Johnsville and New Lebanon were two small towns on U.S. 35, west of Dayton. As they grew, the distance between them kept shrinking until they finally grew together and someone decided they should have one name. New Lebanon was selected and Johnsville disappeared. The Boys From Johnsville were from the area and they liked to joke that they came from a town that didn’t exist anymore. They were a progressive bluegrass band that appeared around the Dayton area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They played at the New Lebanon Inn, the Avalon bar in Dayton, and on the WYSO Country Jamboree. They issued one LP titled Smokin’ Bluegrass on Old Homestead Records in 1980. The original members of the band were Steve Mullis on guitar, Bob Staggs on bass guitar, Bob’s brother Lonnie on mandolin, Bordley Palk on dobro, and Tim Jackson on banjo. Other early members were Larry Mullis and Kenny Wylie. The band left the Dayton area in the 1980s and relocated to Florida, where they became a country band. In 1985 they won the Marlboro Country Talent Round-Up and became the Florida State Champion Country Band. In 1987 the band was playing at the Frontier Lounge in Orlando. but Steve Mullis and Tim Jackson were the only two original members. Tim Jackson left in 1988 and in 2016 is a member of the Cincinnati band Nightflyer. Steve Mullis retired to Tennessee in 2001 and Bordley Palk passed away in New Lebanon in 2011.
Boys From Johnsville