Biography

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Ellen Nagase
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THE FORBES FAMILY - A FORBES FAMILY TREASURY - VOL. 2 (REB-7526), 2015

Musicians
Homer Forbes: Banjo, Fiddle, Vocals
Lisa Forbes: Vocals
Jay Forbes: Mandolin, Vocals
Lori Forbes: Bass, Vocals
Tracy Keenan: Guitar

Production Credits
Produced by David Freeman
Remastered by David Glasser at Airshow Mastering, Boulder, CO

If you are unfamiliar with The Forbes Family, you are about to hear some of the loveliest harmonies you will ever hear, sung with a tasteful, gentle humility that is rare today in music and in life in general. And if you have heard any of the work of this group, you will be excited to see the best of their early recordings available once again on two compact discs—including some songs that have never before been issued in any form!

The four members of the family—Homer, Jay, Lori and Lisa—developed their singing style at very early ages, influenced by the work of The Marshall Family, The Country Gentlemen and Doyle Lawson, among others. What was unusual was the fact that they were born and raised in central Pennsylvania, not in the usual traditional bluegrass hot bed of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. But Harrisonburg and central Pennsylvania was in fact a major market for Southern Gospel, and the Forbes Family learned some of their songs from the high profile, nationally known groups like the Florida Boys and the Happy Goodman Family—they later adapted some of these to a Bluegrass style.

The group began singing together in 1977 when they were in their early teens, and they were only 17, 18, 19 and 20 when they moved to North Carolina in hopes of gaining further experience and exposure in one of the key markets in the country for Bluegrass gospel music. A few regionally released projects generated considerable publicity for the band and brought them to the attention of the famous Easter Brothers of Mount Airy, whom would soon help them land a contract with Rebel Records. The Forbes Family would go on to release four albums for Rebel during the mid to late 1980s, and it is from those spirited recordings that the songs for these two volumes were chosen.

This anthology features a beautiful selection of songs from a wide variety of sources—from older classics like “The Prettiest Flowers Will Be Blooming,” the a cappella “Gloryland” and the lovely “Gleams of That Golden Morning” to several excellent contemporary pieces like Claire Lynch’s “Come Unto Me,” “The Other Side of Life” by Alan O’Bryant and the Dolly Parton favorite “Sacred Memories” (one of six previously unreleased tracks on this collection!). Ron Block, the versatile banjoist/guitarist with Alison Krauss’ Union Station and a longtime admirer of The Forbes Family, adds a praising tribute to the group with his poignant liner notes.

Although they appeared on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion and were sought for overseas tours and various festivals, The Forbes Family gave up extensive traveling in the late 1980s in order to raise their own families. However, they left us with a wonderful legacy of superior recorded material—much of it included on these two CDs. This was a special kind of group that comes along only once in a long while.