After a whirlwind 2020, rising Bluegrass group Lindley Creek is getting into the holiday spirit with the release of their brand new recording, Everyone’s a Kid at Christmas. Released via Pinecastle Records, it was produced by Jim VanCleve and was written by Barry Lyn Ricks and Timothy Joe Stafford.
The powerful tune is available for download and streaming here.
We set out to create a recording that would be timeless. So many things about Christmas remind us of memories shared with friends and family. We wanted to capture those warm memories of wrapping presents, hot chocolate, stockings and children playing in the snow. This is the perfect song for that! We are so thankful for the opportunity to bring a new classic song to Bluegrass listeners and hope to win over more people to the music we all love – Lindley Creek.
Everyone’s a Kid at Christmas is a slower feel-good recording that showcases lead singer Katie Greer’s powerhouse vocals. The song looks to capture the essence of the true holiday spirit, with lyrics that are very relatable with a unique and festive vibe throughout. It stays true to the band’s sound, which has been defined by their breakout success this year. In celebration of the new Christmas track, Lindley Creek is gearing up for a special surprise. The day after Thanksgiving, they’re set to debut the official video for the single. Be sure to check out Bluegrass Today, who will give the exclusive world premiere.
Lindley Creek first burst onto the national scene with their debut single I Gotta Go, released earlier this year. Written by Ashby Frank, the song has seen tremendous success, going on to peak at No. 2 on the Bluegrass Today Weekly Airplay Chart. The follow-up single The Mockingbird’s Voice has seen similar success, also debuting on the chart. The Jim VanCleve produced project Freedom, Love, And The Open Road (see video clip below) has spent a total of 10 weeks inside the Top Ten of Roots Music Report’s Contemporary Bluegrass Album Chart, and continues to chart high. The band’s free-spirit and unique sound are on full display throughout the record – featuring a combination of roots music and gospel influences – Lindley Creek’s one-of-a-kind style is highlighted on all 11 recordings.
To learn more about Lindley Creek and everything they have coming up, check out their official website. You’ll find latest news stories, upcoming tour dates and more.
More About Lindley Creek:
The story of Lindley Creek, begins over a decade earlier when the Greer Family collectively discovered the bluegrass genre. Hailing from the Ozark Mountains and the prairie lands of Missouri, Lindley Creek features Kathie Greer on guitar, songwriting and vocals; husband John Greer on bass; daughter Katie Greer on mandolin, songwriting and lead vocals; and son Jase Greer on fiddle, songwriting and harmony vocals.
When their kids were young, Kathie and John Greer were seeking music that they could play around the house that the whole family could share. Gospel music was already in their life, but one day bluegrass music found its way into the mix, and it changed everything for the Greer Family.
Kathie and John Greer grew up in the farm country of Missouri. Kathie’s father worked for TV and radio stations while raising upwards of 1,200 hogs back at the family farm. She learned to play classical piano as a kid, yet when a chance opportunity for her to perform country music in a local band came along, Kathie immersed herself deep into that genre. Soon, she fell in love with artists such as George Strait, Reba McEntire, Patsy Cline, George Jones and more John Greer grew up on a dairy farm in his family’s area of the Show-Me State and would go on to work in the agricultural industry.
While still in high school, John and his future bride-to-be Kathie met while they were both members of the Future Farmers of America. Once married and raising their kids Katie, Jase and Tate, Kathie and John were looking for music to play in the home that little kids could also listen to and appreciate. They still loved country music, but it became a bit awkward to be blasting songs about cheating and getting drunk and so on with toddlers wanting to repeat the lyrics all of the time.
Our Sunday school teacher played bluegrass music with his kids. One day we went to one of those ‘Sunday night sit in a circle and sing’ events with them and we all loved it – Kathie Greer.
I told that Sunday school teacher that I loved what you are doing here, playing music with your family and everything and he suggested we could be doing this too. Ofcourse none of us know how to play any of these instruments but he suggested that we could start by buying a mandolin and start learning – John Greer.
John came home and suggested that we learn how to play music together with our kids, and I thought about it and said yes That simple spark led to all in the Greer Family becoming bluegrass musicians – Kathie Greer.
As the kids grew older, Kathie picked up the guitar she had owned since her college days and finally learned how to play it. John took up the bass, daughter Katie grabbed the mandolin, while brothers Jase and Tate played the fiddle and banjo respectively. The bluegrass music of Ricky Skaggs became influential for the family at that point as they dove headlong into the genre. As the Greer clan’s talent vocally and on their respective instruments increased, they named themselves Lindley Creek after a creek near where John grew up and began to perform locally. Eventually, as the kids grew older, the group performed at festivals, in churches and in small venues. There came a point, however, as their tour schedule continued to expand, that John had to decide to leave his day job. It was then the Greer Family knew they were all in. Lindley Creek had become a full-time, traveling band. The evidence of this uncommon level of commitment was impressive.
The Greer Family brought in a professional performance coach and worked hard to perfect their live act. They sold their house at one point and put their life savings into the purchase of a tour bus, which was their only full-time dwelling for four years. Then, they bought a church back in Missouri because it had a stage for rehearsals, eventually remodeling the building and turning it into a demo song recording studio. A decade and a half later, as all three Greer kids began to enter adulthood, Tate would eventually leave Lindley Creek to start his own family and pursue another career.
Now a foursome, the group decided to shoot for the stars and perfect their own unique sound. They set out to record an album reflecting their growth as artists, and from the beginning, they knew who they wanted as their producer, fiddle great Jim VanCleve. Jase Greer boldly sought out VanCleve for an online fiddle lesson as a teenager, and made the connection with the accomplished music veteran.
I was trying to learn how to be a better fiddler when I bought an instructional DVD by Jim VanCleve. On it, he talked about the different roles the fiddle player needs to take on while in a band. That was eye-opening when it came to my fiddle playing. When I was 16 or 17, I saw on Facebook that Jim VanCleve was giving lessons online. He was my favorite fiddle player, so I asked my Mom if I could do it and she said ‘yes.’ So, I booked my first Skype lesson with Jim. When I played the fiddle back then, my wrist would hurt a lot. Jim noticed my left wrist was bent all of the time and he said, ‘That has to be straight.’ He showed me how, and suddenly I could reach all my notes, they were consistently in tune, and my wrist didn’t hurt at all – Jase Greer.
A couple of years later, after VanCleve turned Jase’s fiddle technique around, the Greer Family visited Nashville. Jase asked VanCleve for an in-person fiddle lesson while they were in town. When the lesson was done, Jim came outside to talk with us about our band and the direction that we wanted to go musically. Jim said, ‘Man, I would produce an album for you guys.’ We were amazed, but of course we said ‘yes.’ When it was all set up and we were in the studio, Jim brought that same know-how that I experienced with him in our first fiddle lessons, and he put it into our album.” The end result is Lindley Creek’s impressive recording: Freedom, Love and the Open Road. With special guests Rob Ickes, Jason Moore, Seth Taylor, Aaron Ramsey, and Todd Phillips brought in as studio aces, the final project represents the album that Lindley Creek has wanted to make all along. Freedom, Love and the Open Road features an excellent selection of songs chosen for the project along with original cuts written by Kathie and Jase Greer. Tight and smooth family harmonies are present on the recording, a phenomenon that only kin can share due to shared accents and intuition. But more than anything else, this album showcases the lead singing talents of Katie Greer. While Lindley Creek toured throughout the heartland from North Dakota to Texas, points mostly west of the Mississippi River in the past, they plan to connect with fans in the Southeast, the Midwest and the heart of Bluegrass Country with the release of Freedom, Love and the Open Road.
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