Album Notes

Missouri Mountain Gang is firmly rooted in the rolling hills and mountains of southwest Missouri and plays traditional bluegrass/gospel music including many of the classic standards ranging from Bill Monroe to Jimmy Martin.

But they also do contemporary bluegrass songs drawing from tunes by Patty Loveless, Rhonda Vincent and Lynn Morris. In addition, the group also has several original songs written by two of the members. Each show and CD is unique in the variety of tunes that the band plays.

The core band consists of Marty Baty, vocals & guitar, Mary Mayfield, vocals and bass, Banjo Jack Bowden, vocals & banjo, and Larry Mayfield, vocals, mandolin & fiddle, but they often have other players join them at gigs. This has lead to many long lasting friendships and is evident by the various individuals playing on their first CD and live release, "One Show Only."

Various members from other bands appearing on "One Show Only" are Bob Gideon of Liberty Bluegrass, Quay Kendrick of Creek's Arisin' (cofounded by Larry & Mary Mayfield of Missouri Mountain Gang), John Trew and Rachel Mayanovic from Buffalo Thunder, and Mike Cantrell and Allen Cantrell from Southbound. All are long time friends and will be appearing at upcoming Missouri Mountain Gang gigs.

The CD gets it's name from an actual newspaper article from 1972, where the band "Missouri Mountain Boys" was being advertised for a show in Cassville, MO. Marty Baty's dad, Dean Baty has a long tradition of playing bluegrass all the way back to the 1960's in the Springfield, MO area, and it was his band that was being advertised in the paper (which is the cover of the CD).

In order to honor and respect this long time tradition of bluegrass, and to symbolically link themselves to the past where tradition abounds, the group decided that "Missouri Mountain Gang" would be the appropriate name for the band.

"One Show Only" is a sumwhat ironic and humorous statement coming from a small town newspaper back in a time when there wasn't as many opportunities for hearing good bluegrass, so you didn't want to miss it. With the variety of songs to pick from, in addition to playing with several different musicians, the Missouri Mountain Gang meaning of "One Show Only" is that each show is unique and different because of the variety, plus they simply thought that name was unique and funny.

"One Show Only" was recorded digitally and contains live recordings of the group from 2006 and even draws from some early 2006 recordings shortly after the band first formed. Some would argue that those earlier recordings could be the best tracks because you can feel the excitement of first time get-togethers with the new combination of musicians!

Listen & Enjoy. One Show Only.