recognition which they deserve.”
Bo McCarty - WSIP - Ashland, KY

“Wow, this family is great! Where’d they come from? Straight from the depths of bluegrass goodness - out of the blue! Awesome!”
Gracie Muldoon - WorldWideBluegrass.com

“Very captivating lyrics with a haunting sound that fit’s the song perfectly. Pleasing lead vocal that’s enhanced by some hair-raising dobro.”
Wayne Bledsoe - KUMR - Rolla, MO

“A group possessing great potential. This is a wonderful debut and a really strong song.”
Steve Winters - WSHU/WSUF - Fairfield, CT

“This band is going to go places!”
Orin Friesen - KFDI/KFTI - Wichita, KS

“This could be the Song of the Year in Bluegrass! Please send the entire project!”
Paul Morris - WXKQ/WTCW - Mayking, KY

“Haunting story song in an appropriate minor key. Attention getting!!”
Bill Knowlton - WCNY/WUNY/WJNY - Syracuse, NY

“Another band that I knew about, but had not heard. I like this cut very much. I would like to hear the entire CD. I would like to introduce my Greensboro, NC audience to this Kansas family band.”
Roy Moore - WQFS - Greensboro, NC

“Good response from listeners. Would like more material.”
Verlin Sanders - WMMT/WMVA - Whitesburg, KY

“Fantastic! A really nice tune with a lonesome mountain feel! Nice vocals! Hope to hear a lot more from the Faris Family in the future.”
Joe Steiner - WLFC - Findlay, OH

- Prime Cuts of Bluegrass Airplay Report

by G. W. Clift - Arts Critic

For a couple of years friends of mine have been telling me I would enjoy seeing the Faris Family, a solid bluegrass band. I got my chance Friday evening at the first of three weekend shows the Farises played in Wamego’s Columbian Theatre.

Sometimes Ma sings or chats or plays doghouse bass, and Dad is more often than not on stage, sometimes singing but more frequently playing an arch-top guitar behind the musical proceedings. But the bulk of the singing and soloing is handled by the four Faris brothers ages 19 to 24.

James plays bass, occasionally sings baritone, and takes some turns on the fiddle. Richard, the guitar builder, does more lead singing than any of the others besides playing dobro and flat-top. John Paul is the mandolin player who takes lead vocals usually on gospel songs. And the competent Edward sings and plays banjo and sometimes fiddle.

The three tenors have slightly different voices - Richard is a little more breathy and John Paul has the clearest range. But they are comfortable in the same pitches, and this gives them the ability to sing three part harmony with that tinny Bill Monroe feel. The group sounds a little like the Stanley Brothers, and that’s praise.

They also like single microphone technique, though there were three mics on stage - one for the mandolin and one, ironically, for the banjo, besides the central vocal mic. A certain amount of conscious choreography is necessary for the three singers to all get in to the mic for choruses without someone jamming a machine into a sibling’s ear.

One might wonder if electric sound reinforcement in a hall the size of the Columbian. But the Faris Family doesn’t waste time on checks. In fact, they don’t waste any stage time at all. Theirs was as professional and efficient a performance as I’ve seen in years. They simply went from song to song to song.

When tuning made for a lapse, band members tried to entertain with brief jokes. But we were never asked to wait more than a moment. The musicians demonstrated so much discipline that some of the hamming in the second set came as a surprise. You know that bass player turned out to be something of a character, donning dark glasses to rock and nearly ride his instrument as mandolin and guitar necks rose and swung in practiced unison.

The band’s material was mostly bluegrass. But there was a healthy dollop of country in the repertoire, too, along with folk songs, some gospel, a couple of hoe-downs, and even a little Bob Wills. On Friday the audience was treated to ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’, ‘Milk Cow Blues’, a Dillards song (not ‘There Was A Time’), some Flatt & Scruggs, and so on.

The material included some fairly topical stuff, like the Korean War era ‘Pray For The Boys’ (which was uncomfortably close to sanctimonious), and original numbers, as when Mother sang ‘This Girl Is Trouble’ and Richard sang the story song ‘Black Horse Inn’.

By keeping the program moving and varying their instrumentation, the Faris Family managed to keep from sounding as if they were repeating themselves. This is a problem for some bluegrass musicians when their audience is tired or unsophisticated. The form is very young, and while experimentalists have expanded it’s possibilities, not all experiments have enriched bluegrass. Bela Fleck no, Byron Berline yes.

