Fret Not plays boot-stomping old-time roots gospel. Lead by Lori Arthur's fiery singing, with songs from the traditions of America's black and white rural churches, it's as if the Whitstein Brothers and Sister Rosetta Tharpe held a barn dance together. In fact, Lori's grandparents did just that on their New Mexico ranch during the Great Depression, with her grandmother, Eugenia, on rhythm guitar just like Lori is now, and her great-uncle, grandfather, and great grandfather on the banjo and two fiddles. Most everyone else in Fret Not also leads or at least plays lead in church worship bands, or fronts their own gospel bands of two-timing pickers, or teaches true and right music to kids. It's in their blood and their calling. Fret Not brings the old-time roots gospel to the dispirited and disheartened of modern life, with most appearances in prisons, recovery missions, funerals, and at benefits. It seems there is something in the old songs, borne out of the suffering of slavery and company towns, failing farms and untimely death, that prepares the heart to hear in the Word the only Uplifting Gospel there is.
Fret Not plays at no charge, travels on its own dime, but does ask permission to sell CDs, with all monetary proceeds to be returned to charity. Key recent gigs have included the Monterey Gospel Festival, the Las Vegas MegaGospel Concert, Bidwell Presbyterian, Regeneration in Oakland, Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, the Blue Star Moms Memorial Day Concert, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, and the BayMarin Christmas Benefit Concert.
Lori Arthur - lead vocal, guitar
Spiro Tsingaris - vocal, fiddle
Max Butler - vocal, lead guitar, fiddle
Rachel Butler - vocal, high string guitar
Greg Arthur - vocal, mandolin
Rich Ferguson - vocal, banjo, dobro
Brian Smith - banjo
Reed Sutton - bass
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