The Bluegrass Bug: Music has permeated the lives of this dedicated musical group

WALNUT COVE -- Beth Smith likes to joke that it was her husband of 30 years, Dale, who brought her to music.

"The first time I heard him play guitar, I was plumb turned on," she said.

But music was important to her long before that.

"I have been singing ever since I was little," she said.

At night, she would sing her little brother to sleep.

These days, she writes songs, sings and plays guitar for Blues Creek, a bluegrass band that includes her husband, along with Scott Brown, Joe Freeman, Kevin Hicks and David O'Brien. She carries a digital recorder with her, and, when the beginning of a song comes to her, she sings it into the recorder.

She has entered "Water Rushes By," the song she wrote about the 2006 accidental drowning of two Stokes County boys, in the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest. Should she become a finalist, the group would be invited to play at the festival in April.

Music has permeated the lives of the other band members as well. Several have been playing since they were kids, and the joy they find in bluegrass music has only grown over the years.

"It's kind of like a disease," Freeman said. "It gets in you, and you can't let go."

Except for Dale Smith, who had to retire on disability because of heart problems, everyone in the band has a day job. The group includes a nurse, a land surveyor, a high-school teacher, a paramedic and a city maintenance worker.

Although the band members play mostly for the love of the music, they happily accept paying jobs. They're delighted when the fee is solidly into three figures and have been known to settle for gas money. The band is starting to get some recognition. When Hillary Clinton was running for president, they were invited to play at a fundraiser, and the group was scheduled to play at a festival in South Carolina this past weekend.

Brown has visions of the band really going somewhere.

"He's our dreamer," Beth Smith said.

Brown writes, sings and plays banjo. He is a paramedic who works full time for Stokes County and part time for Forsyth County. His grandfather was a champion fiddle player, and his mother sang professionally.

"I grew up around music all my life," Brown said.

Hicks, who writes songs and plays bass, works in maintenance for the City of Winston-Salem's water department. His informal responsibilities in the band include taking the blame if a song's timing is off. He doesn't mind.

"It comes along with being the bass," he said.

O'Brien, who plays mandolin and sings, is a land surveyor with his own business. The bluegrass bug bit him when he was 14 and his older brother came home from a show with a bluegrass album in hand.

"It blew me away," O'Brien said. "It still does…. There is nothing better to drive down the road to than bluegrass music. It takes your mind off your troubles."

Freeman, who plays dobro, retired from teaching high school and then returned to the classroom. He teaches science at North Stokes High School.

"He's the brains of the operation," Dale Smith.

In Dale Smith's mind, Freeman had a doctorate but Freeman said that it's only a master's degree. Dale Smith likes to say they inherited Freeman when Brown married Freeman's daughter, Samantha. Freeman's gifts extend to making his own dobro.

"I make a fairly good-size tub of kindling learning how to bend the wood," he said. "I wanted one made out of real wood. It's made out of solid mahogany."

Beth Smith is a registered nurse with Stokes Home Health, a division of the Stokes County Health Department. Dale Smith, who sings and plays guitar, took disability retirement from United Parcel Service. He celebrates two birthdays a year -- the second being the day he received a new heart.

Over the years, everyone has played in one group or another. They came together as Blues Creek after the Smiths hit it off with Brown at a jam session in King. They decided to start playing together and brought along others they had been playing with.

"We all contribute something a little different," Freeman said. "It's a really good combination."

"The chemistry is superb," Brown said.

One reason that is true is that they all have the same level of commitment to the music, he said. That good chemistry includes recognizing what works and what doesn't in a marriage.

"There's a reason we don't sing together," Beth Smith said.

Along with performing traditional songs and songs they write, the band members sometimes put a bluegrass spin to songs by such groups as the Doobie Brothers and Bob Seeger.

The band often practices at the Smiths' home, which is not far from where the bodies of Jeffrey White Jr., who was 4, and Jacob White, who was 3, were found after the boys drowned in the Dan River in 2006. Dale Smith participated in the search.

"We all looked for three days, three nights, hundreds of other volunteers," he said.

"It's one of those things that stays in your mind," Beth Smith said. "I felt like I was compelled to write about it."

■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.

■ To hear "Water Rushes By" and other music by Blues Creek go to www.myspace.com/bluescreek.