Darren Beachley

Darren Beachley was born in June 1967 in Frederick, Maryland. Darren was influenced early in his life by the music of Jimmy Martin, Flatt and Scruggs, The Osborne Brothers and The Seldom Scene and like many young players Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. Darren started playing Mandolin at age 4 and by age 9 was playing upright bass. Darren began his professional career with South Central Bluegrass in August of 1988. The band would record 2 projects for The Webco label and the song "I Pressed through the Crowd" would reach number 17 on the Bluegrass Unlimited National Survey. In September of 1991, Darren was hired to play dobro with the legendary Bill Harrell and the Virginians. Bill is quoted to say "I need a dobro and Darren is the best". Darren carries many of the lessons he learned from Bill to the stage today.

Darren would have the opportunity to further his musical career when Norman Wright of  The Country Gentlemen called and asked him to be the tenor singer and guitar player in a new band that he was forming called "The Travelers". Darren would remain with The Travelers until October of 2003. Darren decided at this point that it was time to try his hand at being band leader and lead singer.  That is when Darren Beachley and The Maryland Line was formed. The band released it's first CD "Remembrances" which was nominated for 5 WAMMIE's (Washington Area Music Awards).The follow up recording to "Remembrances" would be "I Love You To The Moon and Back" released on Tom T And Dixie Hall's Blue Circle records. The title track written by The Hall's and Larry Mcpeake would recieve a Wammie nomination for bluegrass album.

In November 2005 Darren would recieve a call from Doyle Lawson asking him to join Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. Darren would spend 3 years with DL&Q serving as Lead/Tenor singer and bass player for the first year and a half, then switching to guitar for the last year and a half. During those 3 years DL&Q would win International Bluegrass Music Assocations Vocal Group of  The year in 2006 and 2007. The first song Darren recorded with DL&Q "He Lives In Me" would win IBMA's gospel recorded event in 2006 and 2007. "He Lives in Me" would also become the second longest charting southern gospel song in history. Other highlights included the album More Behind The Picture" which spent 6 months atop The National Bluegrass Survey and peaked at number 2 on Billborad. "Sadie's Got Her New Dress On" would spend 6 months atop The Bluegrass Survey as number 1 song and would also become a number 1 video on CMT's pure pack 12. 2008 would bring "Help Is on The Way" which climbed to number one on the southern gospel charts, The first bluegrass band to crossover to the southern gospel charts and reach number one.

Darren is gifted with one of the clearest, most pure high lead and tenor voices in Bluegrass Music today. Many people compare Darren to Bobby Osborne and many other fine tenors . Darren makes his home in Brunswick, MD, with his wife Sherri and his three children. 

Mike Auldridge

With his skill and his broad definition of the meaning of bluegrass music, Mike Auldridge became known over his multi-decade career as a master of the Dobro, or resonator guitar. Raised in Kensington, MD, he began playing guitar at 12, adding banjo when he was 16 and settling on Dobro at 17. In 1954, he made his first radio appearance on a local show, playing in a band with his brother, Dave. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1967 and became a commercial artist, while continuing to play at local clubs. In 1969, he joined The New Shades of Grass. That group soon gained a strong following and helped highlight Auldridge's unique expressive style on the Dobro. He joined The Seldom Scene in 1971, and remained with that group through multiple personnel changes up until the mid-'90s, then later re-joined them on a part-time basis in 2002. The group became pioneers of the newgrass sound which incorporated elements of jazz, folk, and rock into traditional bluegrass harmonies. Their eclectic material spanned original compositions as well as cover songs that ranged from J.J. Cale's "After Midnight" to Eric Clapton's "Lay Down Sally."

Such flexibility provided a good jumping off point for Auldridge's solo work, which was aided in the beginning by several members of The Seldom Scene. Auldridge's first two solo albums for Takoma, Dobro and Blues & Bluegrass, both feature a melding of unconventional cover songs, like Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly"; deep emotive playing; and the sometimes welcome, sometimes out-of-place contributions of high-profile guest stars like Ricky Skaggs and Linda Ronstadt. As he continued to record through the '70s for labels like Flying Fish, he also kept busy doing session work for Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Jonathan Edwards, and Jimmy Arnold. His work in the late '80s and early '90s for Sugar Hill, especially Eight String Swing, took his multi-genre experimentations a step further. In the mid-'90s, Auldridge transferred his energies from The Seldom Scene to Chesapeake, a more serious band with a smaller and more stable lineup. That band produced several recordings for Sugar Hill and also helped spawn a pair of trio recordings made by Auldridge, Jimmy Gaudreau, and Richard Bennett, 2000's This Old Town and 2001's Blue Lonesome Wind.

