Senior Wins Bluegrass Kudos

By Jennifer Calhoun, Daily News-Record

When Reed Jones plays guitar, he tells stories.

His fire-quick, bluegrass licks flood the mind with images of revenuers chasing moonshiners through mountain hollows.

Reed Jones
EMU senior Reed Jones plays guitar on campus. He and his band won an award from SPBGMA, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America.

It was those same licks that helped Jones, a 21-year-old Eastern Mennonite University student, and his band, Billie Renee & Cumberland Gap, win first prize in the prestigious Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America in Nashville last month.

“I just thought it would be a fun experience,” said Jones, who joined the six-year-old band last August.

“Plus, it