James Reams & the Barnstormers Biography
James Reams & the Barnstormers
James Reams & the Barnstormers Biography
James Reams & The Barnstormers is a traditional bluegrass band based in New York City. Guitar-player and singer James Reams is originally from London, Kentucky, but moved to Freedom, Wisconsin, as a teenager with his family. He moved to NYC in the mid-1980s. The band has recorded two albums - Barnstormin' (2001) and Troubled Times (2005) - and tours throughout the Northeast, mid-Atlantic states and the Ohio Valley.
Members of the band are James Reams (guitar, lead vocals), Mark Farrell (fiddle, mandolin, harmony vocals), Doug Nicolaisen (banjo), and Nick Sullivan (upright bass, harmony vocals).
In addition to the Barnstormers, Reams, along with some members of the Barnstormers, records as James Reams, Walter Hensley & The Barons of Bluegrass. Walter Hensley, also known as the "Banjo Baron of Baltimore," was a fixture in the Baltimore/Washington DC bluegrass circuit during the late 1950s through the 1980s. After a 30-year hiatus from recording, he recorded the band's first CD, self-titled "James Reams, Walter Hensley & The Barons of Bluegrass," which was released in 2003 and was nominated by a committee of the International Bluegrass Music Association as one of seven nominees for Recorded Event of the Year. The Reams/Hensley second CD, Wild Card, was released in 2006.
James Reams also has recorded in the old-time string band genre with Tom Paley (founding member of the influential New Lost City Ramblers) on banjo and Bill Christophersen on fiddle. As The Mysterious Redbirds, the trio recorded one album, released in 2000.
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