The Blue Ridge Rounders

The Blue Ridge Rounders, of the Dark Corner of South Carolina, have traversed the region, winning band and individual music contests throughout the Carolinas. They are the 2006 and 2007 Mountain Music Champions and winners at the 2006 North Carolina State Fair Old Time band contest. Bob and Amy Buckingham, Joshua Johnson, and Dan Wood have won individual contests on fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, bass, and vocals.

The band plays throughout the region ranging from Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia. They have played as far north as Pennsylvania and much to their local fans' consternation, rarely appear in their native Upstate of South Carolina.

They are featured at festivals and concerts through the summer months and also teach at workshops and week long music camps like Blue Ridge Music Week at Mars Hill College.

Formed in 2002, the band released their first CD in June of 2006, The Rounder Way, Dog Trot 101, and are actively preparing for a follow-up release. Bob and Amy have appeared on several other projects with leading fiddlers and players of old time music.

The vocal prowess and instrumental skill of the Rounders transcends the commonly held notion of droning fiddles and trance inducing tunes. The Rounders entertain with a variety show befitting the stringband tradition with songs, tunes, and revelry. They are not afraid to take chances and any good song is worthy of the Rounder Way.

Here is what Bob Dalsemer, Coordinator, Music and Dance Programs of the John C. Campbell Folk School had to say about our concert at the Stecoah Valley Center.

"I enjoyed meeting the Rounders last Saturday at Stecoah and hearing your very enjoyable concert. You guys are not only all exceptional instrumentalists, but four really fine singers to boot. You present a wider range of old time music than most bands these days - everything from unaccompanied ballads and gospel to blues to early bluegrass. Dan is an exceptional MC and all of you have such a nice, relaxed and humorous stage presence - the audience loved your show and rightly gave you a standing ovation."