Ernie Hill by Jon Griffin
Jeff Daugherty by Jon Griffin
Jeff Daugherty was raised in the rural farming community of Richlands, in Southeastern North Carolina, by a bluegrass rich family. He picked up the guitar at an early age and then banjo at 18 years and played in his uncle's long-standing bluegrass/gospel group. When Jeff married, his wife's career led them from coast to coast, settling in Cheyenne, Wyoming for over five years where he formed and led the high-energy bluegrass quartet BeatGrass, singing lead vocals and mandolin. “The first music I reached for, when the time came, was my John Hartford albums.” Listening to them in chronological order, in somewhat of a meditative state, Jeff stopped the turntable while listening to "Morning Bugle" and had to write down what was running through his head. The culmination of those words became a song filled with eight John Hartford song titles, a few quotes from liner-notes, and loaded with honest feelings. The song, “Dear John”, won the 2014 John Hartford Songwriter’s Challenge. Jeff says, “After performing the song in the 2014 JHMF Songwriter’s Showcase, I was offered numerous solo-gig opportunities, which was a first for me.”
This JHMF Songwriter’s Showcase event is where Jeff met Ernie Hill, contest coordinator and showcase host, and a JHMF performing veteran. Ernie and Jeff became cyber friends. Then in November 2014, Jeff and his wife, Sydney, left Cheyenne and settled in Waldfischbach-Burgalben, Germany! Welcome back to the States Sydney and Jeff! After years of visiting back and forth as cyber friends, and comparing similar musical interests, Ernie asked Jeff to share a set with him at JHMF8.
Ernie Hill is a singer/songwriter/musician/wordsmith from the southern Ozark foothills in Arkansas. His music review/interviews are featured at Hartfordfest.com, nodepression.com, The Grateful Web, Cincygroove.com, ifiddlemag.com, wordsofernest.com, and The Louisville Picking Post, as well as other music publications. Ernie is the John Hartford Memorial Festival staff writer and also writes for the Walnut Valley Festival where his writing has been printed over 450,000 times over the last 20 years. Ernie coined our title, "The Most Laid Back Festival in America", also created and host/participates in the Story Songs Workshop, a concept set that probes the minds of story telling songwriters, going on it's fourth year at JHMF and 2nd year at the Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield KS, and is being considered for several other festivals. He and his wife Patti, wrote the festival theme song, “Tribute to John Hartford”, which was included on the 2015 festival cd, “Up On The Hill”.
Ernie has a regular column, "The Morning Bugle" at www.johnhartfordmemfest.com". Ernie is an inadvertent story teller and loves to connect with the audience. His quick sense of humor makes for a set of spontaneous unpredictability. Ernie has just self-published a book on out of the box creativity and the Muse called “The Cosmic Path to Melody and Lyric”, illustrated by JHMF super artist, Jon Griffin. www.wordsofernest.com. Follow Jeff at https://www.facebook.com/Foxholesounds.
Ernie Hill and Jeff Daugherty will surprise you and each other with their songwriting and Americana covers. This set will be a spontaneous play on the Muse by two like-minded pickers who have never performed together before.