New Deal String Band 
09/??/1971 (Labor Day Weekend) 
Camp Springs Bluegrass Festival 
Reidsville, NC 

Rick Riman, banjo 
Kenny Kosak, fiddle 
Leroy Savage, lead vocals, guitar 
Buck Peacock flatpicked lead guitar 
Frank Greathouse (the world's only known 12-toed mandolin player), vocals, mando 
Bob (Quail) White, bass 

The New Deal String Band was formed in 1966 by Tom Paley and Joe Locker, two banjo-and-guitar playing ex-New Yorkers living in London. 

[Sam Bush] cites Country Cooking and The New Deal String Band as other influential innovators from the early 70's. "I was a senior in high school on Easter weekend in 1970, and I went to Union Grove, North Carolina to the fiddle festival there," Bush recalls. "I saw these hippie guys jammin' like mad in this field, and I went up and made friends with them. They were the guys in The New Deal String Band. They were pressing the boundaries big time." 

--Boulder Weekly (www.boulderweekly.com) in the issue of Dec 23 97 

Since no one has mentioned them, I'll cite the New Deal String Band from North Carolina: originally Leroy Savage (vocals), Gene Knight (banjo), Frank Greathouse (mandolin), Al McCanless (fiddle), Buck Peacock (guitar), and Bob "Quail" White (bass). They were the first bluegrass act with really long hair (well, the first male bluegrass act with really long hair) and they totally tore up audiences at the Union Grove Fiddlers Convention and Carlton Haney's early festivals. Butch Robins' book "What I Know 'Bout What I Know" describes them as "the first (and possibly only) true hippie bluegrass band." In 1970, they produced the album "Blue Grass" for Sire (the Rolling Stones' label). The album included the first bluegrass versions of the Beatles' "Don't Pass Me By," Dylan's "One More Night," and the Stones' "No Expectations," together with familiar bluegrass standards. For the record, Bill Monroe didn't like them (but what did he know? I did). 
_________________ 
Fred Bartenstein 
Host: "Banks of the Ohio" 
www.fredbartenstein.com 

(Note that Fred Bartenstein was also the emcee at the Camp Springs Bluegrass Festival.