Mixt Company

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M I X T C O M P A N Y ! ! !
Music and the Mixt Company family-The gift of music, be it performing, listening, or dancing, is one that can be handed down from generation to generation. Such was the case with The Halcomb Family, rooted in the harsh mountains of Eastern Kentucky and transplanted to Southwestern Virginia. Frank and Ethel (Asher) Halcomb raised six girls in a home filled with bluegrass music. Both the Halcomb side and the Asher side of the family were known through the region for their musical abilities. Virginia Lee and her sisters were raised up in a home of music. Some of them absorbed the music, and it has played a big part in their lives.
I - (Dave Blood, transplanted Yankee) met the Halcomb family eleven years ago, near Nashville, Tennessee. It was at a jam at "The Paint Store" in Goodlettsville, Tennessee I met the duo known as The Virginia Ladies, Virginia Lee and her daughter, Letitia Jolene. They sang like angels and stole my heart. I joined them musically, and later, in marriage, as Virginia Lee honored me by becoming my wife. And so the band, Mixt Company, is in its fourteenth year of life. Virginia Lee (Monkey) sings and plays rhythm guitar. Virginia's daughter, Letitia Jolene has carried the family tradition of singing and playing into another generation, and sings and plays rhythm guitar. David Knight, from Nashville, Tennessee, by way of Richmond, Virginia, plays upright bass, and sings bass vocals on quartet numbers. Gary Wood, from Hermitage, Tennessee, is the newest member of the Mixt Company family. He is featured on the five-string banjo, and doubles on mandolin as well. He is a welcome addition to the band.
In the newest CD, Family 'n' Friends, the first offering on the album, House Of The Rising Sun, is a new take on an old song, transported from the Old World, brought to the mountains, and carried to the rest of the country. Most of these songs are taken from Mixt Company's first two CDs The final song on the album came from an older family recording from the Seventies, featuring "Daddy Frank" Halcomb, with his "high-lonesome" vocals and distinctive mountain lingo, and daughters Virginia Lee and Rhonda. Virginia Lee, known to one and all as "Monkey", was born in Beehive Holler, below Hazard, in Eastern Kentucky. She moved to Boones' Mill, Franklin County, Virginia, at the age of twelve, then to Nashville around 1986. Letitia Jolene was born in Franklin County, Virginia, grew up with bluegrass all around her, and followed her mom to Nashville soon after her mom went there. I was born in Georgia, and our family traveled a lot. We finally settled in Eastern Pennsylvania when I was twelve. After eight years in the US Air Force, I moved to Nashville in 1974. I have played with Eddie and The Mueller Brothers, Lonnie Jones and Newgrass Express, Harold Morrison and Smokin' Bluegrass, and the Mueller Family.
Since forming in August of '96, Mixt Company has travelled a good part of the country, playing fairs, festivals, clubs, weddings and other assorted venues. And they have done their dues on Nashville's Lower Broadway club scene, including regular residencies at The Bluegrass Inn, Tootsie's, Robert's, and once in a while at The Station Inn.