Bios
Heather Berry Mabe
Lead Vocals/Guitar
Heather Berry-Mabe, born and raised in Sherando, Virginia at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, grew up playing and singing bluegrass, folk, country, and gospel music. Over the years she has recorded several albums including two for Tom T. & the late Miss Dixie Hall's label, Blue Circle Records. She has sang all over the country at many different venues including the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. A two time IBMA award winner for her work with the Daughters of Bluegrass, and a two time SPBGMA female vocalist of the year nominee, Heather has been gifted with a "mountain clear voice," to quote Miss Dixie Hall. The late Miss Dixie also stated "Tom T. and I have had Heather pegged for some time now as being as awesome as Allison, of the caliber of Emmylou and unassumingly sharing the legendary quality of Maybelle." Peter Cooper, Grammy nominated singer, songwriter, and producer, had this to say of Heather: “In the music business, we spend a lot of time talking about purity, beauty, tone, pitch and heart. Then Heather Berry sings and we just shut up and listen.”
TONY MABE
BANJO, GUITAR, VOCALS
Tony Mabe, Jr. resides with his wife Heather in his hometown of Walnut Cove, North Carolina. He has been playing music since the age of six, when he pecked out his first hymn on the piano with no instruction whatsoever. Since that time he's mastered many instruments including the piano, bluegrass and clawhammer style banjo, acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, bass, and trumpet. Over the years he's played with several well known bluegrass bands including, The James King Band, The Jeanette Williams Band, Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass, Bobby Atkins & The Countrymen, and Travers Chandler & Avery County. He has won and placed numerous times at fiddlers conventions with his banjo, including his second place prize at the Allegheny Fiddlers Convention in the clawhammer category in 2010, and third place at the Galax Fiddlers Convention on bluegrass banjo in 2011. His musicianship is exceptional and first class and his vocals are soulful and pure.
Johnathon dillon
MANDOLIN, VOCALS, BUS EXPERT
Johnathan Dillon, from Wirtz, VA, began playing music at the age of seven. Jon started with mandolin then later moved on to banjo, guitar, and bass. He began playing local shows with his band The Johnathan Dillon Band for about five years. Later he spent three years as a member of Michelle Nixon & Drive where he recorded one album, "A Place I Belong." In August of 2013 he began touring as a member of Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice. Johnathan lists some of his mandolin influences as Dempsey Young, Adam Steffey, Doyle Lawson, Herschel Sizemore and Dan Tyminski, just to name a few.
In addition to playing with Red Camel Collective, Jon has been a member of the Junior Sisk Band for 10 years. He is a talented young man, playing and singing at the very top level. He also has driven bus for too many bands to mention here. He is a stellar bus mechanic and driver.
Curt Love
BASS
Curt Love was 3 years old when he heard bluegrass for the first time. It was at a IIIrd Tyme Out concert and until then, he didn’t really care for music. But that soon changed and he fell in love with bluegrass. At 8 years old, Curt got a mandolin from his great uncle and tried to learn to play it although he says, he was never very good. One of Bill Monroe’s former banjo players, Bill Simpson, helped him learn a great deal on it and gave him some pointers when he decided to start learning the banjo later on. Thirteen year old Love, bought his first banjo and played it all the time. Eventually he started getting out playing with other musicians and went to a local jam where he met Gary and Sandy Hatley. Incidentally, Gary later became Curt’s electronics instructor in college. Gary and Sandy also took him to his first bluegrass festival, the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver bluegrass festival in Denton, NC. Through the years they have immersed Curt in bluegrass taking him along to festivals, shows, fiddlers conventions, and even Nashville a few times. They have a family band, The Hatley Family, and they have all been very kind and generous in helping Curt along his musical journey. Curt even played his first official gig with them. Over time, Love picked up on playing bass and guitar as well, and another talented, multi-instrumentalist from North Carolina was born. Curt Love has played banjo in a few local and done some fill in work for several bands as well. As well as playing with Red Camel Collective, is has been a member of the Junior sisk band for 4 years.