By, Dave Bowman
For The Montrose Daily Press-The Scene June 2004

Sweet Sunny South came shining our of Paonia about three years ago.  In that short time they have become a West Slope institution, constantly playing around the area and throughout the state.  They have built a local following, in part due to their loyal support of the area's fines radio station, KVNF 89.1, but mainly because of their musicianship and energetic live performances.  I am asked often when Blue Sky Music will have their CD and I'm proud to say, the long awaited disc is a reality.  The members of Sweet Sunny South, Bill Powers on banjo and mandolin and primary song writer, Cory Obert, sawing on the fiddle and providing tenor vocals, Rob Miller on guitar and main vocalist, and newest member Shelley Gray on bass and vocals, are dyed in the wool acoustic musicians that prefer the old timey sound of a band gathered around a single microphone.

Bell Creek Dance Club is a fascinating disc.  It's conceptual in that the songs are part fiction part fact.  Bell Creek Dance Hall was once a thriving community center outside of Paonia that is but a shell of itself now.  Interspersed between the songs are recollections of people that frequented the Bell Creek during its heyday.  Their narrative charmingly connects the songs with regional history.

Bearing down on the bow Cory Obert starts the dance with "Shortnin' Bread" just as it must have happened when unplugged was the standard.  The history and subject matter of this tale is told through "Bell Creek Dance Club."  We meet our first character in the tragic figure "Uncle Ned."  Fighting prohibition and government regulators has a long continuing history in the North Fork.  The vocation is explained in "Me & My Old Still."  Saturday night wouldn't be complete without some libation as we learn in "Drinking Song."  "Gray Cat on a Tennessee Farm" and "Choctaw Fiddle" are both traditional sounding bluegrass songs with hot fiddle for dancing both fast and slowly.  Back in the day families went to Saturday night dances together.  "Anika Rose" is about the kids.

Bell Creek Dance Hall is so much more than just a great bluegrass disc and the music is fine bluegrass, but the stories blended with the music make this a historical document.

By, Tom Wills for The Mercant Herald

If you missed the last hour of the North Fork Valley Bluegrass Festival on June 13, you missed a quintessential moment in local music history.  The great Paonia based bluegrass band, Sweet Sunny South met their idols, The Wilders from Kansas City, and the two groups formed a sort of super group for a few minutes.

SSS are on a roll.  On June 3rd they held a release party at the Paradise Theater for their first CD entitled the Bell Creek Dance Club, a song which sets the theme for the whole record.  The majority of the songs on the album are written by band front man Bill Powers, with one piece by guitarist/vocalist Rob Miller and a couple of traditionals.

What makes the album absolutely unique, besides the fine songs and lead vocals by Powers, are the pieces of interviews with local oldtimers concerning dances at Bell Creek in the 1940's and 50's.  The interviews blend seamlessly with the songs forming a whole that will be particularly meaningful to long time North Fork residents.

While Bell Creek Dance Club is a fine song, it is Power's Me & My Old Still that cuts the deepest on repeated listening.  It is a very original play on three different themes of country/bluegrass: moonshine, unrequited love, and murder.

All in all, the album makes a very nice choice of an official soundtrack of the North Fork through the summer.  In the North Fork you can get your copy at Expressions Bookstore, Paradise Theater, Homestead Market (you have to hear their jingle on the album) and Hardin's Natural Foods on Rogers Mesa.  Or www.sweetsunnysouth.com

By, Amy Reinholds
For Pow'r Pickin' June 2004

The Paonia band Sweet Sunny South's first CD Bell Creek Dance Club, released this month, reveals not only the band's bluegrass and old-time roots but also a love for the history of the Western Slope town.

Listening to the CD makes us all want to move to Paonia, but if we can't, at least we can listen to the CD, and hope to entice the band to play in our towns.

Sweet sunny South is Rob Miller on guitar, Bill Powers on mandolin, Cory Obert on fiddle and Shelley Gray on bass, with all on vocals.  About four years ago, the band grew out of a love of bluegrass and traditional music from DJs of the bluegrass show on Paonia's community radio station KVNF - Rob, Bill and Kevin Dirk.  Originally a five piece with Kevin on (Scrugg-style) banjo, the band has evolved to incorporate more of an old-time feel, especially as a four-piece after Kevin left the band to work on building a house and spend time with his newborn daughter.  Bill adds old-time banjo sound on Bell Creek Dance Club with plectrum banjo.

