- Barney Rogers -


is a traditional banjo player and song writer from North
Carolina. He was raised in the little community of Westover west of
Raleigh beside the State Fairgrounds.

One of the earliest memories
Barney has is of the late 50’s during the week of the North Carolina
State Fair. His aunt Pauline fixed hair in those days and Ms. English,
the woman in charge of the fair’s folk festival would come to get her
hair done. She would bring Bascam Lamar Lunsford known as the “Minstrel
of the Appalachians” with her and he would play the banjo and sing in
the parlor. This experience combined with the popularity of the Flatt &
Scruggs TV shows of the day ensured that the banjo would be part of
Barney’s life. His dad got him a banjo when he was 13 and he began
teaching himself to play.

After graduating high school and attending
college for a couple of years, Barney started work for the Wooten
Company in Raleigh in 1975. There he met some folks and joined his first
band. Barney started attending many of the area Blue Grass festivals in
those days and became acquainted with many of the performers like Benny
Martin and Josh Graves. In 1980, Barney began his career with the City
of Raleigh and has been there ever since. For the last 18 years, Barney
has been teaching students the basics of playing the 5 string banjo. He
started teaching at Hoffman’s Stringed Instruments in Raleigh. It was at
Hoffman’s that Barney got to know Russ. Barney has played in many local
Blue Grass bands over the years including the Fat Men & Robin Band, in
which Russ played the guitar. Barney has performed numerous times at the
Governor’s Mansion and once gave a “banjo lesson” to the one and only
Jim Graham, the North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture. Governor
Hunt wrote that Barney’s music “…perfectly captured the feelings of
September afternoons in North Carolina.” Barney has two CD projects to
his credit, “Opening Act” and “Pig Pickin’ Picks”, both which have sold
well. He has had the opportunity to record and perform with some of Blue
Grass music’s finest musicians including Rob Ickes, Wayne Benson, Jason
Moore, Bobby Hicks and Roland White.

Barney’s parents came to Raleigh from Cherokee County in western North
Carolina. As a child many trips were made to the mountains to visit his
Grandmother Rogers and Grandmother Dockery. Both grandmothers told the
old stories of their grandfathers’ and their times in the Civil War. As
Barney grew older he spent much of his spare time researching family
history and the Civil War service records of his ancestors. He has
discovered three great great grandfathers fought for the south and three
for the north, and they all came from Cherokee County, North Carolina
and the adjoining Fannin County, Georgia. Barney has visited most of the
major battlefields of the Civil War, and enjoys reading and studying
about the war’s great personalities such as Nathan Bedford Forrest and
John Buford. Barney has had the pleasure of meeting noted Civil War
historian and author Shelby Foote and enjoys attending the Raleigh Civil
War Roundtable.

Barney is a Raleigh native and an almost life long resident of Wake
County. He retired from the City of Raleigh after finishing up a 28 year career in the Public Utilities Department as the Utility Development Manager. Barney makes his home in Cary. His two teenage sons Reid and
Neil play the guitar and bass.

- Russell Johnson -


It was the fall of 1973 and a 10 year old boy stood outside his home
mesmerized by the sound of the banjo and guitar. His older brother and
his brother’s college roommate were sitting on the family‘s picnic table
playing and singing bluegrass songs. “It may have been the first live
music I was ever exposed to.” said Russell Johnson of Four Oaks, N.C.
That Christmas Russell had a guitar under the tree and after his brother
taught him the basic chords, he began his musical journey.

At about the same time Russell developed an interest in the American
Civil War. Both of his older brothers were in grade school during the
War’s Centennial and completed booklets about the war as classroom
projects. The pamphlets had stories about the Merrimac and the Moniter,
Pickett’s Charge and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and provided his
first exposure to Grant, Lee, “Stonewall” and Sherman, names he would
read about countless times in the future.

Almost 9 years later as a freshman at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill he got his first mandolin and started playing in local
jam sessions. His first “official” show was in August of 1989 and he
knew immediately that playing and singing would play a part in his life.
Since then Russell has worn a lot of different hats in his twenty years
in the music business. Singer, songwriter, producer, mandolinist,
recording and sound engineer, band leader, record label and studio owner
are just a few. Early on he knew he would need to be involved in every
aspect of making music besides just singing someone else’s songs and so
he immersed himself in every facet of the industry. Now his songs have
reached the top of the charts with ten of his original compositions
landing on the Bluegrass Unlimited National Bluegrass Survey. (Including
the #1 hit "Bluegrass Man" in April and May of 2003 and Pill or Potion
which reached #2 in October of 2007) The Society for the Preservation of
Bluegrass Music in America nominated him for Songwriter of the year in
2004 and as a producer he has 4 Top 10 CD’s to his credit. As the emcee
and front man of the 90’s group, New Vintage and his current band, The
Grass Cats he has performed throughout much of the United States and
Canada. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine said that his voice “has got that
‘lonesome’ quality that makes even a just written tune sound a hundred
years old.” and placed him in "the first ranks of contemporary bluegrass."

In 2002, after his father’s death Russell moved back to his childhood
home in Four Oaks. During renovations of the house he found a box of
newspaper clippings in the attic written by a local historian. Many of
the articles were about his ancestors and this kindled his interest in
identifying if any were Civil War veterans. During this same time
Russell was playing music with Barney in a side band and discovered that
Barney had an interest in the War too. As it turned out, Barney and
Russell’s ancestors of the 25th and 24th North Carolina regiments were
brigaded together for much of the war and fought in the battles of
Malvern Hill, Sharpsburg, Fredricksburg and around Petersburg and Five
Forks at the war’s close.

Russell and his wife Kandis live on the family farm where he grew up. He
enjoys cooking, reading about the Civil War and playing music.

- "When The Bands Played" -


Barney, Russell, Steven Martin and Lloyd Herring recorded the basic
rhythm tracks at The Rubber Room studio in Chapel Hill September and
October 2006. Overdubs were recorded at The Comfort Zone studio in late
2006 and early 2007. The CD was mixed at The Rubber Room on two
different occasions in Oct 07 and April 08. Joining this core group were
fiddler Jason Baire of The Larry Stephenson Band and 2005 Galax National
Fiddle Champion Stephen Fraleigh. Rick Keen of The Michelle Nixon Band
added respohonic guitar on six cuts and lead and harmony vocals were
added by Scott McBride of Carolina Junction and Cassie Garner.

- Singers -
Russell Johnson - lead vocal on 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13
Scott Mcbride - lead vocal on 3 and 7
Barney Rogers lead vocal on 5
Shaun Jenkins - tenor on 9
Lloyd Herring - baritone on 2
Cassie Garner- tenor on 6, 8, 10, 13

- Musicians -
Steven Martin- guitar
Barney Rogers- banjo, finger picking guitar on 9
Lloyd Herring- bass on all cuts except 13
Russell Johnson- mandolin
Cassie Garner - bass on 13
Rick Keen- resophonic guitar on 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12
Stephen Fraleigh - fiddle on 1, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13
Jason Baire - fiddle on 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10