CMT News

Reba McEntire made a surprise appearance at Nashville's Station Inn bluegrass club on Monday night (May 29) and performed with the Time Jumpers, an 11-piece Western swing band. "The last time I sang after a beer, I was in college," she told a crowd that included Ronnie Dunn and record producers Tony Brown and Buddy Cannon. She then sang two Bob Wills classics, "San Antonio Rose" and "Faded Love." Dunn declined to sing but promised to sit in with the band on his next visit. Made up of first-call musicians, the Time Jumpers have turned their regular Monday night appearances at the Station Inn into a favorite hangout for other artists. Band members include fiddlers Kenny Sears, Aubrey Haynie and Joe Spivey, steel guitarist John Hughey, electric guitarist Andy Reiss, accordionist Jeff Taylor, rhythm guitarist Doug Green ("Ranger Doug" of Riders in the Sky), bassist Dennis Crouch, drummer Rick Vanaugh and vocalists Dawn Sears and Carolyn Martin. At Monday's show, Fred "Too Slim" LaBour (also of Riders) sat in for Crouch, who is on tour with T Bone Burnett. Former Capitol Records executive Terry Choate is producing a CD and a DVD documentary on the band for release this fall.