At 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 22, Earlville Opera House will welcome bluegrass band Audie Blaylock and Redline to the stage. (Submitted photo)

EARLVILLE — At 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 22, Earlville Opera House welcomes a familiar band to bluegrass music: Audie Blaylock and Redline! Having grown up in an Appalachian musical family, Audie’s musical education started early and led to him sharing the stage with some of bluegrass’ finest and most respected artists, including first generation bluegrass character and giant, Jimmy Martin.

If you’ve heard Audie Blaylock before, you know what to expect. Blaylock is well known for straight-ahead, hard-driving bluegrass, and he delivers. The band provides his powerful lead vocals on most songs, and the trio supporting Audie is strong and traditional sounding.

A big part of the drive in Blaylock’s band is provided by the banjo, and Evan Ward does a great job of propelling the songs, whether it’s a straight-ahead bluegrass number, a country shuffle, or a ballad. Fiddler Mason Wright provides nice solos and fills while also leaving space for Ward to push the music. Matt Wallace played the bass at first, but was later replaced by Reed Jones.

Audie Blaylock and Redline have an unofficial motto of sorts: “It’s all the same thing. Classic cars, forward rolls, love, art, loss, faith...life.” This cohesive connectedness and a willingness to see the world through the lens of tradition without boundaries makes Redline, now in its second decade of existence, a unique fixture in the world of bluegrass, where at times the music can indeed sound like “the same thing.”

But for Redline, “the same thing” means it all comes from the same place, which enables them to create music that honors tradition through innovation. And they are not the only ones to have noticed. Audie has garnered such prestigious awards as the IBMA’s Instrumental Group of the Year and Entertainer of the Year, he’s been nominated for both Guitar Player of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, he’s had numerous #1 and charting singles on the charts, his music has been featured as the theme song for Travel Channel’s series titled Backroads Gold, and he has even been nominated for a Grammy.

Tickets are $36 for general admission and $32 for members (become a member!), with college students receiving half off general admission. Youth 17 and under always $10. Premiums apply to the first four rows.

Thank you to our performance series sponsors: Community Foundation for South Central New York; Live Music Society; NBT Bank; Preferred Mutual Insurance Company; sfcu; Bruce Ward, Architect; Mid York Press; Fred’s Inn; and Poolville Country Store B&B.

Earlville Opera House is located at 18 East Main Street in the charming Village of Earlville, NY and is handicap accessible. Please check our website for the latest COVID protocols, updates, and for further information on our programs and services, and like us on Facebook!

Events are made possible, in part, with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor of New York and the New York State Legislature, and through the generosity of EOH members.

-Information provided by EOH