The Mark Hembree Band
It’s straight-ahead, traditional bluegrass: hot picking, solid rhythm, tight harmonies, good humor, and a wealth of great stories make for an enjoyable show anytime you see the Mark Hembree Band.
Mark Hembree started his music career in Wisconsin in the 1970s, and before long he was hosting a live radio show from the Glenmore Opera House near Green Bay. After a couple of years in Denver with the Monroe Doctrine, he returned to Wisconsin briefly before an audition at a local festival netted a job with Country Music Hall of Fame legend Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass Music. He became a Blue Grass Boy in 1979 and worked with Monroe for five years, then was one of the founding members of the Nashville Bluegrass Band. While in Nashville he recorded with several well-known artists, including the all-star band Dreadful Snakes (with Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Roland White, Blaine Sprouse, and Pat Enright) and Peter Rowan (on the Grammy-nominated album “New Moon Rising”). He returned to Wisconsin in 1989, played with local bluegrass groups the Rounders and Nob Hill Boys, and Western swing bands the Western Box Turtles (including Asleep at the Wheel steel guitarist Eddie Rivers) and his own group, the Best Westerns.
Additionally, Hembree has appeared as a guest lecturer and instructor at various music workshops, seminars, and film presentations, as well as in Bill Monroe tribute shows on “A Prairie Home Companion” and at North Carolina’s MerleFest (performing with Del McCoury, Roland White, Blake Williams, Peter Rowan, and Bobby Hicks). He also appears in the feature-length documentary film “Powerful: Bill Monroe Remembered,” directed by Joe Gray and produced by the International Bluegrass Music Museum, and also discusses his travels on the road with Bill Monroe in his recent memoir “On the Bus With Bill Monroe”. Learn more about the book HERE!
The Band
Michael Cohen, banjo
Mark Hembree, bass
Paul Kienitz, fiddle
Starr Moss, guitar
Johnny on Washday, and the Who tribute band Substitute. He also can be heard on Eddie Rivers’ album “Plain Talkin’ Man.”