All of this was running through my head like a Scruggs banjo breakdown as I left the Faris Family show wondering where the Ozawkie sextet would next play in Manhattan. Residents of the Little Apple really ought to hear them.
- The Manhattan Mercury / Manhattan, KS 01-29-08

By Dave Higgs

For the Ozawkie, Kansas based Faris Family, it’s all about making an unforgettable connection with the audience. “My favorite Bill Monroe quote is ‘I made my music to go from my heart to yours so we could both hear it,’” Patriarch Bob Faris becomes deadly serious. “That’s a powerful statement that encapsulates all of entertainment. Monroe was talking about getting the feeling [of the song] across to the listener. Everything we do—the way we stand on stage, sing the lyric and play the string—is to try and impart that experience to the fans.”

“Every lyric sung, every note struck, you think it out and play what you feel,” guitarist Rick relates. “It’s really great having Mom and Dad around because they’ve always put feelings into songs they’ve written and they way they play.”

Indeed, The Faris Family plays with a fire, maturity and a stage presence that only comes from years of playing together. With each member of the group [Rick’s brothers JimBob (bass), Ed (banjo) and John (mandolin); and mother, Michelle, round out the sextet] mastering a variety of instruments, the band can play everything from in-your-face Neanderthal ‘grass to a more relaxed traditional country sound replete with twin and sometimes, triple fiddles. Michelle spices up everything with her entertaining emcee work. “The boys get a little nervous, if I start talking about them,” Michelle smiles, relishing in her ability to make her sons uncomfortable. “They say, ‘now, we have to set some ground rules here, ma. You can’t just be spewing out every goofball thing we did as children.’”

The Faris Family’s roots date back some thirty years when Bob and Michelle serendipitously met on stage at an open mic night. Bob was playing fiddle with a country band, backing up amateurs who wanted to try their luck, one of whom was Michelle. “We always say that I thought she was a bit of a flirt and she thought I was a big headed fiddler,” Bob laughs. “So it was love at first sight, I guess.” Bob’s musical career took him to Las Vegas, Branson and later, as a fiddler for country mega-star Reba McEntire, to Hee Haw and the Grand Ole Opry. In 1991, he retired from the music scene to help Michelle raise their four sons. That retirement didn’t last long.

“Bob always had pickers in the house when the boys were real young,” Michelle explains those formative years. “We always had a lot of extra instruments around the house. Eddie would hear [one of the pickers] play something he thought was really great. He’d grab that instrument and go to his room and soon I could hear him playing the same lick.” A trip to a bluegrass festival sealed the family’s fate. “The boys each chose their own instrument and asked their dad to teach them how to play,” Michelle marvels.

Not surprisingly, the boys were razzed by their high school friends for playing bluegrass with their family. “Except when O Brother Where Art Thou came out,” Michelle reminds them. “When the kids heard that JimBob could sing and Rick could play [“Man of Constant Sorrow”], they were riding pretty high on the hog then.”

“Yeah, they thought we were cool,” Rick grins.

The band descriptively bills itself as “the fresh sound of tradition,” an accurate phrase to describe its captivating sound. “While tradition is a positive for some people, others view it as being somewhat staid and stuffy,” Bob elaborates on the meaning of the phrase. “We find what we do builds on the tradition that springs from families such as the Monroe Brothers and the Carter Family through groups like The Chapmans and Cherryholmes.”

“We’re staying close to the roots and not getting too far away, but giving it a new pop and snap,” Michelle adds.

All the family’s hard work has come to fruition on its just released latest project, Black Horse Inn. Seven of the album’s fourteen tracks were penned by family members including Rick’s hard-driving tale of love gone wrong, “Leaving You to Bear.” “I just wrote down what I was feeling,” Rick states. “It was one of those days where I felt like the world was going to end.”
“You can just feel the hurt, the anger and the despair [in that song],” Michelle praises the intensity Rick’s songwriting. “He’s got a great way of putting feelings into words.”

The band puts some nice moves on “East Virginia Blues,” “Those Memories of You” and the Dillards’ old “Whole World Round” which gets a particularly mournful treatment. “One of the things we’re trying to do is to speak about our heritage in our part of the country,” Bob explains. “The boys came up with that arrangement as a kind of homage to the way my old bluegrass band, The Coffey Brothers, used to play it.”

