Bluegrass On Broad Evening Concert Series, 2013, Kingsport, Tennessee

Duty Free Bluegrass Band Band
Members are: Charlie Powers- guitar Rick Powers- banjo Bobby Love- mandolin Hal Boyd- bass Tim Laughlin- fiddle

The older gentleman in the blue shirt seen here doing his style of flat foot dancing is Fred Skeens, a regular fixture at Bluegrass On Broad. Sadly Fred Glenn Skeens, 89, of Church Hill passed away in November 2017. A graveside service was conducted on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at Holston View Cemetery with Pastor Andy Sensabaugh officiating. Fred was retired from A.F.G. industries in Kingsport and also worked at Food City in Weber City for several years. Fred was of the Baptist faith. His favorite pastime was showing off his flat foot dancing skills at Bluegrass On Broad in Kingsport as well as the popular Carter Fold in nearby Hiltons, Virginia and many other venues throughout the region.

About "Bluegrass On Broad Concert Series"

This once popular sponsor and Kingsport funded free Friday evening concert series once stretched from early May to last weekend in August with the ETSU (Appalachian Studies Department) back to school Bluegrass Pride Band Concert. Tom (TK) Keller was the visionary that got this concert series started with the support and assistance of many local folks including the late James Alan Shelton (guitarist and Road Manager for "Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys"). The passing of James Alan Shelton in May 2014 and the retirement of Tom Keller from leadership of the Bluegrass On Broad organization at the beginning of the 2014 season were two pivotal events of 2014 that has seen this concert shrink and merge into the Twilight Alive series and finally disappear from Twilight Alive in 2018. Financial sponsorship and city funding has obviously been a problem since the post 2008 fallout of the Great Recession. This is obvious from the shrinking list of sponsors on the stage banners from 2009 through 2018 and the continual shortening of the season.