The
Tennessee Gentlemen
Live from Memphis Tennessee!
hear them (MP3)
and love them:
The
Lighthouse I The
Treehouse I Small
Exception I He's
Allright
(L to R) Sam Vance, Ricky Reece, Donny Catron , Doyle Catron
From their own Bluegrass Shack in the 1970s to the stages of some of the biggest festivals around the southeast, the Tennessee Gentlemen have kept it going for over 30 years. The group has captured individual and group awards from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music and made it to the cover of Bluegrass Unlimited. Although the members have changed through the years, they have managed to maintain their brand of bluegrass music. Donny Catron, who has one of the highest tenor voices around is one of the earliest members of the group. Donny has been singing lead and playing rhythm guitar for 25 years. Bass player and singer Doyle Catron provides the solid bass tempo that keeps the band in overdrive. Sam Vance is the group’s hard-driving banjo player who jumps in as their bass singer when needed. Ricky Reece rounds out the harmony vocals and keeps it in high gear with his mandolin playing.
Donny
Catron
Based out of Memphis, The Tennessee Gentlemen have been entertaining
bluegrass fans for over thirty years.
Donny and Troy Castleberry , the founding member of the group, worked
together for twenty five years until Troy’s death in 2000.
Donny, along with his brother Doyle, decided to continue the group in
the same fine tradition.
The rhythm guitar player for the band, Donny sings” sky high “
tenor and lead vocals.
He has played with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver and Signal Mountain.
When not playing a festival with his own band ,
Donny performs with Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys.
Doyle
Catron
From bluegrass rooted in the early seventies, Doyle came full circle
with his music and joined his brother in 1994, forming a group
Called Neshoba. Neshoba morphed into the Tennessee Gentlemen. Coming
from a background in rock, blues and country,
his solid bass tempo drives the band. Doyle sings low lead , tenor and
harmony vocals, He also occasionally plays the guitar on stage. Behind
the scenes, Doyle keeps the website updated with performance photos
and festival dates.
Ricky
Reece
Ricky has been playing the mandolin since he was five years old.
He earned the reputation of being” The fastest mandolin player
on the planet”. Ricky is the only mandolin player to ever get a
standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry. This was for his rendition of
Durum’s Bull while playing with Wilma Lee Cooper and the Clinch
Mountain Clan. He has also performed with Vern Gosdin. Playing with
Donny and Doyle off and on since the mid ninties. Ricky has been known
to play the guitar, bass and banjo in addition to the mandolin.
Ricky sings baritone with the group and his comic relief adds another
dimension to the band.
J. Sam
Vance
Sam is the most recent addition to the group. His hard driving banjo
is a mixture of Scruggs and Eldridge style.
He began playing guitar and banjo at age thirteen and had his first
band experience in 1979 at age nineteen.
Sam only stopped long enough to become a licensed minister in 1990.
The most recent groups that Sam has performed with are Music City Bluegrass
and Fast Forward. Sam sings bass or any harmony part that is needed
