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July 2009. Mike Andes — and bluegrass group Nothin’ Fancy as a whole — brings fresh, available sensbilities to the bluegrass genre.
Two-time SPGMA-award-winners, Nothin’ Fancy is made up of Mike Andes (lead vocals, mandolin), Mitchell Davis (banjo), Gary Farris (tenor vocals, guitar), Chris Sexton (fiddle), and Tony Shorter (bass).
The band tours heavily.
Though based in the Shendandoah Valley of Virginia, Nothin’ Fancy has garnered fans throughout the Ozarks with performances in Waldron, Arkansas, Silver Dollar City, and Buffalo, Missouri, among others.
In October 2008, the editor of State of the Ozarks got the chance to sit down with Mike for a visit...
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Tell us about yourself, Mike.
Michael Andes. That’s the name my mother gave me and I still have it!
My parents got me a guitar for Christmas when I was 10. They didn’t expect me to take it seriously so they didn’t put much money into it.
I took it seriously. It lasted about a year and I had all the frets worn out out.
I used to watch a program on tv — the Arthur Smith Program — and Smith would play a mandolin. Didn’t even know what mandolins were called! I told my mom I wanted one of those “little guitars that Arthur Smith plays.”
Thank goodness she didn’t get me a ukulele!
I play by ear. It’s a gift — a God-given talent. I’m not bragging on it, but I’ve never had a lesson in my life. I learned to play by listening to albums. I can remember saving up money to buy a stereo so that I could go in my bedroom and play my Country Gentlemen and Seldom Scene cassettes. I would just practice playing along. I have a musical ear so I could tune up with the records.
So that’s where I learned. And I’ve gotten some good reviews.
Why did Country Gentlemen and Seldom Scene influence you as it did?
I just liked what they did.
When I was a teenager, the only bluegrass you would hear played on regular radio was Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe. And nothing against their music at all, but it didn’t catch my attention.
But I liked the Country Gentlemen. And I liked Seldom Scene. I believe they were ahead of their time. They were right there in the midst of all the diehard, traditional bluegrass songs. But then they were doing songs like Darby’s Castle — all these Gordon Lightfoot and Kris Kristofferson songs. It was just neat stuff and it caught my ear.
We don’t pattern ourselves after them, but we try to be flexible enough to do what they did. I hope Nothin’ Fancy pushes the boundaries a little bit from this moment on.
And I think we do.
How did you get started?
About the age of 13, I started playing in public. My brothers Randy and Paul had a band called Mountain Heritage and we played a lot of different venues.
I was playing some bars when I was 14 and thought it was the big-time! My mom would have to write and get me a permit to be able to go in the bars!
I also started a regular job when I was 14. I worked in a craft shop and played music on the weekend — got married and went to work in a cabinet factory. Plus, I was able to continue playing in bands.
For a year, I played for a fella named Jim Orange (and The Orange Blossoms).
A lot of original bluegrass fans will remember Jim.
He’s passed and gone now but I played with him for one year and he taught me a lot — a lot about stage work and showmanship, how to treat fans, how to deal with the audiences.
After that, we formed our own band, the East Coast Bluegrass Band. That was where I met Mitchell Davis, who plays banjo with Nothin’ Fancy.
I got to meet Tony Shorter and Gary Farris. Chris’ father, Buster, played banjo in the band, so I’ve been around Chris all his life, watching him go through the classical school. Chris always played bluegrass on the side so he came over into the East Coast Bluegrass Band.
So, how did Nothin’ Fancy get started?
Nothin’ Fancy started around 1994.
We did a contest in Waynesboro, Virginia, and needed a name. We just showed up — a bunch of parking lot pickers. Mitchell and Gary says, “Let’s use that old name the old name [they used to have a country band somewhere down in their history] we used back then: Nothin’ Fancy.”
So we wrote Nothin’ Fancy on the form and luckily we won about everything in that contest.
Then we were stuck with the name!
Gary, Tony, Mitchell and myself sat down one day and discussed what we wanted to do. I think all of us had the same aspiration: we wanted to play music for a living.
So we sat down at the table and made the commitment. All the guys had to commit to traveling, taking low pay, just to get our name out there. And the first gig we did was in Florida, not making a cent. We just drove there and got into a dinner break at a festival.
From that moment, things started picking up and people started hearing about us. And it just went from there. And it’s been rolling very well. We take our music seriously but we also take our entertainment seriously.
It’s one thing to go out and make music. It’s another thing to see a show plus hear great music.
That’s what we’re striving for and, to me, winning the Entertainment Group of the Year was the audience saying Here. You guys have done it.
(continued above right)
State of the Ozarks Media Inc. © Archive.
Songwriting inspiration...
I get my inspiration from different things. That’s the hardest thing for me to explain.
I‘ve had some things in my life — divorces and bad times.
I had a guitar player tell me one time, “Man, good songs come out of these divorces.” And that’s the honest truth. A lot of songwriters will tell you a sad song is easier to write than a happy one.
But I get inspired riding down the road and just seeing something. Or I hear a song on the radio that just stops me dead in my tracks and brings tears to my eyes. Then I’ll go grab my guitar and write one that hopefully will do the same for somebody else.
I’m sucker for a sad song or a real sweet melody. The song, Your Love Takes The Pain Away (I think it’s on the Reflections album) was to me just as good as it could get when I wrote it.
And then all of a sudden, I wrote another one — I Can’t Say Hello Because I’d Have To Say Goodbye.
The gospel song When The Angels Take My Hand — I was very impressed with that because it sounded like and old song and I thought, I wish I could that about five or 10 times more!
How many songs have you written?
I don’t carry a number with me.
I won’t even give a number, because I’ve got files of songs at home. They’re not finished songs, but are very finishable songs.
Now I’ve gotten lazy and carry a small tape recorder with me in the car. I live in Columbus, Ohio, and the band is based out of Buena Vista, Virginia.
So when I get with the guys, that is six and a half hours on the road. And a lot of things can go through your head when you’re on the road like that. So I carry the tape recorder and I'll come up with songs. But I write all the time and sometimes it doesn't come and I think, “It’s over. The well has gone dry.
About the time you think that, something will happen.
Where do you want bluegrass headed?
I would love to see more radio time. Now we got Sirius and EM and that has been wonderful. It has opened a gigantic door for bluegrass. I would like to see mainstream radio paying a little more attention to what is going on with the satellite stuff.
I want to say, “Hey guys, here we are! We’re strong. We have banjos!” I’d like to see people take it a little more seriously.
People always say, “Oh, we got to get the young people involved in bluegrass or it is gonna die.”
Well, I’ve been in it since I was 14 years old and it hasn’t died yet and I’m 43 right now!
Where do you want Nothin’ Fancy headed?
We want to continue stepping up the ladder. You just never run out of rungs on that ladder. The only thing I can ask for is that we keep our show fresh and never let people leave the show saying, “Oh, I’ve heard their stuff 50,000 times.’
One of the best compliments you can have is, “Aw, man, I wish you’d have played another one.”
We’re just going to continue what we’re doing, yet doing it better and having more fun at it each and every weekend.
I think it’ll work.