Nothin’ Fancy is celebrating their 10th anniversary as a band in 2004 and has two releases on the Pinecastle label. The band is also riding a current (2004) nomination for Best Emerging Artist in the 15th Annual International Bluegrass Music Association Awards to be announced on October 7th.

Nothin’ Fancy was formed in September of 1994 for the original purpose of competing in the East Coast Bluegrass Championship in Crimora, Virginia. Some of the members had their band roots in the East Coast Bluegrass Band and Nothin’ Fancy now has 5 full length CD albums in print. Their popularity has grown to the point of having made appearances at the Ryman Theatre in Nashville, the Lincoln Center in New York City, and they are the host of their own bluegrass festival in Buena Vista, Virginia every fall.

The members reside mostly in the Shenandoah Valley areas of Virginia. Mike Andes, lead singer and mandolin player, writes most of the band’s original material. He began playing at age ten. Mitchell Davis holds down the banjo position and sings bass in the quartets. Gary Ferris is the tenor voice and started playing guitar at age 35. Tony Shorter plays the upright S8 Kay bass and sings harmony. He was a charter member of the Virginia Tech Bluegrass Association. Chris Sexton, son of East Coast Bluegrass Band banjo player Buster Sexton, plays fiddle and sings “only in emergencies.” Chris suffers from having perfect pitch and keeps the band on key!

In addition to performing as a full time band, running a festival, recording, and traveling, the band also participates in taking their fans on bus trips to festivals as well as accompanying their fans on bluegrass cruises aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas. Is there anything they don’t do?

Nothin’ Fancy entertained the audience recently in August at Lil’ Margaret’s Bluegrass Festival in Leonardtown, Maryland during hurricane Charley. Bob Webster, our occasional Bluegrass Overnight host and producer of Stained Glass Bluegrass on Sunday mornings, visited with Nothin’ Fancy between sets and they all found a dry spot in a camper graciously loaned by a bluegrass supporter for this interview. If you listen very carefully, the sound in the background is not bacon frying but is the rain of the hurricane on the roof of the camper. Enjoy their humor and learn how this band survives the trials and challenges of being a working full time bluegrass band.