Visit www.mikeauldridge.com


Tom Gray

Long a familiar face in acoustic music circles, Tom Gray is the first bassist inducted into the Hall of Fame by the International Bluegrass Music Association. He has played on well over 100 recordings with many artists. He has gained a following among other bassists, attracted by his melodic bass lines.

Tom was born Feb. 1, 1941 in Chicago. When he was seven, his family moved to Washington D.C. While growing up there, Tom became part of the active bluegrass music scene in the 1950s – before it became known as bluegrass. He played guitar, then mandolin, but really always wanted to play a bass. He was tuned in to the bass line of any music he heard, and had ideas for bass lines before he’d ever touched the instrument. One day after a jam session, a friend, Tom Morgan, left a bass fiddle in Gray’s basement. That was the beginning of Tom’s identity as one of bluegrass music’s most awarded bassists. The first major artist Tom performed with was Bill Clifton. John Duffey asked Tom to play with Bill’s Dixie Mountain Boys in 1959. Since then, Tom has recorded with Bill on ten recording projects from 1962 to 2004. They have toured overseas together in 1976, 1992, 2001, and 2002.

In 1960 at the age of 19, Tom was asked to join the Country Gentlemen as their bassist. In the next four years, that quartet of Charlie Waller, John Duffey, Eddie Adcock and Tom Gray established a reputation as the World’s leading progressive (for that time) bluegrass band. It was this configuration of the Gents, now called the “Classic Country Gentlemen” that in 1996 was inducted by the International Bluegrass Music Association into the Hall of Fame. They recorded five highly acclaimed albums in those four years.

During the late 60s, Tom played in many bands in the Washington area. These included Benny & Vallie Cain, Buzz Busby, Leon Morris, Bill Emerson & Cliff Waldron. Tom also played some dates as a temporary band member with the Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse, and Bill Monroe. Family responsibilities made Tom decline an offer to join Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. Meanwhile, there were more picking parties. A giant leap in Tom’s musical career came in 1971 with the founding of The Seldom Scene. Tom teamed up with old friend John Duffey, plus Mike Auldridge, Ben Eldridge and John Starling to create this groundbreaking group. Presenting their music from an urban perspective, they redefined smooth in bluegrass with Tom’s bass lines underpinning it all. This group converted many new fans to bluegrass. By the time Tom left the band in 1987, they had recorded 14 albums, and won numerous awards. During this period, Tom was voted best bluegrass bassist eight times.

For the remainder of the 1980s, Tom was a member of Paul Adkins’ Borderline Band. For the decade of the 1990s, he toured and recorded with his friend Gary Ferguson. For three years in the mid-90s, the Gray, Green and Travers Trio drew a local crowd for their unique approach to all kinds of music. From 1994 to 2008, Tom was a member of the Federal Jazz Commission, which had a busy schedule playing traditional jazz. From 1998 to 2003, Tom was a member of the Hazel Dickens Band.

Tom and his wife, Sally Govers Gray live in Kensington Maryland, and are proud parents of three children and four grandchildren. Tom has retired from his 32-year day-job career in the Cartographic Division of the National Geographic Society, but still does occasional map work for their Book Division. 


Norman Wright

Norman, who now lives in northern Virginia, began his professional music career playing with The Bluegrass Cardinals. After three years with the Cardinals, He worked with Senator Robert Byrd doing campaigns, the Grand Ole Opry and Hee-Haw. After a brief hiatus he joined the Country Gentlemen. Soon after leaving the Gents he freelanced and toured with Bill Harrell, Bill Clifton, Paul Adkins and Borderline and others until he and Kevin Church formed the Wright/Church Band. Norman is a prolific songwriter and many artists have recorded his material including Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, the Country Gentlemen, the Bluegrass Cardinals, IIIrd Tyme Out and others.

Norman and his wife, Debbie reside in Virginia and have three wonderful children.  Norman spends his time songwriting, producing and recording band projects at The Wright Place Studio in Falls Church, Virginia.

Mark Delaney

Mark is a native of Maryland and began playing the banjo seriously at the age of eleven under the tutelage of his Kentucky born grandfather. Not long after, he was playing professionally in regional bands in the Washington, D.C. area including many years with Arnold Hobbs and Partners at Partners Two club in Centreville, Va. Mark's inventive approach to Scruggs style playing made him a favorite with bluegrass audiences in the Washington-Baltimore area. 

Mark has worked with Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen, Norman Wright and The Travelers, Darren Beachley and The Maryland Line, Badly Bent, The Patuxent Partners, and The Good Deal Bluegrass Band. In addition to performing and recording Mark teaches banjo and mandolin. Highlights in Mark's career include appearances with bluegrass legends Charlie Waller and Buzz Busby, as well as recording with Mike Auldridge and Frank Wakefield.

Mark resides in Odenton, Maryland with his wife Ruth.  He spends his free time working on motorcycles, playing banjo and piano.

Visit Mark's Website www.markdelaney.net