High Fidelity (Focal Point Friends of Old-Time Music)

Focal Point Friends of Old-Time Music welcome High Fidelity as they make their debut appearance at the Focal Point!

Many folks remember the great bluegrass records from the 1950s and ‘60s. The power and soul of that music has won the hearts of people across the globe. Few bands have come along in recent years that directly draw their influence from that classic era of the music’s history. High Fidelity is a rising group whose love and devotion to that music is unsurpassed. The name alone says it all: HIGH FIDELITY. How many record albums have you seen from the ‘50s and ‘60s that bear those words? Herein lies the heart of what this group of young performers is all about.

Formed in early 2014, the group received its first achievement with a first place win in the International Band Championship at the 40th Annual Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) Awards in February of 2014. They were nominated for International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) New Artist of the Year for three years in a row, alongside several other nominations in the industry.

The band consists of four outstanding musicians and singers who are steeped in the sounds of tradition. Jeremy Stephens, guitarist, banjoist, and lead vocalist for the group, has worked for the world famous gospel group The Chuck Wagon Gang, on the television show Ray Stevens’ Nashville, and most recently with Jesse McReynolds & the Virginia Boys. Corrina Rose Logston Stephens, fiddler and harmony vocalist, has worked with a who’s who of today’s traditional-based bluegrass performers, most notably Jesse McReynolds & the Virginia Boys and Jim Lauderdale. Kurt Stephenson handles banjo duties and harmony vocals. He is the 2010 National Bluegrass Banjo Champion. Multi-instrumentalist and harmony vocalist Daniel Amick, has won numerous instrumental contests across the southeast and is a recipient of IBMA’s 2019 Instrumentalist of the Year Momentum Award.

High Fidelity draws much of their inspiration from bands like Don Reno & Red Smiley, The Stanley Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Jim & Jesse, and a host of lesser known regional artists from the same era. Many have described them as the new Johnson Mountain Boys, interpreting classic era bluegrass through the fresh, young perspective of today’s generation. Maybe it is this quality that makes High Fidelity so warmly received and widely loved by every audience they perform for – both by the grandparents and the grandchildren.