Above everything else, beyond imaginative arrangements, instrumental pyrotechnics and heart-pounding music, the Faris Family strives to love its audience. “Many years ago, I had the opportunity to work with Minnie Pearl,” Bob relates the milestone moment in his life. “I asked her if there was any - BAND TO WATCH - THE FARIS FAMILY of Ozawkie, KS / Bluegrass Now / May 2008

By: Ray Weikal

Bob and Michelle Faris didn't intend to start a family band; nature and nurture, though, turned out to have other plans. The Faris Family will bring their high-energy brand of bluegrass to southeast Iowa this weekend for the annual Kalona Bluegrass Festival. The festival is July 13-15 at Windmill Ridge Campground.

The 100 percent acoustic outfit is made up of Bob and Michelle and their sons: James, Richard, Edward and John Faris. Though some parents work hard to start a family band, the Faris boys made their own choices to join the group, according to their father. "We do what we do because the boys showed an interest in it early on," Bob Faris told The Kalona News. "You can't make young people do this."

The Faris family has lived in Ozawkie, Kansas, since 1991. Over several years of intense touring, the family has built up a considerable fan base. In 2005, they were on the road for 159 days, traveled more than 38,000 miles of highway and performed at 88 events in 13 states. They've also garnered awards from the Society for the Preservation of Blue Grass Music of America, including Entertaining Group of the Year, Traditional Bluegrass Band of the Year and Vocal Group of the Year.
"It's been a fun ride," said Faris.

The Faris family's musical journey actually started in eastern Iowa. Bob, the grandson of a fiddler, grew up in Davenport and learned to love traditional music. Michelle Faris was raised in nearby Downy, Iowa. They always anticipate their visits to this part of the state as a homecoming.
"We are looking forward to it," Bob Faris said.

Bob's career has included gigs with local and regional bands in the Midwest, including the Dale Thomas Band. He's also had stints playing in Las Vegas and Branson, and a spell in Nashville, where he played fiddle on the TV show HeeHaw and at the Grand Ole Opry for country music star Reba McEntire.

In the early 1990s, he retired to help raise the couple's four sons. "As the boys grew, their interest in traditional music grew as well," the family's web site explains. The oldest son is James, 23. Nicknamed "JimBob," he plays upright bass and fiddle and sings bass and lead. His favorite musicians are Flatt & Scruggs and Bobby Hicks, and he lists classic rock as an influence. He also has an interest in history and politics and recently ran for state office in Kansas. "As a toddler, he would spend hours at his father's knee as Bob practiced his fiddle," the web site reads. "Playing his plastic toy fiddle, JimBob soaked up traditional music from his father and his friends." Richard Faris, 22, plays guitar and is a tenor vocalist. He sites Dan Tyminski and Django Reinhardt as favorite musicians and is an accomplished luthier. "Rickey's choice of instrument was apparent to all very early," the web site reads. "As a toddler, he could be seen toting an old guitar around like most kids tote a teddy bear." Banjo and fiddle player Edward, 20, sings baritone and enjoys listening to Tim Crouch and John Mayer. He also works as a recording engineer and studio musician in the Topeka area. "Bill Monroe always felt the music he created was a musical college of sorts," the web site reads. "Ed has certainly worked his way through 'Bluegrass College' and now enjoys writing and recording diverse material that showcases his gifted abilities." Finally, 19-year-old John plays mandolin and sings tenor and high baritone for the family band. He enjoys listening to Alison Krauss and swing era jazz and has a keen interest in filmmaking.

All together, the Faris Family band promises a great experience for those who come to see their show, according to Bob Faris. "It's high-energy bluegrass," he said. "It will be good Gospel and plenty of good flat picking."

The Kalona Bluegrass Festival will start at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Performers will include Castle Ridge, Highway Home, The McPunk Brothers and Cagley, Black and Schaefer. Festival-goers can also catch music from 12:30-10 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m.-noon on Sunday. The Faris Family will have their first performance of the weekend at 10 p.m. Friday night. They will also perform at 3:15 and 9:15 p.m. on Saturday.

- The Kalona News / Kalona, IA 07-12-07