Embedded Files
CD- Thanksgiving- "This is highly recommend contemporary bluegrass" " Creek Bend excels at allowing the listener to have fun"
"Creek Bend is a very talented and entertaining band"
Bluegrass Now
Album- Life's Highway- "At a time when bluegrass has to battle pop walls of sound to be heard, Creek Bend demonstrates the continuing vitality inherent to the style that in many ways bespeaks a bygone era. They're steeped in tradition and traverse the wide stretch of musical territory"
Tony Trischka
The song"Creek Bend" along with the other entries comprising Life's Highway come highly recommended for extended airplay"
Bluegrass Unlimited
"A first class bluegrass album may be the last thing you might expect to be produced in western New York but Creek Bend's Life's Highway, proves it can happen"
The Buffalo News
CD- That Home Far Away- "The entire project features musical excellence." "Creek Bend delivers style, imagination and variety.
Bluegrass Unlimited
"The grass always seems to be bluer on the Creek Bend side of the fence"
The Buffalo News
Rich Schaefer is an original member of Creek Bend. As an MC, Rich mixes one liners and story telling with the musical stage presentation. His mix of instructional square dance calling make CB a hit a social gatherings. Rich began his bluegrass career as the guitar player in Creek Bend but soon moved into his present role as bass player. He sings lead and bass in the band’s quartets. He is the band’s primary booking agent and was the voice of bluegrass on the radio in Buffalo as DJ for the long running Bluegrass on a Sunday night at WBFO broadcast from the University of Buffalo for many years.
Rich Schaefer
Sally Schaefer
Sally Scheafer- fiddle, mandolin and vocals
Sally is a great addition to Creek Bend. She is also Ethnomusicologist, information scientist., data analyst UB and former Music instructor Americorps Washington and for Ethos in Portland OR. Interned at WNED and BPO
She has college degrees in Ethnomusicology from SUNY Geneseeo and Cardiff Wales
Sally sings and plays fiddle, piano, mandolin and guitar
The middle of three sisters, all talented in their own ways. Sally has the wanderlust.
Sally is equally comfortable in bluegrass, classical and punk. When she was born, daddy Rich named her after a fiddle tune. Sally Ann.
Chris Panfil 's interest in bluegrass music can be traced back to his early teens when his brother Mark needed a mandolin accompanist for his banjo habit. The boys played Flatt and Scruggs tunes on the porch for hours at a time, much to the consternation of their northeastern steel town neighbors.
Chris moved to Florida after high school to play fiddle with the sun coast bluegrass band "Bluegrass Southern Style" in the 1980's . This resulted in an album and several tours including Europe and the Caribbean. An old banjo player friend from Buffalo moved to Florida and they formed the infamous "Sleepless Nites". This group toured the southeast and recorded "Live at the Garden" in 1985.
The country music boom soon led him to move to Nashville Tenn. where he found ample work as a touring and recording multi-instrumentalist. He played with many Grand Old Opry stars such as Jeanne Sealy, Del Reeves and Sheb Wooley. He also recorded many demo sessions and performed in the house band at the "Stagecoach" lounge, a popular musicians hangout in Nashville.
He joined up with Creek Bend to perform and play the northeastern US bluegrass festival circuit and recorded with them on the band’s Thanksgiving CD. Chris plays guitar and sings tenor and lead with the band. He is equally adept at playing mandolin and fiddle and has written several songs for the band.
Chris and Mark were inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2016. www.ChrisPanfil.com
Chris Panfil
Mark Panfil
Mark has played with Creek Bend since 1983. Before that he played in several local bands including the Erie Lackawanna Railroad with his brother Chris and the Hill Brothers, a school performance group for Young Audiences inc. He has taught dobro at the Augusta Heritage Workshops in Elkins WV for over fifteen years and has an instructional dobro video out on the MurphyMethod.com label. He is a former member of the Bluegrass in our Schools Committee and chairman of the Foundation for Bluegrass Music for the IBMA . He sings lead and baritone and plays dobro, banjo and harmonica. When he isn't playing with Creek Bend he is a music teacher at an elementary school in Western New York where he also directs a student fiddle group. Mark’s harmonica prowess has earned him Youtube notoriety for his “hands free” method of playing harmonica with out hands or a rack holding them. He is also a first place winner of the Bushman’s Harmonica World’s International video harmonica contest.
Chris and Mark were inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2016. www.MarkPanfil.com
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