InTouch with Southern Kentucky June 2020 | Page 31

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
LaMay and Reese are in
perfect harmony together
BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
COMMONWEALTH JOURNAL
Joe LaMay and Sherri Reese
aren’t local products. But
they’ve become as much
a part of the fabric of
the local music scene as
anyone born and raised in Pulaski
County.
The native New Yorkers -- Reese
from Fulton, LaMay a Rochester
man -- made a new Kentucky home
after a visit to the south in 2002,
when they traveled to Nashville to
see friends play at the Station Inn.
“On the way home, we drove up
to Rosine, Ky. (in Ohio County)
to see the renovated Bill Monroe
homeplace,” said LaMay, referencing
the iconic singer-songwriter known
as the “Father of Bluegrass.”
LaMay continued, “I had written
a song in memory of Bill Monroe,
called ‘The Old Man Has Gone,’ and
was intending to leave a copy at the
museum. When we arrived, they
were filming and episode of The
Cumberland Highlanders TV show.
We mentioned to the producer that
we had a song about Bill Monroe
and they filmed us performing the
song for the show.”
LaMay and Reese were invited
back that year and the next to
perform at the Jerusalem Ridge
Bluegrass Festival in Rosine and
several of the Kentucky musicians
June 2020 In Touch with Southern Kentucky • 31