Well it took them long enough, but local favorites The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show has finally released their new CD. They call it "Melissa's Waltz" and it is their second for Fundamental Records (Hymn 15). And boy, this reporter wants you to know that it is a good one too! During the recording, Grandpa's elixir must have been flowing like Prater's Creek after the dam broke. The boys sure are at their finest. Their range is as broad as the Blue Ridge Mountains looking down on the farm. "I got a job that I don't like, and a wife I like even less /How did I get myself in such a mess?"

Grandpa asks on the opening cut, the rip roarin', hard drivin', I'm Leaving This Town Today. Next up is the high lonesome sound of We Had Each Other, followed by the solemn gospel of My Sins Have Been Washed Away. The triple fiddles of Melissa's Waltz reach all the way back to the string band era. Grandpa says he wrote this song for the most beautiful woman he'd ever met and it sounds like it. Of course, no recording or performance of The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show would be complete without a few knee slappers. Here they have included High Born Gal and the Skillet Lickers' You Gotta Quit Kicking My Dawg Around, which are guaranteed to get the listeners grinnin' like a mule eating briars. When asked why the band took two and a half years for their new record to be released, Richard Jordan, president of Fundamental Records, commented "Well, The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show operate on their own schedule. Grandpa had a whole bunch of new songs written, but with all their live shows, the farming, and the moonshine, er, I mean the making of Grandpa's elixir - well it was hard to get them to the studio!" Homer added "Yeah, and them dang revenooers kept raidin' us!" Washboard Clovis chimed in, "Ooooba dooba dooba!" "Nah, we don't like them revenooers do we Clovis?" Dalvin answered. The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show will be having a wingding this Saturday out at their farm, to celebrate the release of the new CD. "Everybody's invited!" Uncle Carl told me over the fence this morning. "Yeah and tell 'em to bring their appetites and their dancin' shoes!" yelled Mudslide from behind the plowing mule. Sparky. The festivities begin at 11:00 AM with a big parade through downtown. Following the parade, the party begins on the band's farm at 11:05 AM, with horseshoes and the ceremonial uncorking of the first jug.