Grassy Creek Bluegrass Band's "Fire On The Hill" carries memories its songwriter will never forget. Brian Eversole draws on his experience as a park ranger during the devastating 2016 Great Smoky Mountain wildfires, recalling airborne embers, falling trees and the uncertainty of making it home to his family. Alongside four teenage musicians, he brings that experience into a song that honors both the wounds survivors carry and the resilience of their community. In the interview below, Brian discusses the night behind the music, the young players keeping bluegrass traditions alive, and why hope does not mean forgetting what happened.
Q: For those discovering Grassy Creek Bluegrass Band for the first time, how would you describe the band and the kind of bluegrass music you want to preserve?
A: Grassy Creek has four incredibly talented teenage bluegrass musicians, some of them family, and I think that's one of the things that makes this band so special. These young musicians are carrying this tradition forward, but they're doing it at an extraordinarily high level.
Musically, we're really focused on that high, lonesome sound of the first generation of bluegrass-the high keys, the vocal harmonies, and that unmistakable feeling the music has when it's sung and played the right way. We also have tremendous respect for the generations that followed.
We love Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, the Bluegrass Album Band and that whole second generation of bluegrass. There are nights when we'll sit down after dinner and play the entire Bluegrass Album Band, Volume One, and the next night we might play Volume Two. We study those records because there is so much to learn from them. We also love the driving, clean sound that came later and the great vocal arrangements that have continued to shape modern bluegrass.
We want our music to be immediately recognizable as authentic bluegrass. We want people to hear pieces of all those great musicians and generations that built this music. At the same time, we don't want to simply recreate what has already been done. We want to write new songs about our own lives and experiences and make modern music that still clearly belongs to the bluegrass tradition.
That's really what Grassy Creek is about-young musicians carrying an old tradition forward and adding their own chapter to it.
Q: Your journey has taken you from festivals and competitions to the Ryman Auditorium and Gatlinburg's Tunes & Tales program. What have been some of the defining moments in the band's story?
A: Some of the defining moments have certainly been the big ones-playing important stages, competing at SPBGMA, going to IBMA, playing around the Ryman, being part of Tunes & Tales in Gatlinburg, signing with Gravy Records, releasing our first music and then hearing one of our songs on the radio for the first time. Those moments can feel pretty surreal.
But honestly, some of the moments I remember most are much smaller. It might be hearing one of the kids finally nail a difficult vocal harmony for the first time, or watching somebody work on an instrumental break until suddenly they can play something today that they couldn't play yesterday. Those little victories are how musicians become great musicians, and I've had the privilege of watching that happen over and over again with these kids.
Our Circle Saw Bluegrass Festival in Georgetown, Tennessee, has also been really special to us. At our first festival, the kids got to play onstage with Kenny and Amanda Smith, and that was an incredible memory.
Another wonderful part of this journey has been watching them meet some of the musicians they grew up admiring. Julia essentially learned how to sing tenor by listening to old recordings and studying singers like Doyle Lawson, so watching her eventually meet Doyle and get to talk with him was pretty special. We've had opportunities to meet people like Rhonda Vincent, Billy Strings and so many others along the way.
Then you begin seeing all that work translate into people coming to shows, responding to the music online, a record deal, songs being released and radio stations playing them. It has been an amazing progression.
But for me, one of the greatest parts is still watching these four young musicians develop. Every time one of them does something they couldn't do six months ago-or sometimes couldn't do yesterday-I think about how high the ceiling is for them. I really do believe I'm watching future legends grow up right in front of me.
Q: Brian, you wrote "Fire On The Hill" from your experience as a park ranger during the 2016 Great Smoky Mountain wildfires. What do you remember most vividly about that terrifying night?
A: The best way I know how to describe it to someone who wasn't there is to imagine watching a television reporter standing on a beach during a major hurricane. The wind is blowing more than 100 miles an hour, the rain is moving sideways, and the reporter is struggling just to stay on his feet.
That's what it felt like that night-except instead of rain blowing through the air, there were fire, coals and glowing embers. Trees were coming down. The smoke was so thick it was difficult to breathe. Everything was moving incredibly fast.
