Mark Hembree Band

String bassist Mark Hembree isn’t only a Wisconsin bluegrass legend, he’s a bona fide member of the genre’s royalty. He’s a former member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, played with the upstart bluegrass ensemble The Monroe Doctrine, and is one of the founding members of The Nashville Bluegrass Band. He’s back in Wisconsin now, keeping busy with this project as well as The Best Westerns.

media release: $12adv $15DOS. This is a seated show.

Mark Hembree -bass, Starr Moss -guitar, Paul Kienitz -fiddle, Michael Falk -banjo

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.  

About That Hembree

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.

The ‘Band’

Guitarist and singer Starr Moss has musical interests spanning bluegrass, old-time, Celtic, swing and jazz. He spent nearly four years on the road with the Chicago-based Henhouse Prowlers, traveling across the U.S. and Europe. Two U.S. State Department tours (in the American Music Abroad program) afforded the opportunity to perform and collaborate with local musicians in Russia, Mauritania, Zambia, Nigeria, and Uganda. Other musical highlights include performances at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music and the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual conventions.

The go-to fiddler in the Badger State, Paul Kienitz is well-versed in traditional bluegrass fiddling and has performed and recorded with a number of fine Wisconsin bands, including the Nob Hill Boys, where he first met up with Mark Hembree, resulting in future bands and projects. He was the featured fiddler in a special “Blue Grass Boys Reunion” Bill Monroe tribute featuring mandolin virtuoso Mike Compton and Blue Grass Boy alumni Bob Black, Tom Ewing and Mark Hembree.

Michael Falk spent his formative years performing throughout his home state of Ohio, collaborating on several projects with decorated contest fiddler Henry Barnes and supporting popular Central Ohio acts like the Savory Chickens and the Apple Bottom Gang. After relocating to Wisconsin, Michael joined up with fiddler Paul Kienitz in the Squirrel Gravy Bluegrass Band, bringing his hard-driving banjo style and soaring tenor to the stages of major regional events like Larryfest and the East Troy Bluegrass Festival.