The Little Roy and Lizzy Show will perform a concert of bluegrass music on Monday, September 23, at 7 p.m. at the Collins Theatre, 120 West Emerson Street, in downtown Paragould, Arkansas. The concert is part of the Bluegrass Monday concert series presented by KASU, 91.9 FM. KASU will literally “pass the hat” during the concert to collect money to pay the group. The suggested donation is $5 per person.
Little Roy Lewis is the youngest child of eight of Roy Lewis Senior and Pauline Lewis of Lincolnton, Georgia. Members of the Lewis family began performing music publicly in the 1940s. The family released their first LP record in 1951, and they produced almost sixty commercial recordings during their career. The family performed together until the late 2000s at which time the group retired due to the declining health of several members of the family. Throughout those decades, the family averaged 200 concerts each year. The Lewis Family also had their own weekly TV show which ran for 38 years.
Little Roy Lewis began playing banjo at age six, and he won his first talent competition at age eight. He started playing in the family band at age nine after his older brother entered the army. He appeared on all of the family’s recordings, and he began producing solo albums in the 1960s.
Lewis is known for his on-stage antics. He sings, tells stories, tells jokes, and plays many different instruments. He is in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America Hall of Greats, the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame, and the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame. When the family band retired, Lewis began recording and performing with Lizzy Long as the “Little Roy and Lizzy Show.”
Lizzy Long is also from Lincolnton, Georgia. She began playing music at an early age, first on piano, and later learning to play fiddle, guitar, autoharp, bass, banjo and mandolin. She attended college at Glenville State College in West Virginia as part of the College Bluegrass Music Certificate Scholarship program.
During her career, Long has performed and recorded with bluegrass legends Mac Wiseman, Jim & Jesse, Rhonda Vincent, Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs as well as country artists Patty Loveless and Ty Herndon.
Long is one of the youngest members ever inducted into America’s Old Time Fiddler’s Country Hall of Fame. She has also recorded music with the Daughters of Bluegrass, a large all-female ensemble which has won multiple International Bluegrass Music Association awards. Long has also won three Dove awards for Bluegrass Song of the Year with Little Roy Lewis and one Dove award in that category with Rhonda Vincent.
For their concert in Paragould, Lewis and Long will be joined onstage by guitarist Tyler Biddix, mandolinist Matthew Songmaker, and bassist Terry Poirier.
More information about the Little Roy and Lizzy Show is available at http://www.littleroyandlizzy.com.
Seating at the concert is first-come, first-served. Doors to the theatre will open at 6 p.m.
In addition to the concert, Terry’s Café, 201 South Pruett Street in Paragould, opens on Bluegrass Mondays to welcome bluegrass music fans. The café serves a country-style buffet meal beginning at 4:30 p.m. on the evenings of Bluegrass Monday concerts. Concessions will also be available at the Collins Theatre.
Bluegrass Monday concerts are on the fourth Monday night of each month. These concerts are presented with support from Bibb Chiropractic Center, the Posey Peddler, Holiday Inn Express and Suites of Paragould, and KASU.
KASU, 91.9 FM, is the 100,000 watt public broadcasting service of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. For more information, contact KASU Program Director Marty Scarbrough at mscarbro@astate.edu or 870-972-2367. Bluegrass Monday is also on Facebook (search “Bluegrass Monday”).