One of the memories that has stayed with me most vividly was realizing that if I died that night, it would probably be from smoke inhalation. I might burn afterward, but the smoke would likely kill me first. That was a very sobering realization.
I also remember understanding just how small we were compared with what was happening around us. As first responders, we train, prepare and do everything we can to protect people, but that night this natural disaster was so much larger and more powerful than any human response. There was no stopping it at that point. You were trying to survive it, help other people survive it, and get everyone you could to safety.
That realization-the sheer power of what was happening-is something I will never forget.
Q: The song describes glowing skies, fierce winds, and falling trees, but it also emphasizes the faith that carried people through the disaster. How did you balance the horror of the fire with that message of hope?
A: I didn't really have time that night to contemplate what any of it meant. I was trying to survive and get home to my family. There's a line in the song about setting off down the road and not knowing which way to go or whether I was going to make it through the night. That comes directly from what that experience felt like.
But even in that moment, I never really considered giving up. My thought was, "I'm getting home to my family." That was it. Once I knew my family was safe, almost immediately I started getting on the phone and trying to find my friends and coworkers, checking on people and finding out who was safe.
I've had nearly ten years now to think about what that night meant. What stands out to me is the resilience of the people who lived through it. My friends, coworkers and neighbors are tenacious people. They don't give up easily.
The mountains themselves tell a similar story. Ten years later, in many places you have to look closely to even see the scars. The forest has regenerated. A new generation of trees is growing. Homes and businesses have been rebuilt.
That doesn't erase what happened. But I think hope works that way. It doesn't pretend the tragedy wasn't real. It says that even after something terrible happens, you pick up the pieces, take care of each other and keep going.
Q: "Fire On The Hill" honors first responders and the resilience of the Smoky Mountain community. What response do you hope the song receives from those who survived the fires or lost someone or something precious?
A: I hope first of all that people who lived through that night feel like we treated their experience with respect. Many buildings burned. Thousands of acres burned. People lost homes, businesses and things that could never be replaced. And some people lost their lives.
A lot of the physical scars have healed. Buildings have been rebuilt, vegetation has returned and nature has reclaimed much of the burned landscape. You can see young trees growing now where the fire passed through.
But not all scars are visible. There are things people experienced that night that they will probably carry with them for the rest of their lives. I know I will.
The people of these Southern Appalachian communities have generations of toughness and resilience behind them. Living in these mountains has never been easy. The terrain is difficult, the weather can be unforgiving, and generations of families have learned how to endure hardship, rely on one another and keep going.
The firefighters, law enforcement officers, park rangers, EMS personnel and other first responders who served that night come from those same communities. Ten years later, it is remarkable to look at how much recovery has taken place.
So I hope the song honors both things: the wounds that people still carry and the strength that allowed this community to rebuild. And for the first responders especially, I would say: take care of yourselves. Being resilient doesn't mean something didn't affect you. Some of these experiences stay with us.
If somebody who lived through that night hears "Fire On The Hill" and says, "Yes-that's what it felt like," then I think we've done what we hoped to do.
Q: Away from the stage, what is something listeners may be surprised to learn about the members of Grassy Creek Bluegrass Band?
A: Probably the first surprise is just how young they are. Four of the five members of Grassy Creek are teenagers-14, 15, 16 and 17 years old-and they are already remarkable singers and instrumentalists.
People will sometimes see them walk into a venue and think, "Oh, this is a group of kids," and then they start playing. That reaction changes pretty quickly. They complement each other extremely well musically, and their level of musicianship at such young ages continually amazes me.
Recording with them is a good example. Tracking days tend to go very smoothly because they come in prepared, they know their parts, and it usually doesn't take many takes for them to nail an instrumental break or vocal part.
But away from the stage, they're still teenagers. They have school, families, friends and all the normal things young people have going on in their lives. Then they pick up their instruments and perform at a level you normally associate with musicians who have been doing this professionally for decades. That contrast is part of the magic of Grassy Creek.
As their dad and as somebody who gets to make music with them, I'm incredibly excited to see where they go. They're already wonderful musicians, and they have so much time ahead of them. I genuinely believe all four of these young people have the potential to become future legends in bluegrass music.
Contact And Booking: Grassycreekbluegrassband@gmail.com
Official Website: www.grassycreekbluegrassband.com
