It’s a Saturday in late August as the sun begins to sink below the horizon, the Jack Tales players and Orchestra Appalachia prepare to take the stage.

The show begins with a performance from the Jack Tales players, who started off voluminously with their performance of Hardee Hard Head.

“Its a loud venue, so we were really high energy trying to make sure people could hear what was going on, we had a great time were sweaty, and that’s what you like to be,” huffed out Emily Blankenship Tucker, performer.

Orchestra Appalachia took the stage as well during the event, marking their debut appearance for the year, and the return of a specific pigment of foot wear.

“It was our first show of the season, so it was very exciting to finally be back and to get to put my pink boots back on and just be with my people and play some music,” exclaimed Emily Walker, senior.

While the orchestra was doing their inaugural performance for the season, Trent Ray, senior, was introduced as the back-up bass player, an imperative puzzle piece for the band.

“He was definitely a life saver cause then we would have no bass player. I rely so much on a bass player when I play guitar. If I don’t have one it makes it kind of hard, so it was very helpful to have Trent play with us today,” said Walker with a relieved sigh.

While the orchestra thanks Ray for his contribution, the preparation was not as simple as him filling in and playing. He had to learn an entirely new instrument in less than a week’s time.

“Today was the fifth day that I got to play the bass, and that was on stage, which was most of my playing that I did. So I ended up using most of my time that I would use for homework or recreation to practice the bass to get as good as I can in as short of a time as I had. I had about five days, and everyone seems pretty pleased with me,” Ray, recapped.

Despite the tight window given to him, the fledgling bass player was ecstatic to be able to step into the role and take the full brunt of the challenge head-on, as this wasn’t just him being a fill in but a wish granted for Ray.

“I was excited,” said Ray. “This has been my dream for the longest time to play in a bluegrassy band specifically to play the bass in a bluegrass band and to actually play music with them was extremely fun and I was really excited coming into it and, happy I got the opportunity, I cant thank the bluegrass band enough for allowing me to join and adapting to me.”