Dan Bilger, Kenan Rainwater, and Barry Elkins jamming last year.
Music and Mushrooms with Barry Elkins
photos by Cindy Steele
~ by Cindy Steele
Barry Elkins will tell you things have changed a lot in Brown County over the years. He has lived here all his life and remembers when Nashville felt a lot like Mayberry.“ Punk Snider, the sheriff, didn’ t carry a gun and whatever he ate for dinner the inmates in the jail did, too. It was a small town and everybody knew everybody,” says Elkins. He calls the folks that moved here from cities“ come heres” and the natives“ from heres.”
“ There are a bunch of‘ come heres’ that are good people with a good heart— they care about what is happening.” His buddy Dan Bilger is one of those, a city boy from Chicago. Bilger is almost like a brother to Elkins. They have a special connection. They have been playing music together as Lucky and the Kid, and in several band configurations including the White Lightning Boys, for more than a decade. Elkins met Bilger while picking out at Bill Monroe’ s with Dan’ s neighbor Mike Nichols. Elkins knew Nichols since he was a teenager through his mom and dad’ s church.
Elkins grew up around music. His mom and dad played the guitar, literally together— his mom picked while his father held the guitar and made the chords with his left
Barry Elkins and grandchild Bryleah.
hand. His dad’ s mom played the banjo. Several family members on his mom’ s side of the family played music including his uncle Otis Todd, who hosted a jam at his place for many years. Elkins picked around with his brother’ s guitar but didn’ t buy his own instrument until he was married and had his first child.“ Smoke on the Water” was the first song he learned. Elkins’ s daughter Heather says her mom talks about hearing that song a lot when they were first together.
The late Sean Harris patiently taught Elkins to play rhythm guitar. Harris and Elkins were asked to fill in for some members of the White Lightning Boys for a few gigs and then stayed on. Their
38 Our Brown County March / April 2017