Alan is still working on his gray hair. The beard is done and he has now turned his attention to his head. He does though, have the most gray matter which automatically made him the lead singer. At last count, he had memorized almost 17 complete songs which is usually enough to get The Gray Brothers through an appearance at a gas station opening or bait shop remodeling celebration. Alan also partially knows over 50 additional songs, some of which he usually strings together to make some mighty fine impromptu medleys. Alan knows all of the important bluegrass guitar chords including an excellent “B” chord which he sometimes slips in when playing songs in the key of G. That really keeps the rest of the band on their toes. On weekends that the band has free, Alan sometimes borrows the band limo “The Flatliner” to look for accidents and pass out business cards. He practices law in his day job and some day he is hoping to get enough practice in to do it for real.
 

Joe is on the verge of making the band change their name again as he has just about lost all of his hair. The rest of the band sometimes has to wear sunglasses to ward off the glare. Joe plays the five string banjo and is pretty accomplished all the way up to the eighth fret as well as his ability to pick on all five strings. He sings the high harmony parts of vocal songs (songs with words), and pretty well stuns the rest of the band because he can play while singing. He’s a regular multi-tasker. You will notice that Joe sometimes uses a stool to sit on during performances. He had to do that as he has fitted his banjo with a granite tone ring which is his own design. The “Granitetone” banjo sounds great but it is way too heavy to hold for more than three or four songs. Joe has taught the band several instrumental songs (songs without words) and can play each of them at different speeds. Sometimes he will play a single song at varying speeds to add some sparkle to a performance.

Dan Gray plays the mandolin and sings the baritone vocal parts. Nobody else can figure out what the baritone part is so Dan kind of has a lock on it. He can’t sing the high baritone part though because he isn’t tall enough. Dan plays the mandolin which has eight strings on it. Dan only uses six of them and keeps two for spares in case he breaks any. The mandolin is kind of like a little guitar but instead of one big sound hole, it has two ess-holes that the music comes out of. Dan also acts as sort of the Master of Ceremonies when we perform. He has an uncanny ability to not only know what song we are currently playing, but he can remember what the last song was also. We think he uses a crib sheet. Dan has the silverest looking gray hair which makes him look distinguished. He is not.

Dave is the senior member of The Gray Brothers. He is truly “Older Than Dirt.” He was the first brother to go gray; first the beard, then all the way up to his bald spot. He has been playing the Dobro for over 40 years, and frankly by now he should have learned more songs. He is though the best Dobro player in the band and does firmly hold down his end of the stage. When the rest of the group can stand it, Dave will occasionally add his voice to a song or two if he can remember all of the words. We never realized just how many songs had alternate lyrics to them until he started singing. Dave considers the constant tuning of instruments an annoyance rather than a necessity. This has provided many moments of adlib musical expressions for which he has become infamous. You will never hear Dave play a “mistake.”

Elena has dark hair but we know she secretly wishes it was gray. Elena plays the big bass fiddle and she is responsible for keeping time. She always lets us know how many more minutes a performance should run and when we can stop to take a break. Elena actually knows what written down musical notes mean and she also knows all those little squiggly symbols that show up on sheet music. She will sometimes yell out words like “Adagio” or “Allegro” and we pretend to know what they mean. That real depth of musical knowledge was one reason that led us to ask her to become a Gray Brother. The other reason was that Elena has medical training as well and she knows how to use those heart attack paddles that we keep handy by in the band limo. You can’t be too prepared.