Pleasant Hill Christian Church is excited to welcome the progressive bluegrass style of Lindley Creek on Saturday, January 8, 2022. The release of the wonderful album Freedom, Love and the Open Road marks a new beginning for the family band Lindley Creek as it represents years of musical evolution. This impressive recording reflects the personal growth of the group, a result of the Greer Family’s desire to create a unique musical style of their own.
Pleasant Hill staff member Darrin Daugherty shares, “I was thrilled to discover that Lindley Creek had an early January opening before heading south for their winter tour. Our church loves a variety of music styles. While performing a mix of genres, Lindley Creek provides a bluegrass basis to their music that is appropriate for all ages.” While Lindley Creek may be new to Montgomery County, the story of Lindley Creek, however, begins years ago when the Greer Family collectively discovered the bluegrass genre.
Hailing from the Ozark Mountains and the prairie lands of Missouri, Lindley Creek features Kathie Greer on guitar, songwriting and vocals; husband John Greer on bass; daughter Katie Greer on mandolin, songwriting and lead vocals; and son Jase Greer on fiddle, songwriting and harmony vocals.
When their kids were young, Kathie and John Greer were seeking music that they could play around the house that the whole family could share as they raised their kids Katie, Jase and Tate. Gospel music was already in their life, but one day bluegrass music found its way into the mix, and it changed everything for the Greer Family. That simple spark led to all in the Greer Family becoming bluegrass musicians.
As the kids grew older, Kathie picked up the guitar she had owned since her college days and finally learned how to play it. John took up the bass, daughter Katie grabbed the mandolin, while brothers Jase and Tate played the fiddle and banjo respectively. The bluegrass music of Ricky Skaggs became influential for the family at that point as they dove headlong into the genre.
As the Greer clan’s talent vocally and on their respective instruments increased, they named themselves Lindley Creek after a creek near where John grew up and began to perform locally. Eventually, as the kids grew older, the group performed at festivals, in churches and in small venues. There came a point, however, as their tour schedule continued to expand, that John had to decide to leave his day job. It was then the Greer Family knew they were all in. Lindley Creek had become a full-time, traveling band. They sold their house at one point and put their life savings into the purchase of a tour bus, which was their only full-time dwelling for four years.
Then, they bought a church back in Missouri because it had a stage for rehearsals, eventually remodeling the building and turning it into a demo song recording studio. A decade and a half later, as all three Greer kids began to enter adulthood, Tate would eventually leave Lindley Creek to start his own family and pursue another career. Now a foursome, the group decided to shoot for the stars and perfect their own unique sound.
Along came Lindley Creek’s impressive recording: Freedom, Love and the Open Road features an excellent selection of songs chosen for the project along with original cuts written by Kathie and Jase Greer. Tight and smooth family harmonies are present on the recording, a phenomenon that only kin can share due to shared accents and intuition. But more than anything else, this album showcases the lead singing talents of Katie Greer.
While Lindley Creek toured throughout the heartland from North Dakota to Texas, points mostly west of the Mississippi River in the past, they plan to connect with fans in the Southeast, the Midwest and the heart of Bluegrass Country with the release of Freedom, Love and the Open Road.
“I listened to just bluegrass music until I was a teenager, and then I began to listen to country and pop music and everything else after that,” says Katie Greer. “With my vocals, I feel like I draw from other musical genres and not just bluegrass. I love bluegrass, but I also love Whitney Houston and all of the powerhouse female vocalists. I also like John Mayer a lot. I like any artist that can sing really well and can connect themselves emotionally to the music. When I was in the studio recording Freedom, Love and the Open Road, I learned so much. It was very challenging for me. But, it is cool to learn and grow and finally understand things that you have wanted to understand for a long time.”
Watch for Lindley Creek to make their mark on the bluegrass and gospel scene very soon as the Freedom, Love and the Open Road album and the first single “Gotta Go” hits the airwaves. It is an exciting time as this new band breaks into the greater bluegrass scene with passion, talent and years of experience!
Pleasant Hill offers tickets to this concert via the link directly below. (Click the big black box to order yours.) Tickets are $10 each in advance. Seating is limited. If tickets remain for walk-ins, those will be $12 at the door. Pleasant Hill is located on the West Frontage Road, one mile north of the I-55 Carlinville exit #60. For more info- call the church at 217.229.3074.
This will be the first concert in our Winter Concert Series. Look for info on our Christian Concert: "All Together United" on February 5th and a concert of comedy on March 4th by "COMEDYSPORTZ" from St Louis, MO.
