Biography
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Label Contacts
Mark Hodges - President
mark@mountainfever.com
Missy Delgado -VP Marketing/Comm
missy@mountainfever.com
Melody Cochran - Radio Specialist
540-789-7403 -
radio@mountainfever.com
Address:
Mountain Fever Music Group
1177 Alum Ridge Road NW
Willis, VA 24380
http://airplaydirect.com/MFMGroup/ Click here to go to Mountain Fever Music Group home page.
1. Memories of My Childhood 3:10 (Lead Vocal - Donald Dowdy) Danny Lam - (No Publisher)
2. One More Mountain 2:33 (Lead Vocal - Robert Dowdy) Don Winesett/ Jimmy Zeh (Wrong Way Publishing) No Affiliation
3. Too Long 3:54 (Lead Vocal - Donald Dowdy)Gibbs (No Affiliation)
4. The Merger 3:12 (Lead Vocal - Victor Dowdy)Harry Sisk Sr./Harry Sisk Jr. (Dreamin’ Creek Publishing) BMI
5. Don’t Bother To Waste My Time 3:28 (Lead Vocal - Robert Dowdy) Don Winesett / Jimmy Zeh (Wrong Way Publishing) No Affiliation
6. Grand Reunion 2:49 (Lead Vocal - Steven Dowdy)J.C. Radford (Sound Stop Publishing) No Affiliation
7. When the Mountain Fell 2:37 (Lead Vocal - Steven Dowdy) Chris Hart (Mountain Fever Publishing) ASCAP
8. Ball & Chain 3:09 (Lead Vocal - Victor Dowdy) J.C. Radford (Sound Stop Publishing) No Affiliation
9. Homeplace Memories 3:20 (Lead Vocal - Steven Dowdy) J.C. Radford (Sound Stop Publishing) No Affiliation
10. Blue Ridge Mountain Man 3:00 (Lead Vocal - Steven Dowdy) James L. Lilly (No Affiliation)
11. Backside of Thirty 2:49 (Lead Vocal - Victor Dowdy) John Conlee ( Warner Chappell/Pommard Publishing Co.)
12. Moonshine Man 2:54 (Lead Vocal - Donald Dowdy)Donald Dowdy (Mountain Fever Publishing) ASCAP
Robert and Victor started playing music very young and were influenced and encouraged by their parents, Marcus & Ruby Bragg Dowdy. The Dowdy's took their sons to bluegrass gatherings all over the state, urging each to learn an instrument and play. Often they traveled from their home in Salem, Virginia to family picnics in Lebanon, Virginia to listen to great uncles Maynard and Hoyt Kiser play and their grandmother and other aunts "belt out" many memorable tunes.
Their dad, Marcus, from Giles County, was a self taught carpenter. He bought instruments for each of his sons and taught them their first notes. A favorite story is of Marcus teaching his oldest son to play, but with only one guitar, young Robert had to watch over his older brother's shoulder, where he actually learned to play first.
Robert received his first banjo from his uncle Burt Dowdy when he was seven. Brother Randall, a year and a half younger than Robert, took up the mandolin, thus was the beginning of the Dowdy family band called the Bluegrass Playboys. Robert, recognized as the most talented Dowdy, started playing with local musicians around the Roanoke Valley and was soon playing with The New Grass Revue. In the mid 1980's, Robert won the Virginia Folk Music Association's State Championship on the banjo, mandolin as well as male vocalist, and placed second on the guitar. He repeated as champion on the banjo in 1990, 1992, and 1993.
Victor attended shows watching his older brothers perform and many times would compete in small singing contests, hoping to someday join his brothers onstage. He played with a local group called the Backcreek Boys. At home, Victor, picked music each night with his three children, Steven, Krystle and Donald, continuing the family tradition of passing on the gift of music as it had been passed down to him and his brothers. One of his greatest accomplishments was winning the VFMA's State Championship on the bass fiddle five times and male vocal on three occasions.
In 1989, Robert and Victor formed their own band, The BlueGrass Brothers. The band consists of Robert, Victor, Victor's oldest son Steven on the guitar and his youngest son Donald on the mandolin. Rounding out the band is Chris Hart, from Lynchburg, Virginia on the dobro. The Band's big boost came with the recording of The Ballad of Mark Warner in 2001, which they performed all over the state for gubernatorial campaign. The band was inducted into the Virginia Folk Music Association's Hall of Fame in September of 2011.
The band travels all over the United States and Canada entertaining and carrying on the tradition of bluegrass music to all who will lend an ear. Also SPBGMA instrumental group of the year 2010.