Album Notes

Rambler History
The Band was originally formed back in the 1940'S. They quickly became one of the most popular bands in the Midwest. The band became popular doing radio shows at the old WDZ with such bands as The Bray Brothers, Red Cravens, and many of the other groups, I considered it quite an honor when Glen (Pappy) Taylor, passed on the Downstate Ramblers name to our group. From that day on we were known as The Downstate Ramblers. Since that time, The Downstate Ramblers have performed with some of the biggest names in the business. Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys , Vassar Clements, The Osborn Bros. Mac Wiseman, just to name a few. In 1977, Bill Monroe invited us to play the Bean Blossom Festival. We were like kids in a candy store. Mr. Monroe advised us that we should get an album recorded, and suggested a friend of his in Nashville Indiana. We contacted Don Sheets at Little Nashville Recording Studio, and cut our first album at that studio. The Bluegrass Remembrance album was released in 1978. Soon after the release of that album, things really started picking up. We were playing at Eastern Illinois University, and a young girl came back stage and wanted to come up and play a few fiddle tunes with Gerald Jones. At that time we had no idea that this cute little fiddle player would go on to be one of the greats. It was Allison Krauss. We remained friends over the years as we watched her career blossom into stardom. We were invited to showcase at SPBGMA's Bluegrass America in Columbia Missouri, in the fall of 1979. We then started working a lot of Chuck and Diane Stearman's SPBGMA shows. At that time SPBGMA was the only bluegrass association hosting award shows. The Downstate Ramblers were honored to be at the very first SPBGMA National Awards show ,coming away with Entertainer of the Year award, Fiddle Player of the Year, and Instrumental Group of the Year, in 1984.