Smoky Mountains Archives - Nashville Music Line

Dugger Band are ‘East Tennessee Sons’

Harmonies are in their blood

Jordan and Seth Dugger are brothers that together form the Dugger Band. Their father is a pastor of a small community in the eastern part of Tennessee. They are both graduates of the University of Tennessee and are talented multi-instrumentalists as well as singer/songwriters. Their current single, ‘East Tennessee Son,’ is also the title track from their current album.

As CMA Fest 2018 drew to a close, I met up with Seth and Jordan to talk about their music and the audience reaction to their blend of contemporary and traditional country.

This is one of a series of interviews that I conducted with rising singer/songwriters during CMA Fest to find out about their new music, their musical influences and their experience at CMA Fest.

Smoky Mountain influence

Preshias Harris: Jordan, you both grew up in Greenville in East Tennessee, close to the Smoky Mountains. Do you feel that affected how your music developed?

Jordan Dugger: I think so, for sure. Most of our family are musical. A lot of the events we attended with our family, a lot of people would always bring guitars and fiddles and mandolins and all kinds of instruments to family get-togethers. So we grew up with the family harmony stuff and everybody singing together. Of course, growing up near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge where Dolly Parton is from, we drew influence from a lot of her music. And there’s a big Bluegrass influence and a lot of mountain music, but also a lot of country and some of the rockin’ country as well. It’s a pretty diverse music community in East Tennessee so that definitely influenced our style today. The biggest part, I think, is the harmonies. And the first instruments we were into were guitar and fiddle.

PH: Seth, tell me about being here at CMA Fest. Is it your first time?

Seth Dugger: We’ve been for a couple of years now. But this year, we’ve performed the most at CMA Fest. It’s a great experience! It’s cool to see all the hard-core country music fans from all over the world come to Nashville for this one week. A lot of our fans came in for it to sit in on some of the fan parties that we had and hear some of our acoustic songs. So that was really humbling for us to see all those people from all over the world for this one event.

PH: What was one of your favorite performances? Continue reading “Dugger Band are ‘East Tennessee Sons’”

Dolly Parton surprises families with $5,000 checks

Dollywood Foundation pledges at least $3 million from My People Fund to the Mountain Tough Recovery Team

There’s no question about it: Dolly Parton’s heart is in the right place. She – and her Foundation – have always been among the first to respond when ‘her’ people are in need. When the devastating wildfires tore through the part of East Tennessee that Dolly calls home, she wasted no time in making much-needed funds available to the families who lost so much.

A ‘nice surprise’ from Dolly

The Dollywood Foundation administered the final distribution from the My People Fund on Thursday, May 4, with recipients noticing an extra surprise when they received the check.

Thanks to fundraising efforts, Dollywood Foundation officials were able to provide a $5,000 check to each family as they work to recover from the Smoky Mountain wildfires which occurred last November. Beginning last December, the My People Fund provided $1,000 each month to Sevier County families whose primary residences were completely destroyed due to the fires. Continue reading “Dolly Parton surprises families with $5,000 checks”

Dolly Parton’s My People Fund helps wildfire victims

$9.3 million already raised

Dolly Parton has always be someone who’ll step up and take decisive action whether it applies to her career or – in this case – to the needs of “her people” in the East Tennessee mountains.

In a little more than two weeks after the wildfires that spread across Dolly Parton’s home area of Sevier County, Tennessee, Parton and the Dollywood Foundation launched the distribution of assistance from the My People Fund. During the four day cash distribution, 884 families received their initial support payments.

“It’s a blessing during this holiday season that we are able to help as many families as we have so far,” Parton said. “We know there are more families out there who need our help and we encourage them to be in contact with us before our January distribution.”

The Dollywood Foundation My People Fund provides $1,000 each month to Sevier County families whose homes are uninhabitable or were completely destroyed in the recent Smoky Mountain wildfires. Any family who lost their primary residence (renters and homeowners) due to the wildfires in Sevier County will be eligible. A pre-application for those affected is available at dollywoodfoundation.org.

Dolly’s Telethon

Millions of people watched Smoky Mountains Rise: A Benefit for the My People Fund telethon on Tuesday, December 13 on Great American Country, AXS-TV, RFD-TV and The Heartland Network and during several rebroadcasts throughout the last week. As a result, donations continued to roll in and thanks to generous people from coast to coast and Parton’s friends, the total amount raised has climbed to $9.3 million.

Dolly’s Smoky Mountain Rise to benefit ‘My People’ fund

“As, Dolly said, the response has been overwhelming,” David Dotson, Dollywood Foundation President said. “We will distribute all $9.3 million to the families affected. That will insure all of the money raised will go to where Dolly promised it would go.”

The next distribution is January 26 and 27, 2017 at the LeConte Events Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.