Bell Creek Dance Club   is named after a song Bill wrote inspired by a decaying building on the back road between Paonia and Hotchkiss.  He read an article in the local paper about the history of the dance club building and sat down to write about how "the band stomped out the rhythm, while the crowd called out for more, they'd fly around that place 'til they were sore."  The story of Saturday night dancing and socializing became the theme of the project when the band talked with their producer, Adam Burke, about interviewing locals who recall their memories of introducing aspects of each song and tying it all together into a sweet an powerful package of Colorado rural history and timeless themes of love, dancing, and good times.  Although the project is inspired by history, most of the songs are original, with seven written by Bill and one by Rob.

Sweet Sunny south is celebrating their CD release June 3 at the Paradise Theater in Paonia, they are the host band for the North Fork Bluegrass Festival at Delta County Fairgrounds in Hotchkiss June 11-13, and they have several upcoming shows.

All four members of the band are DJ's on KVNF.  Bill and Shelley are self-employed making antler chandeliers and furniture and handmade mica lampshades.  Rob works from his home in the medical equipment sales field and runs Pickin' Productions, which books acoustic music in Paonia, and Cory is an independent contractor.

"Each person in the group brings some great skills, and there is a lot more to having a band than just playing songs," says Bill.  "We have the same goals and that is so much of why it works.  And we have fun with all the aspects of having a band."

Bill started playing guitar with friends in College in Texas, was a Grateful Dead fan, and even played in a band that had four drummers.  Touched by Jimmy Martin tunes on the Will The Circle Be Unbroken album and knocked out by bands like Strength in Numbers at the Telluride 1990 festival, Bill was pulled toward bluegrass and newgrass.  "What grabbed me about the music was that I played guitar well enough, but to think I could never play like that.  So I guess it was the technique that got me," he says.  "When I first started doing the bluegrass show on KVNF I was  on an endless search for progressive bluegrass, Bill Monroe didn't appeal to me at all.  Kevin Dirk, our original banjo player, was the one that helped me to see the light.  Once I started to get traditional bluegrass I really loved it."

Bill describes his songwriting as a way that he can contribute something new and different to traditional roots music today.  "We haven't been at it that long and I've never felt like I was adding much at all to what people were doing on traditional numbers.  the onl thng for me to do was to try to offer something new so as not to be compared to everybody before that have played the not out of those songs.  I feel like I should learn because they are lessons in how you do this or that, but if I spent my time learning all that, I wouldn't have time to come up with my own stuff."  but it's also just natural to write songs, he says, "The stuff just comes out.  I can't really stop it."

Rob explains that the David Grisman Quintet drew him into bluegrass and traditional music.  "At first I heard jazz, and then the roots, which pretty much pointed me to Bill Monroe."

"We all have influences, and at this point we're not so fixated on playing traditional bluegrass, as we are experimenting within our different styles, while still allowing bluegrass to be found at the core," Rob says.  "I am a DJ, I hear a lot of different music and I can't quite define our style myself.  It's unique, it works, it's old time, and it's bluegrass."

Cory came to the band through Kevin who was getting together to play music with Bill, Rob and original bass player Willy Kistler, dubbed "The Brewglass Boys" at one of their early gigs at the "Pizza My Heart" restaurant in Paonia.  "He kept inviting me over to play some tunes, which I finally did, after much procrastinating.  We had a great time, and they invited me to join them shortly after that."

Cory started playing fiddle in 1993. "I really wanted to learn how to play Cajun fiddle, in the style of Michael Doucet.  Ironically, I didn't learn a single Cajun tune until a few months ago when I learned "La Betaille", which is on our new CD.  What sidetracked me was seeing Alison Drauss on Austin City Limits, when she was about 18.  I was only slightly familiar with Bluegrass music at the time, and I think that her band's smoother style kind of grabbed me, although in time, my taste has drawn me to the more edgy sounding stuff like The Johnson Mountain Boys and Open Road."

