Allen Smith, left, and Bill Roughton unveiled a poster of the Marshall Tucker Band, the headline band at the 29th Annual Village Hospital Greer Family Fest set for May 3-4.
Dylan Arms will be performing Saturday, May 4 at 3 p.m. Arms advanced to tonight's American Idol round in Hollywood.
Arvie Bennett, Jr. and his band, Arvie Jr. Band, will make their debut at the Family Fest May 4 at 4 p.m. Pictured are Daniel "D-Train" Petty, left, and Bennett. Band members are Bennett, Petty (lead guitar), Marvel Carraway (drums) and David Smith (drums).
Tony Kouskolekas, President of the Village at Pelham Hospital, said the sponsorship of the Family Fest will include a bigger presence for the hospital with screenings, information and personnel available to talk about health care.
The Marshall Tucker Band will headline the 29th Annual Village Hospital Greer Family Fest scheduled May 3-4.
Village Hospital President Tony Kouskolekas, Greer Chamber President/CEO Allen Smith and Chairman of the Chamber Board Bill Roughton made the announcement at the chamber this afternoon.
Festival hours are Friday, May 3 6-10 p.m. and Saturday, May 4 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
A star-studded undercard of local talent will precede MTB's appearance. Becky Green will front the Marshall Tucker Band at 5-7 p.m., Arvie Bennett, Jr., and the Arvie Jr. Band, will perform from 4-7 p.m., Dylan Arms, appearing in American Idol Wednesday in Hollywood, entertains from 3-4 p.m. and Benton Blount will begin the Saturday entertainment from 12:30 - 2:30 p.m. Two stages will be used for the performances.
City Street Band opens the festival's entertainment on Friday from 7-10 p.m.
Activities returning are the Creation Station, KidsZone, Food Court and a variety of vendors.
Village Hospital is planning free screenings, tastings of healthy food and giveaways. "We're planning on having a big presence at Family Fest," said Kouskolekas. "We're committed to a great event with our services."
Smith said last year's event produced record crowds with Aaron Tippin as the headline act. "We expect a bigger turnout this year," Smith said. "Family Fest has a substantial economic impact in Greer."
Adele Langford, chair of the event committee, said more entertainment will be announced later. "We started on this the week after last year's festival," Langford said. "Bands like Marshall Tucker like to perform locally and we must plan well ahead to line them up."
Bennett said his career has taken a turn on the fast-track. “The past few months have been an amazing ride,” Bennett said. “I have gone from being a little known artist playing solo acoustic gigs to a well-known artist playing with a full-band all over the Carolinas and Georgia. My band is excited about the Greer Family Fest. This is an awesome opportunity for us to advance our career and to also say thank you to the Greer community who has supported us."
The Marshall Tucker Band, formed in 1972, has been recording for 40 years. The original MTB produced a series of hits including “Take the Highway”, “Fire on the Mountain”, “Heard It in a Love Song”, “Searchin’ for a Rainbow”, “This Ol’ Cowboy”, and “Can’t You See”.
Doug Gray and Jerry Eubanks, founding members of the band, resurrected the group in 1988. Tommy Caldwell died in 1980 from injuries received in a car wreck and the band eventually split in 1983.
The band, originally known as “Southern Rockers” later incorporated blues, jazz and country music into their repertoire.
The band’s name originated with a blind Spartanburg area piano tuner. While discussing band names in an old warehouse rented for rehearsals one evening, the name “Marshall Tucker” was inscribed on the warehouse door’s key. Thus the name was adopted with the band not realizing it was from the person who rented the space before the band.
Band members are D.B. Borden, drums, Pat Elwood, bass and vocals, Doug Gray, lead vocals and tambourine, Marcus James Henderson, keyboards, saxophone, flute and vocals and Rick Willis, guitar and vocals and Chris Hicks, guitar and vocals.
The 1973-80 original MTB members were: Tommy Caldwell, bass and vocals, Toy Caldwell, guitar and vocals, Jerry Eubanks, flute and saxophone, Doug Gray, guitar and vocals, George McCorkle, guitar, Paul Riddle, drums.