DESCRIPTION:
Alex Riffle & The Stiff Riffs perform a bluegrass cover of Bruce Hornsby's 1986 hit, "The Way It Is". This version was recorded on the band's summer 2013 release, These Days.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alex-R...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mar...

Alex Riffle - Banjo
Doug Kennedy - Acoustic Bass, Vocals
Steve Walsh - Mandolin, Lead Vocal
Billy Watkins - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Larry Light - Lead Acoustic Guitar
Bobby Lewis - Fiddle


Alex Riffle is a 22-year-old banjo player from Poplar Bluff, MO. who has been playing the banjo for ten years. Alex recorded his debut CD, "Pickin' Toward Perfection", at only thirteen years of age. Along with his band providing opening entertainment for artists such as Dr. Ralph Stanley, The SteelDrivers, and Pam Tillis, Alex has performed at various venues, including the Station Inn in Nashville, TN, the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, MO, and Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. Alex has also performed at a variety of events, including Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon's inauguration in 2009 and various fundraisers. His banjo playing has also been featured on the Cumberland Highlanders T.V. show on the RFD network and X.M. Radio. Alex is currently an undergraduate student at Saint Louis University studying a pre-medicine curriculum.

In 2006, Alex Riffle & The Stiff Riffs was formed. The group, along with Alex, consists of five other members, most of whom have played music together for over 30 years. Doug Kennedy, an attorney in Poplar Bluff, plays the acoustic bass and sings lead and harmony vocals with the group. Steve Walsh, who is also an attorney in Poplar Bluff, plays the mandolin and provides lead vocals on most of the songs, along with singing harmony vocals. Bill Watkins, a schoolteacher from Bourbon, MO, plays the acoustic guitar and sings lead and harmony vocals with the group. Bill, Steve, and Doug have been playing bluegrass music together, as an organized group, for over 30 years. Larry Light, a carpenter from Sullivan, MO, plays lead acoustic guitar and sings harmony and some lead with the group. Larry is known as one of the best flat-picking guitarists in the state of Missouri. Bobby Lewis is the phenomenal fiddle player for the band. Having grown up in The Bob Lewis Family band, based out of Doniphan, MO, Bobby is no stranger to bluegrass music, or his instrument.

The band's repertoire, developed over the course of 30 years, includes hundreds of classic bluegrass songs, along with multiple classic rock, country, and pop songs converted to the band's own brand of bluegrass. Alex Riffle & The Stiff Riffs is a bluegrass band that's an enjoyable band for both a bluegrass music-loving crowd and a crowd that has never heard bluegrass music before.

"Their brand of bluegrass music will certainly lift your spirit and is among the finest music Missouri has to offer."
- Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon

"The fun and great performances on this CD take me back to all the good times we've had through the years. Great guys, great pickers, and they love the music. That's what it's all about."
- Richard Bailey - Grammy-nominated banjo player of The SteelDrivers

"Alex has an unusually amazing musical gift, and that gift has been worked on and tuned up with the help of two of Alex's friends, Steve Walsh and Doug Kennedy. After much practice and hard work, the three musicians have joined together to make up part of, what is now, one of the best bluegrass bands in Missouri, Alex Riffle & The Stiff Riffs."
- "The Semo Times - Alex Riffle & The Stiff Riffs: Bringing Bluegrass Back"