The New Coon Creek Girls were the late-’70s brainchild of John Lair, who established the legendary Renfro Valley Barn Dance in 1939 and presided over the Valley’s rural-themed entertainment complex into the 1980s with some heavy-handed methods that changed little over the years. Named after a popular all-girl Renfro Valley group of the 1940s, the band was created not long after the arrival at Renfro of Vicki Simmons, who grew up in nearby Berea and showed up one day with an upright bass she had just bought.
“Mr. Lair put me on the stage with a couple of girls who were already there, and I got hired that night,” Simmons recalls. “We played together for about a year and a half, and he just would introduce us as ‘the girls,’ until we did a TV show in Cincinnati and we had to have a name. He had a big meeting and asked us which name we wanted: the Sunbonnet Girls or the New Coon Creek Girls. All I could think of was Blue Bonnet margarine, so we took the other one.”
Lair had always demanded that his entertainers pledge exclusive fealty to the Valley, and by the time Bradley met them, the Girls had struck out for broader horizons, working the bluegrass circuit while the first few of what became a stream of talented young women passed through the band, often on their way to country music careers.
Simmons took note of Dale Ann’s singing, and when a slot opened up in 1988, she sought out Bradley, who had just returned to Kentucky. An audition followed, and though she didn’t get the job — “they needed a fiddle or a mandolin player,” Bradley says — she was encouraged to get back into music on a professional level.
“I remember Vicki saying, ‘Even if this don’t work out with us, you need to play, you need to do it,'” she recalls. “So from there I made a little demo tape and moved to Renfro Valley, and worked there as a solo artist for about two years.”
“We went back to Renfro in 1991,” Simmons continues. “By then John Lair had passed away, it was under new management and they were booming. We would see Dale Ann on the barndance, singing her ass off, and we would just think, gosh, if this ever came up again, this is what we would like to do. So eventually we talked management into letting her join us, and that’s when things turned around for that group, when she joined — and Ramona, too, they both joined at the same time; two really strong players and singers, you know.”
Ramona was banjoist Ramona Church Taylor. With her and Bradley up front and Simmons and returning alumna Pam Perry on board, the New Coon Creek Girls took a big step forward, making their Pinecastle Records debut in 1994 with The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore.
“A driving bluegrass band with real power in instrumental virtuosity…and real country music flavor in Bradley’s vocals,” said a Bluegrass Unlimited reviewer, and with a relatively stable lineup in place — “It’s hard to keep a good fiddle player; they hop around,” laughs Simmons — both of their successive CDs drew similar approval. Yet even as the all-gospel Everything You Do was released as 1996 passed into 1997, a momentous change was ahead.
East Kentucky Morning, Bradley’s first solo album, was a huge step forward, and not for the singer alone. Though both Bradley and Simmons had contributed an occasional song to the Girls’ earlier albums, they were responsible for half of the material on the new one, divided between joint compositions and ones penned by Simmons alone.
Even more importantly, freed from the twin constraints of the all-girl and bluegrass band identity, Bradley and producer Sonny Osborne sought material and arrangements ranging as far as U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. They employed an all-star cast that included Osborne himself, and brought in IIIrd Tyme Out’s Russell Moore for a duet on Simmons’ country ballad “My Conscience Is Clear Tonight”.
Yet whether she was singing a cover or an original, Bradley’s voice soared over the backing, her empathetic readings cutting straight to the heart of each song with a commanding soprano and a quiet yet purposeful aim.
The album was a certified hit, making both the Bluegrass Unlimited and Gavin Americana charts’ top 10s, driven in large part by the U2 cover. Critics hailed Bradley as a musical kin to Alison Krauss and Dolly Parton, and it was apparent that a turning point had been reached: When the New Coon Creek Girls’ final album appeared in 1998, “featuring Dale Ann Bradley” had been appended to their name. Though Our Point Of View found the ensemble back on the bluegrass road with Taylor’s fiery banjo picking leading the way, the die was cast. When Taylor departed, the band was reborn as Dale Ann Bradley & Coon Creek.
