When we the Wolfe Bros. – an old-time string band from the mountains of southwestern Virginia – realized their latest recording project would make its appearance in 2001, they couldn’t resist the temptation to borrow from the famous 1968 movie (you know the one we mean) and adapt its title to suit their purposes! It’s humorous, now that we’re living in ‘the future,’ to look back at predictions from 30 years ago or so. Life for the band in the beautiful Elk Creek valley of Grayson County, Virginia doesn’t seem to resemble the world those futurists envisioned. At least there are no HAL 9000’s around yet and they even survived Y2K, and they pretty much play the same tunes, the same instruments, at the same gatherings as they’ve always done.

The Wolfe Bros. String Band was actually founded in the mid-’70s but has been most active over the last eight years. The band performs at traditional music festivals and shows, live radio programs, square dances, competitions and private gatherings, most frequently in Southwest Virginia and parts of neighboring Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia.

The band consists of Jerry Correll, a Pennsylvania native, who got his first good dose of old-time and traditional music through his involvement with the formation of Delaware’s Brandywine Friends of Old-time Music in the early ‘70s; Dale Morris, a native of Carroll County, Virginia now living in Elk Creek, who was a founding member of the band; Casey Hash, a corrections officer who has been writing songs, singing, and playing guitar for most of his life; and Donna Correll, Jerry’s wife, who is a native-born Grayson County girl – she has always been fond of singing and remembers spending many childhood hours at 5th Sunday singings organized by E. C. & Orna Ball. 2001 is a nice collection of songs and tunes that blends original compositions with a fine assortment of older tunes – several older have been given new life with re-workings by various band members.