The rain-soaked Jamboree crowd forgot the clouds when the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band burned up the stage after taking the Blue Blaze Award at the festival Saturday evening.
The band, founded by the late “Lonesome” Lester Armistead, whose powerful tenor singing recalled the late great Bashful Brother Oswald, who taught Lester to sing performed a set that had the stage smoking.
The band now consists of Armistead’s son Mike “Li’l Mikey” Armistead (dobro and vocals), Leroy “The Tennessee Slicker” Troy (Banjo, washboard, and vocals), “Handsome” Dan Kelly (fiddle), Mike “Spider Man” Webb (dobro and guitar), and Ernie “Sir Cecil” Sykes, and Kent “Superman” Blanton (bass fiddle).
“The Sultan of Goodlettsville,” Leroy Troy has performed his old-time banjo act at the Knoxville World’s Fair, on Hee Haw, and at concerts and festivals all over the world. His banjo style is the clawhammer or frailing style, distinct from more commonly found Scruggs style banjo playing in modern bluegrass. Troy often uses a washboard with various sound making devices affixed to it. Troy debuted on the Grand Ole Opry in 1988 and was the National Old-Time Banjo Champion in 1996.
Mike Armistead shares sings high tenor and harmony, and also serves as the group’s booking agent and manager. He operates his own record label in Goodlettsville, and was a graduate of the very first International Bluegrass Music Association Leadership School. He also serves with the Nashville Fire Department.
Dan Kelly won the Grand Masters Fiddle championship in Nashville in 1983, and was soon hired by Roy Acuff to replace his mentor, Howdy Forrester, in the Smoky Mountain Boys. Since Acuff’s death in 1992, Dan has played with several country music stars, including Alan Jackson, Pam Tillis, Steve Wariner, James Bonamy, Faith Hill, Jessica Simpson and SheDaisy.
Mike Webb also learned to play under the tutelage of Bashful Brother Oswald, and spent several years playing dobro for Wilma Lee Cooper on the Grand Ole Opry.
Long Island, New York, native Ernie Sykes has played with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno and the Bluegrass Cardinals.
Kent Blanton has worked on the Grand Ol Opry and the Marty Stuart Show. He has backed up and recorded such artists as Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless and Earl Scruggs.
The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band has recorded five albums, have had a music video featured on CMT and GAC, and can be heard on the soundtrack of the Faye Dunaway movie, Yellowbird.
The Blue Blaze Award is given annually to a musician or band who is actively cultivating a love of bluegrass music. Previous winners are Darrin Vincent of Dailey and Vincent, Sierra Hull, and Danny Roberts of the Grascals.
