the Railroaders

What do you get when you put together four of the premier singers and players from the last 30 years of Bluegrass history, a Super Group!! Darren Beachley, Greg Luck, Shayne Bartley, and David Carroll bring together over 100 years of cumulative experience in some of the biggest bands in Bluegrass such as Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, J.D. Crowe and the New South, The Lost and Found, IIRD Tyme Out, and The Darrell Webb Band. Darren Beachley, bass/vocals: Darren Beachley’s voice may be one of the most recognized in acoustic/bluegrass/roots music today. He’s been touring and playing professionally for over 30 years. His emotive vocals are only surpassed by the passion that he sings each line with in a voice that truly comes straight from his heart. His musical journey started as a mere child at the foot of many of Washington DC’s greats. Darren watched and took mental notes and asked questions of his heroes. By age 11 Darren was performing with his father in the Washington DC area’s club scene and learning quickly about being a professional, learning all the rights and wrongs. His first fulltime musical break came when the legendary Bill Harrell asked Darren to become a member of his band The Virginians as the dobro player. Bill was quoted as to say, “I need a Dobro player, And Darren is the best”. The next step in Darren’s musical life would take him many places in many different musical styles of acoustic music, “I always tried to take something with me from each musical situation that I worked in”. A 4-year stint as the lead singer and guitar player with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver would prove to put the polish to Darren as a singer, entertainer and human being. As a part of DL&Q he traveled all over the world performing at venues like the Hollywood Bowl, The Grand Ole Opry, and Ryman Auditorium. The band would win 2 of 7 consecutive IBMA Vocal groups of the year in 2006 and 2007. In 2009 Darren branched out on his own forming Darren Beachley & Legends of the Potomac with former Seldom Scene members Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray. The bands first release “Take Off” proved to be highly successful. Becoming number 1 on the Roots Music charts, and number 11 on The Billboard charts. It also finished 2011 as one of the top 15 CD's of the year according to the RMR charts. Darren served as producer and made many of the song choices for that project. His lists of accomplishments are many including 5 IBMA awards 11 Washington Area Music Award nominations and 2 Dove nominations. Greg Luck, guitar/vocals: Greg has quite an impressive bluegrass resume as a multi-talented musician, singer, songwriter, and studio engineer. He started playing guitar at the age of 7, and from a young age naturally developed an honest love for bluegrass and acoustic music. Greg was influenced by the true masters of bluegrass music – Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers, The Osborne brothers, & Reno and Smiley, to name a few. Greg spent countless hours learning and playing various instruments and styles. Greg started his own musical journey and has played with many great groups such as JD Crowe and The New South, IIIrd Tyme Out, The Bluegrass Cardinals, The Lynn Morris Band, The Lost & Found, The Bass Mountain Boys, Redwing, The Circuit Riders and Constant Change. Greg is also long time studio engineer and owner of Riverside Audio in Mt. Gilead, NC. He has recorded many great bluegrass artists such as IIIrd Tyme Out, The Country Gentlemen, Lou Reid & Carolina, The Chapmans, Constant Change, and many others. Greg has also written songs that have been recorded by the likes of Lee Ann Womack, Dan Seals, Mountain Heart, and many more. Greg is known for his soul stirring vocals and impeccable versatility on many different instruments. Shayne Bartley, mandolin/vocals: has been one of the most in demand musicians in the last 25 years, having worked with some of the top acts in Bluegrass Music. Shayne started learning to play at the feet of his older brother Rick and his dad Roger. At the age of 16, Shayne took the stage as a part of his brothers band Newground, playing guitar. In 1984 at the Festival of the Bluegrass in Lexington, KY, Shayne met Don Rigsby and formed a lifelong friendship and musical kinship. Shayne joined Don and Johnnie Lewis in a band called The True Grass Band. All three have gone on to make their mark in the Bluegrass world. In 1986, he took his first full-time road gig, playing mandolin with Dave Evans. After two years with Dave, Shayne moved on to play mandolin for The Charlie Sizemore band for a year when The Lost and Found came calling on Shayne to replace Ronnie Bowman as guitar player and lead vocalist. After two years of living in Virginia, Shayne was ready to move back to Kentucky. He then resumed his position as mandolin player with The Charlie Sizemore Band until the fall of 1993, when he joined Rickey Wasson and Wayne Fields in the highly acclaimed band Southern Blend. Shayne stayed with Southern Blend until the band stopped touring. He then went to work with Unlimited Tradition, a band of young veteran musicians and singers including Ray Craft, banjo great Jack Hicks, and Scottie Sparks. UT won the SPBGMA International Band Championship in Nashville in 1996, and signed a recording contract with Tim Austin’s Doobie Shea Records. Their Doobie Shea release “She’s Gone” got rave reviews and the band was heralded as the hottest thing to come along since the Johnson Mountain Boys. Since UT disbanded in 2000, Shayne has worked with Rarely Herd, David Peterson and 1946, Karl Shiflett, filled in with both JD Crowe’s New South and Wildfire, and was part of Country Music super stars Brooks and Dunn’s 2003 Neon Circus tour. Shayne was also a featured artist on the 2006 IBMA Album of the year, “Celebration of Life Musicians Against Childhood Cancer”. David Carroll, banjo/vocals: David is well-known as a crackerjack on the five in his native southwestern Virginia, where he played for several years with The Deer Creek Boys. David toured briefly with Gold Heart but had resisted a number of opportunities to go full time in music. Most every region of the country has a few pickers like this of world class skill who primarily plays for fun. Bluegrass fans across the globe will soon find another when they learn what a fine banjo man David Carroll is, in the vein of his biggest influences J.D. Crowe, Earl Scruggs, and Sammy Shelor. The Railroaders an exciting band of veteran Bluegrass musicians, Darren Beachley, Greg Luck, Shayne Bartley, and David Carroll.