Willow Branch Bluegrass Band

Location: R.A. Fountain

The award-winning Willow Branch Bluegrass Band plays original and traditional bluegrass and bluegrass gospel.

Willow Branch has won 33 performance awards from the Virginia Music Association, including twice being named Best Bluegrass Band in the state. They have performed at the Grand Ole Opry’s Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and on the prime-time CBS TV show “Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt,” as well as at the Governor’s mansion in Richmond and at the Statler Brothers “Happy Birthday USA” 4th of July Celebration in Staunton, Va. They are also popular performers at bluegrass festivals throughout the South and eastern seaboard.

This is a terrific band – – they played here last April and really impressed our crowd, and everyone swore they’d bring their friends with them next time Willow Branch came to town, and most of them were good on their word.<p>

The band was co-founded in 1983 in Scottsville, Virginia, by the husband and wife duo of Gayle and Robert Noble. She plays bass and has twice been named Female Vocalist of the Year in Virginia. 

Before relocating to Virginia, Robert Noble played banjo with two Florida-based bluegrass bands: the Sounds of Bluegrass out of Jacksonville and Valley Grass out of Palm Valley. He also sings lead and harmony vocals.

Doug McDonald, formerly with the McDonald Brothers and Steel Creek, plays mandolin and writes most of the band’s original songs. He and guitarist Larry Nunnery, who also plays with the Boys from Carolina, share lead and harmony vocals. 

Ted Lawhorn plays fiddle and Dobro and sings.

This the whole blugrass package: excellent pickers and singers who handle the harmonies beautifully. They also mix terrific original songs that sound classic into a full evening’s entertainment. 

Tags: bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, Concert