Life-long Choctaw County resident and musician, Alan Sibley, will be featured on RFD-TV show The Bluegrass Trail in the near future.
Sibley stated that around the end of this past October he emailed the network with the idea for a bluegrass show.
He said, “Surprisingly, they jumped on it. You know how sometimes you think, I’ll just do this, what have I got to lose. I just reached out to them and told them that I had an idea for a traditional, bluegrass show. And they emailed me back within 15 minutes and said let’s do it.”
No air date or time has been set for the program, at the time of this writing.
Sibley traveled to Nashville to record the music portion of the show, in the RFD-TV studios, but also recorded lead-in spots at different locations around Choctaw County, including Sonny’s Smokehouse in Ackerman, The Council House Café and the Colonel James Drane House in French Camp and the historic Spring Hill Baptist Church, which was first organized in the early 1800s.
The local spots were filmed around the midd;e of April.
Sibley was first drawn to bluegrass music when he was around 13 years old. He had already begun playing the guitar at the time, when he was invited to attend a singing at White Hill Freewill Baptist Church in Webster County. There he heard the Sullivan Family from St. Stephens, Alabama. And he knew from that time forward that he wanted to play bluegrass music.
Sibley stated that after hearing the Sullivans play the banjo, mandolin and fiddle that he knew he wanted to play those instruments as well, and fell in love with bluegrass music.
Sibley said that he later learned that the Sullivans were one of the first bluegrass gospel bands, and actually traveled with the band from the age of 15 until he was 19.
He said, “I spent those years traveling all over the United States with the Sullivan Family, and learning how to play.” Sibley stated that he wasn’t very good when he started traveling with the band, and had to learn while on the road. And Sibley was afforded the opportunity to sing with legendary bluegrass artist, Charlie Louvin.
Sibley is quite an accomplished musician, able to play the guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, upright bass and electric bass.
He added, “We played a lot of big festivals, with some of the best bluegrass bands in the country, and I wanted to get better. And by the time I left them, when I was 19 years old, I could pick then.”
Sibley and his wife, Melissa, were married in the Spring Hill Baptist Church and still reside in Choctaw County.
