One of the most successful bluegrass bands in Europe was invited to Hollywood to play there on the 40th Anniversary gala dinner of the television series "The Waltons". Now the band needs six airline tickets from Nashville to Los Angeles.
Do you still remember…? Every Sunday evening the Walton family visited our living rooms and brought us both simple stories about typewriters and youthful runaways, as well as catastrophes such as the crash of the Hindenburg. All as seen through the eyes of the oddest son and author, John-Boy.
Elisabeth, Jim-Bob, Erin, Ben , Mary-Ellen, Jason and, of course, John-Boy became our brothers and sisters. The easy-going narrations of the individual episodes made indelible impressions on the memories of a whole generation of TV kids!
It was as if predestined that this be worked into a Bluegrass song. And the German Bluegrass band "Covered Grass" did just that, working out TV family into a musical tribute: “Goodnight John-Boy.” So when they uploaded their song to YouTube just two weeks ago they never could have dreamed what then occurred!
Their video, “Goodnight John-Boy,” reached various Walton forums and fans and finally actually ended up being viewed and enthusiastically received by the original actors in the series!
Watch the Video “Goodnight John-Boy” Here:
Soon after the actresses Mary McDonough (Erin Walton), Kami Cotler (Elizabeth Walton) and Judy Norton (Mary-Ellen Walton) saw the video and placed links onto their Homepages, the Covered Grass fan base began to grow.
And it gets even better! On September 29th, in the Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles, a giant reunion party celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Waltons will take place. And the Band has been invited to surprise the assembled actors of the beloved series with their song!
Such an opportunity as this is granted to one only once in a lifetime! And it can not just be a coincidence that precisely this September they will be performing in Nashville at the "World of Bluegrass Week" of the IBMA, International Bluegrass Music Association (Incidentally, this privilege is given to them as the first German bluegrass band for twelve years!), and so they will already be in America at that time! But they had therefore already committed all of their finances to this first time appearance in Nashville.
The band’s spokesperson Volker Fisher says, “And so it is, worldwide Walton fans, that we turn to you to ask your help in raising the funds necessary to allow us to fly from Nashville to LA, to pay respect to the heroes of our childhood and to represent all of us!”
To that end, the band has launched a “Crowdfunding” Campaign in Germany with StartNext which appears to be similar to the American Kickstarter.com. Donations there are entered in Euros. The video clip that accompanies their request is narrated in German but the band thoughtfully provided English subtitles.
Covered Grass Contacts:
- Volker Fischer-Valdix http://www.covered-grass.de/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coveredgrass
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