About The Dallas Blair Trio
The Dallas Blair Trio consists of Dallas Blair on guitar and lead vocals, Barb Diederich on bass, harmony and lead vocals, and Howard Parker on resonator guitar, steel guitar and harmony vocals. If you are interested in learning more about each member of the Trio, please read on.
Dallas Blair
Dallas Blair on guitar and lead vocals, though he has been known to occasionally play the mandolin. Dallas has played with numerous Bluegrass ensembles over the years, including The Bluegrass Image, Too Far Gone and DeSoto, and has now chosen to scratch an itch that started while he was living in Upstate New York in the late 90's: music other than bluegrass. As can be heard by the music the Trio plays, it is obvious there is plenty of reverence for the bluegrass genre. Once it's in the blood, you can't easily root it out.
Over the past few months, Dallas has begun writing his own songs, ranging from up-tempo bluegrass-esque ditties to slower "confessional" singer-songwriter types of material. Included in that number is a beautiful waltz that is an ode to unfailing, enduring love, while acknowleding the ups and downs of life that accompany the aging process.
Barb Diederich
Barb is a solid bass player with a superb musical ear and a vast repertoire including traditional and modern bluegrass, rock, pop, and country. She has extensive musical experience in a number of genres and, before moving to the Washington D.C. area in 1999, has played bass with some of the finest bluegrass bands in New England, winning or placing in numerous band contests.
She is a very strong tenor singer, and sings lead in the trio. Additionally, she writes great originals, and is creative and skilled at coming up with interesting arrangements.
Barb has performed with the Bogus Family (winner of the 1995 Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival Band Contest, the most highly respected and contested in New England); Orrin Star (1976 National Flatpicking Champion, Flying Fish recording artist, and author of "Hot Licks for Bluegrass Guitar"); Dave Reiner (champion fiddler and author of two Mel Bay fiddle books, "Anthology of Fiddle Styles" and "Old-Time Fiddling Across America"); and D.C. area Wammie nominees Bob Perilla & Big Hillbilly Bluegrass, Orange Line Special, the McGinley Family Gospel Singers, BanjerDan Mazer, Akira Otsuka, and Mike Munford, as well as D.C. area bands DeSoto, the Rock Creek Ramblers, Durham Station, the Dixie Cannonballs, Vintage Blend, and Andrew Acosta and the New Old-Time Pickers.
Howard Parker
Howard Parker on resonator guitars, pedal steel guitar and harmony vocals. As with the other members of the Trio, Howard has a strong bluegrass sensibility in his approach to music. Having formerly played in Too Far Gone and DeSoto with Dallas, a certain dynamic was in place that they were able to build upon in assembling the Dallas Blair Trio. Howard recently decided to satisfy his urge to play the pedal steel and it is obvious he has the talent and skill to become a force to reckon with in the steel playing community.