Tennessee HeartStrings Band presents concert, workshops at Renaissance Center

Release Date: 12/20/2004. Expired: 1/29/2005

Bluegrass is riding a wave of popularity that has seen the music showing up on numerous movie soundtracks and even producing multiple-artist international tours. One of the unique sounds of bluegrass being heard at festivals and venues around the country right now belongs to the Tennessee HeartStrings Band, a Nashville-based, all-woman quartet of accomplished musicians and vocalists.

Tennessee HeartStrings Band brings its crowd-pleasing mixture of traditional and original acoustic music to The Renaissance Center in Dickson for a Jan. 29 concert. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $6 for children under 13.

Since first taking the stage on Valentine’s Day 2001, Tennessee HeartStrings Band has been growing in popularity in the Nashville area with shows characterized by tight vocal harmonies and an energetic stage performance.

The band has performed at festivals across the eastern United States, including the International Bluegrass Music Association, Appalachian Fiddle and Bluegrass Festival and the National Walnut Valley Festival, and is regularly featured at the Station Inn in Nashville.

And the performances have been getting noticed.

“The band’s joy in playing together and their warm version of the high lonesome sound is reminiscent of Alison Krauss, or the more recent recordings of Dolly Parton. Wonderful stuff,” says the Nashville Scene.

“They have an easy-going sound, plenty of strong material and a bold vocal blend that sounds a lot like Emmylou Harris’ early acoustic projects,” says Craig Havighurst, reviewer for The Tennessean.

“I love it that any one of them can be found singing lead at any given time. Great harmonies, great instrumentals and wonderful original songs,” said recording artist Kathy Mattea.

Tennessee HeartStrings Band consists of Bo Jamison on rhythm guitar, Terri Corker on bass, Karen Pendley on fiddle and Casey Henry playing banjo, while all four members contribute lead and harmony vocals.

A singer since the age of two, Jamison grew up in Middle Tennessee listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights and singing in church. In the 1970s she toured with a country band called the Plainsmen before moving to the East Coast to front her own bluegrass band, Dark Hollow. After the band broke up, she concentrated more on her song writing and she has won several Chris Austin Songwriting Awards at MerleFest in North Carolina.

Jamison returned to Tennessee in 1999 to be closer to her family and run her farm. She has written or co-written songs for some of the bluegrass industry’s most successful acts, with songs recorded by Don Rigsby, Larry Sparks, Jeannette Williams, Gary Ferguson and Cliff Waldron.

Pendley is carrying on the fiddling tradition of her father, Carl Joyner. She began her country music career at Country Adventures Theater in North Carolina, where she performed for eight years as a featured vocalist and instrumentalist. She opened shows for Reba McEntire, Tanya Tucker, Lori Morgan, Emmylou Harris, Steve Wariner, Ronnie Milsap, Gene Watson, Sawyer Brown, Ronnie McDowell, Mel Tillis and Sweethearts of the Rodeo, among others.

After moving to Nashville in 1991, Pendley toured the country with the Nashville Country Music Revue, was staff fiddler and vocalist at the Nashville Palace and performed at Opryland. She has toured with Mindy McCready, Julie Reeves and Lila McCann and backed up Grand Ole Opry stars such as Ricky Van Shelton, Connie Smith, Vern Gosdin, Box Car Willie, Little Jimmy Dickens, Bill Anderson and the late Johnny Russell.

Corker spent many years in country music, part of the Shootin’ Star Band that played all over her native West Virginia and for more than 10 years was a show member of the Wheeling Jamboree. While there, she met Stella Parton and eventually joined her band playing rhythm guitar and singing backup on the road.

She moved to Nashville in the late 1980s and has hosted several successful songwriters’ nights while also being a part of Girls in a Circle, which performs regularly at the Bluebird Café. Corker has recorded two projects containing all original music and was introduced to the world of bluegrass as co-writer of Journey On Believer, recorded by Wild and Blue and various other groups.

Henry grew up in a bluegrass household with Red and Murphy Henry, respected musicians in their own right. At age 12, she started playing bass and two years later joined her parents’ band. At 15, she switched to banjo and throughout high school and college played with various local bands and national acts. After graduation from the University of Virginia, Henry recorded her first solo album of mostly original tunes called Real Women Drive Trucks.

She moved to Nashville in 2001 and has since worked with several artists, including Tim Graves and Cherokee, Jim Hurst, Uncle Earl and June Carter Cash. Henry released an instructional video on melodic banjo playing and currently gives banjo lessons, teaches at camps and workshops and works as a freelance journalist for bluegrass publications.

For more information on the Tennessee HeartStrings Band’s Jan. 29 concert at The Renaissance Center, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets, call the box office at (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.

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