The band has become more of a family affair since Bill's partner, Shelley, joined the band on bass.  Shelley started out in Sweet Sunny South's alter-ego kids' jug band "Duck Duck Gray Duck," which includes fun acoustic sing-along songs for her and Bill's 5-year-old and 2-year-old, Rob's 2-year-old, and children throughout the Western Slope.

"I had always been drawn to the upright bass and at Bill's suggestion, we bought one.  I had never played before, but with a book and some tips form the guys, I learned to play," she says.  "We decided to start up a kid's band, and Cory and Rob joined us.  It was through this that the four of us clicked and less than a year later when the line-up of the band changed, I was invited into SSS. We now do both bands."

Shelley's first experience with bluegrass was also through the Telluride festival the first year she moved to Colorado.  "We just got more and more into it as the years went by until it became a big part of our lives."

All four band members agree that the band stands out for its original songs, relaxed and fun performances, and mixed bag of traditional influences.

"While SSS started out wanting to play bluegrass in the strictest sense of the word, we've broadened our horizons to include old-time fiddle tunes, jugband music, and even honky tonk, while still playing bluegrass in the traditional style, around a single mic, which I think is more interesting for us and the listener," says Bill.

"We have hung on to some of our older sound and now have some old-time sound too, and original stuff that tends to be sorta in between, and I think that keeps it interesting for us and the listener," says Bill.

Shelley says, "We're not really bluegrass and were not really old-time, but somewhere in between.  The original songs are usually what grabs people's attention, the loose, fun stage presence, humorous banter and the ability to appeal to many different types of musical tastes."

Rob says audiences who normally wouldn't be interested in bluegrass find the band approachable.  "I think, when we're with an audience that's not so exposed to bluegrass, just good ol' music lovers, I'd say we stand out because we have fun and put on a good show.  Folks seem to be able to really identify with our music."

Bill and Rob like how the appearance is part of the whole package.

"We wear hats and ties-and a dress- and play around the single microphone.  But that doesn't mean we're sweet up there," Rob says.  "We like telling it like it is; we usually don't hold back when we're up there.  We tend to do a lot of drinking and killing songs.  We just like having fun, really.  The music keeps growing, and we keep having fun."

"When you live in a place like Paonia where there really isn't much call to dress nicely," says Bill "Dang, it's fun! I like trying to find suits for cheap at thrift stores."

It turns out that the Sweet Sunny South clan are the unofficial ambassadors of Paonia.  No wonder we all want to move there!  The band is sponsored by Paonia Homestead Market and included Bill's song "Homestead Market" as the final cut on the CD, touting "local all-natural elk, bison, beef, lamb, and pork.....USDA-approved and hormone-and-antibiotic-free."

For more information about the band, check out www.sweetsunnysouth.com.

Review for the new Sweet Sunny South CD, 

"Bell Creek Dance Club"

By, Nina Schnipper 

KDNK's "Smokin' Grass" DJ June 2004

Bell Creek Dance Club, the first CD by Sweet Sunny South, was worth the wait. I often

don't expect much when a band releases their first CD. Geez, was I surprised!

As a band, they sound tight. "Their sound" features traditional bluegrass music. Cory's

versatility as a fiddler has lent them an old-time feel, although most of their tracks are

bluegrass. Their song-writing leans on traditional bluegrass themes, drinking and

mayhem, love and deceit.  Their respect for the roots of this music is especially apparent

in their old-time-inspired-sound, their Bell Creek Dance Club theme, and their song

selections and originals.

On this first CD, however, they pull off something that few other bands ever attempt.

They "researched" the Bell Creek Dance Club, an old hot spot in their North Fork Valley.

They interviewed and took narratives from folks who visited the club in their younger

days. They interspersed these tracks throughout the music on the CD.

As if this weren't enough to get nostalgic about, this band is also carving their niche by

reviving jingles. While other bands simply do covers of the Martha White theme, Sweet

Sunny South has been infusing bluegrass in their own community by writing bluegrass-y 

jingles for a local market and bank.

Listening to Sweet Sunny South's CD takes you back in time. It pays homage to the roots

of bluegrass and mountain music. You wish you were reminiscing about your own Bell 

Creek memories. It does all this, but at the same time, you can't help but be excited about 

the future of bluegrass! The future of bluegrass is in good hands with bands like Sweet 

Sunny South.

