10/7/2008
Bluegrass at its best comes to Hawks Nest State Park with the Lilly Mountaineers on November 1 in a dinner theater format. This special event is the first of many dinner theaters scheduled at Hawks Nest now through May 2009.
Everett Lilly became a mandolin player and tenor with Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys until leaving to join his brother and other band members in Boston. That began his musical journey that returned him home to West Virginia in 1970.
“The Lilly family music is known throughout bluegrass circuit. We are pleased to kick-off our winter season of performances with a recent inductee in the WV Music Hall of Fame,” said Willa Grafton, programmer at Hawks Nest State Park. Musicians for this dinner performance include: Everett Lilly, mandolin and fiddle; Daniel Lilly, bass guitar; Everett A. Lilly, guitar; Mark Lilly, fiddle; and West Virginia banjo champion Rad Lewis.
Hawks Nest is located in Ansted in Fayette County. A year-round destination, the park features a lodge, restaurant, picnic shelters, nature center, special events and a nine-hole mountain golf course. The picturesque view from the lodge aerial tram or the older park area developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s has welcomed visitors and photographers to one of West Virginia’s most outstanding view sheds.
For more information about Hawks Nest State Park, overnight opportunities and special programs and upcoming dinner theaters, you may call (304) 658-5212 or go online to: www.hawksnestsp.com
About The Lilly Brothers and Everett Lilly
Everett Lilly and the Lilly Mountaineers are masters of bluegrass music. Everett, the patriarch of the Lilly Brothers, still leads the band that he and brother Bea organized during the Great Depression, beginning as a brother duet on a radio station in Beckley. Bea died in 2005. Everett Lilly, now 84, continues to entertain audiences with his sons and the Lilly Mountaineers.
The Lilly Brothers were inducted into the Massachusetts Country Music Hall of Fame in 1986, the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor in 2002, and the W.Va. Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History Web site includes this additional information about the Lilly Mountaineers:
Everett Lilly and his brother Bea were pioneers in bluegrass music. They began playing as The Lilly Brothers in the late 1930s, bringing professionally performed southern Appalachian music to the upper northeastern region of the United States.
In 1950, Everett joined Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, playing mandolin and singing tenor. He stayed with them until 1952 and recorded many classic songs with them, including “Get in Line Brother.”
He then got back together with his brother and relocated to Boston, Mass., where they helped introduce bluegrass music to New England. The group along with banjo player Don Stover began a 16-year gig as the house band at the Hillbilly Ranch and performed daily radio shows on WCOP.
Everett returned to West Virginia in 1970, but still performed with his brother at bluegrass festivals and toured overseas. In 2002, The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover became the twentieth inductees into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor, the highest tribute that the bluegrass community can bestow.
Today, the band members are: Everett Lilly, and his son Everett A. and Mark Lilly, state banjo champion Rad Lewis, and fiddle champion Chance McCoy, along with drummer Steve Sparks. Last year the band produced a CD titled “Everett Lilly and Everybody and Their Brother,” and is working on another album to be titled “Tearin’ Up the Grass.”
Contact Information
Willa Grafton
304-658-5212
willagrafton@wvdnr.gov