During my hiatus this winter in Florida, my wife Margaret and I traveled through a good share of southwest and west-central Florida to attend different festivals. It seems that Florida, like the Carolinas and Tennessee, is a hotbed of bluegrass music and musicians. It was a lot of fun and a rewarding experience to listen to these different groups or bands, if you will. One thing that particularly interested me was how much cooperation there is among some of these bands.

There was one man I met, Jimmie White, who plays in several bands—at least three that I am aware of, if not four. Band number one is Bits of Grass. He plays guitar along with his wife Tammy on bass, his brother-in-law Clint Dockery on mandolin, Donnie Harvey on banjo, and Jason Baker on fiddle. He also plays in a band called Highway 41 South, where he plays bass, as well as in the band Sawgrass. He has also put together a band called Rekindled Grass, so as you can tell, Jimmie loves bluegrass music. The level of cooperation among these musicians is amazing.

Margaret and I were watching a band called Swinging Bridge at a festival in Pioneer Park in Zolfo Springs. They were a terrific band with great vocals. Their lead singer, Chris Bryson, has a really great voice, and mandolin player JR Davis sings harmony, which made for a particularly great sound. At the end of the set, I went to the green room to talk to bass player and front man Alan Colpitts. Walking behind the stage, JR Davis of Swinging Bridge walked past me, headed back to the stage—he was also in the Highway 41 South band. Who knew? The mandolin player was now a guitar player, Donnie Harvey was the banjo player, Mark Horn was the new mandolin player, and there was a second guitar player, David Beaumont. Another round of amazing vocals made it just a wonderful day spent with these bands.

The RV park where we were staying has a bluegrass stage and caters to the bluegrass crowd. They host the Heartland Bluegrass Association of Florida, which puts on a bluegrass weekend every month. The February weekend was a lot of fun. The first band was Jimmie White and the Rekindled Bluegrass Band, then the jam band from Heartland's own jammers, and then a real treat to listen to: a semi-family band called Scattered Grass, featuring twin sisters Moe, the bass player, and her twin sister Spider Elisa on guitar, a cousin on banjo, and a mandolin player—just four pieces, but a unique sound. The cooperation among musicians came into play here again. We were at the aforementioned festival in Zolfo Springs and, lo and behold, a group called Cunning-Ham was performing, and there were Moe Queen and sister Spider as part of that band too. I had seen them in Scattered Grass a weekend earlier at Craig's RV Resort and Campground, which caters to bluegrass people and has a nice stage and a covered area for the audience.

As I say, all these folks seem to know each other and get along well. There does not seem to be a lot of ego involved here—just a love of bluegrass music and playing it. They all play well together and fill in where they are needed or wanted. I hope to feature some interviews with some of these folks and play some of their music too. Hopefully, you will catch the shows on the airwaves or maybe on the internet at KBEK.COM, at 11:00 AM on Saturdays, Central Time, an hour later in the Eastern Time Zone, or adjusted to whatever time zone you are in.

We also spent some time on the bluegrass cruises with Danny Stewart. These cruises are very affordable, with an initial price point of around $500.00 per person for a five-day, four-night cruise to either Cozumel or Nassau. Next year, he has added a third cruise to Mexico from Long Beach, California, to Baja California, also around that $500.00 per person price point. Danny always has a great lineup of bluegrass people, both national and regional. We have spent time with and interviewed Marty Raybon, the Gibson Bros, the Spinney Bros, David Parmley, Larry Stephenson, Little Roy Lewis and Lizzy Long, Nothin' Fancy, and of course our own Monroe Crossing. There are more, but these are just a few.

In fact, we brought our whole family on the Nassau cruise this year. Marty Raybon so graciously helped my future son-in-law to “pop the question” to my youngest daughter during his opening set at the beginning of the cruise. He ended the surprise with a wonderful love song dedicated to them while they were on stage with him—a complete surprise. She had no clue it was coming. Marty has become such a wonderful friend over the last five years, as have a lot of the bands we have interviewed and come to know over the years we have been doing the show. It feels more like a bluegrass family, including Pastor Mike and Mary Rose Robinson, who travel the bluegrass circuit.

We hit a few of the bigger and growing festivals in Florida as well. Ernie Evans is building one in Brooksville, Florida. We saw and talked to Marty Raybon, as well as Gary Waldrup and Remington Ryde, at Brooksville. Some of the other Florida bands were there too, but we could only make it for one day. We also made a trip to Sertoma to see Blue Highway and Balsam Range. It has just been a great winter this year in Florida. It has been easier for my wife Margaret, who is recovering from ovarian cancer surgery and the stress of chemotherapy. Without her support, none of this would be possible. She is my life partner, and I love her to pieces.

Please check out the bands I have mentioned in this article. We will try to list their web pages, and most have Facebook pages. In any case, Google works well. We will post pictures and what we can on our website, INSIDEBLUEGRASSRADIO.COM. There is great music for you to listen to. Please purchase CDs if you like what you hear. That is what supports the artists and allows them to continue making the bluegrass music we all love.

Tom Schuveiller, Inside Bluegrass

Well, a lot has transpired since the last installment of On the Road. Several years have gone by since then—maybe more than I care to realize. My wife Margaret lost her battle with ovarian cancer in August 2018, and almost a year later Denny's wife Jan lost her battle with a rare form of leukemia in 2019. They both fought their diseases as hard as they could but lost the battle in the end.

Denny and I have kept going, and at times it has almost seemed like therapy for us to continue the show. With encouragement from musicians, listeners, and friends, we continued with our radio show. It has been personally rewarding for both of us because of our deep love of the music, the musicians, those who listen to our show, and those who attend the festivals.

We have developed personal relationships with both promoters and performers alike, as well as with a number of listeners and festivalgoers. While Denny prefers to stay in the cold country of Minnesota during the winter months, I cannot handle the winters anymore. So I have made my home in Florida and return to Minnesota for a few months during the summer for the festivals at Richmond, Minnesota, and Pine River, Minnesota, both in August each year. I really look forward to these festivals every year.

I have made friends with some of the best promoters in the business: Jay Goldberg and Jack Mannis of Gold Entertainment; Danny and Christa Stewart of Danny Stewart Productions; Ernie and Debi Evans of Evans Media Source; and Lorraine Jordan of Jordan Productions in North Carolina and Tennessee, along with countless performers, both national and local, too numerous to mention. Bluegrass and classic country people are the best in the music business. They are good to work with, and they are the best to their fans.

Denny and I have been at this radio gig since 2013, and I believe we both would not change a thing. Neither of us has made a penny in the 12-plus years we have been doing this. We do not even make expenses because it is a labor of love. The best we have ever done is break even at a couple of events we did back in 2016 and 2017. It is now 2026, and what a ride it has been. We hope we can get in another 10 or 12 years on our radio show.

We hope to see you at a festival in the future. Just look for Denny and me in our bright blue shirts, or on the radio. God bless you all—we certainly have been.

Tom Schuveiller, Inside Bluegrass