The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Bluegrass venue kicks off season on Sunday

State jobless rate jumps to 10.5 percent
3:14 p.m.
Checkpoint tonight
2:04 p.m.
Man allegedly stabs self after fight with girlfriend
12:58 p.m.
Animal clinic collecting food to feed hungry family pets
12:37 p.m.
Holiday tree lighting tonight
12:25 p.m.
> More headlines

By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 9:44 PM Saturday, April 18, 2009

BATH, Ind. — You might not thing the town of Bath, Ind., (pop. 30) as a hot spot for anything but corn, but that was before the Flatland Bluegrass Barn set up shop.

The 160-seat venue is now in its second season of providing an afternoon of bluegrass music, featuring local, regional and national bands coming in from Nashville and Branson, Mo., from 2 to 5 p.m. every Sunday afternoon starting today through mid-November.

“We talked about doing it for years,” said Sue Treadway, who started the program with her husband, Don, on their 100-acre farm. “We’ve always been big bluegrass fans and we finally got around to cleaning out the barn.”

They took the pontoons off their boat and use the deck as a stage, purchasing a new sound system and 160 used chairs from a Miami University sale to hold the audience, and started filling the place up from the get-go.

The afternoons start with a performance by the house band, the Flatland Bluegrass Band, featuring their 16-year-old grandson Nathan Treadway on banjo.

“He can play just about anything he picks up,” Sue Treadway said.

Between the house band and the headliner, she said this year they’re going to try something new by getting the audience up on stage for a spell.

“We always have a lot of people sitting in the audience that we knew could play,” she said, “so for about an hour we’ll have a band ready to back anyone up who wants to come up and sing or play the banjo or whatever.

There is no charge for the shows, but the Treadways do pass the bucket to help cover expenses.

“People are pretty generous and we can usually cover the bands,” she said.

The first headliner of the season will be Mark Poe and the All-American Bluegrass Band. Other featured performers for the season include Carl Bentley & Eagle Creek, McCoy Grass, Homeward Bound, Cornfield & Crossroads, Lori Lyn and New Outlook, the Wes Miller Band and Sparrow Creek.

One of the highlights of the season, Treadway said, will be the Aug. 9 appearance of Goldwing Express from Branson, Mo., where it does a regular show.

There will be no program on Mothers Day, Fathers Day or Labor Day, but otherwise the Treadways welcome bluegrass fans to come and listen or join the band if they feel so inclined.

There is no smoking in the barn, no alcohol on premises and the venue is fully accessible.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

How to go

What: Mark Poe and the All-American Bluegrass Band

When: 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19

Where: Flatland Bluegrass Barn, 7342 S. Stone Road, Bath, Ind. (5 miles west of Oxford off Contreras Road)

Cost: Toss a couple bills in the bucket when it comes around

Info: (765) 732-3440; www.flatlandbluegrassbarn.com

Share this article