By, Tom Wills
Editor North Fork Merchant Herald - May 2004

I'll admit to not being a dyed in the wool bluegrass fan despite once trying to learn claw hammer style banjo and taking lessons in playing fiddle tunes on the guitar.  Bluegrass has always seemed to me a long on showing off technical skill and short on content.  So, it came as a revelation when I attended a recent show with Sweet Sunny South opening for Uncle Earl.  This was more than music stripped down to just the instruments and voices.  The musicians made a genuine connetion with the audience with funny, warm and even informative between song patter.

Hearing Bell Creek Dance Club by Bill Powers and Rob Miller's wry Chuck O'Conners Blues for the first time I was impressed.  One song was a classic about local history and the other, one that any farmer or ranchr could relate to.

Great tight harmonies and picking (and Cory Obert's fiddling).  My only complaint is that Shelley, the bass player, didn't get to sing lead on anything.  Great voice.

Sweet Sunny South releases CD about historic dance club in the North Fork

Wednesday 26 May 2004
By, Kami Myers

Local and regional favorite Sweet Sunny South -- the funky bluegrass and old-time musical group -- is releasing its first full length CD titled "Bell Creek Dance Club.

The CD gets its name from the popular dance hall located on J-75 Road between Paonia and Hotchkiss. When Bill Powers, songwriter, lead singer and banjo and mandolin player for the group, saw an article about the dance hall in a local publication written by Claudia King, he knew there was something special about the hall.

The Bell Creek was a popular spot for people of all ages to have potluck dinners and dances on the weekends. The club was considered to have one of the best dance floors on the Western Slope, with people coming from all over to dance to the sounds of local bands. Wendall and Wayne Fobare, twins from Hotchkiss, kept the crowd on their feet with toes tapping and feet flying. The Fobare band often had a saxophone, guitar and piano. Other local musicians like Red Davis, Alva Watson, Shorty Hunten, Lib Atkins and Matt Malaker kept the music flowing over the floor and walls of the Bell Creek.

The club was more active in the days before World War II when it was a private club. After the war, the club was open to anyone.

All types of dancing were enjoyed at the Bell Creek, including ballroom dancing, square dancing, the two-step, the jitterbug and polkas, which came from German and Austrian immigrants who worked in the Bowie and Somerset coal mines.

Powers said within days of reading the article he had composed a song. The title track of the CD is a traditional bluegrass tune about a typical evening at the Bell Creek Dance Club. "The article was so well written that I really felt I knew what was going on at the Bell Creek, Powers said.

Interspersed with original songs by the band is an audio documentary of area residents who remember Bell Creek. The album was mixed and produced by Adam Burke, who did over three hours of interviews to get four minutes of memoirs on the album.

Burke interviewed Dewey Dodge, Jann Ungaro, Harold Martin, Gilbert Wilson, Charlie Todd, Ward Holder, Maxine Bruce Kokes and Marilyn Bruce Tate for interviews.

Burke first got the idea to add memoirs to the CD when he was in physical therapy and he heard an older group of people telling stories. He asked them if they had gone to the Bell Creek, and the project flourished from there.

"It's thanks to the old-timers that we even know this place existed,Ó Burke said. "These people are such a cultural resource.

Sweet Sunny South is made up of Powers; Shelley Gray on upright bass and vocals; Rob Miller on guitar, vocals and songwriting; and Cory Obert on fiddle and vocals.

With listeners from all walks of life, all ages and all sides of the fence, Powers said Sweet Sunny South has managed to transcend the rift in the town. "We're doing something that brings people together, he said.

In 2003, the band took second place at the Rockygrass band contest.

The band will be playing in Crawford, Grand Junction and Cedaredge later this summer. Sweet Sunny South is also the host band for the North Fork Bluegrass Festival in Hotchkiss June 11-13. Check out the website at www.sweetsunnysouth.com for locations, dates and playing times.

Join Sweet Sunny South at their CD release party Thursday, June 3, at 8 p.m. at the Paradise Theater in Paonia. A $5 door charge will buy the opportunity to hear cuts from the CD and to be one of the first waves of people who will undoubtedly snatch up this CD.