Highway News

Winter 2007

 Highway Home would like to thank everyone for coming out to the shows and festivals as we play our bluegrass music "Just For The Fun Of It" And it sure wouldn't be much "fun" without you!! It's nice to visit with all the familiar faces and to meet up with some new ones. Thanks for your support of bluegrass music.

This has been a great year for Highway Home. To be nominated this past year in 9 different categories was awesome! We are very proud of Lonnie to have been voted Male Vocalist (traditional) this year. That was a moment we won't soon forget. We all would like to thank you for your friendship and support throughout the year.

As this year comes to an end, we are looking forward to the beginning of another. It will be a fun year as we are beginning to gel as a group. Each one knowing what the other person is going to do. In some cases that isn't always the case as witnessed in Albert Lea. Who would of thought we would ever see a couple of witches, Mark with long red hair and John in a pretty flowered hat. I thought for sure John was going to break out into a song! Maybe next year! I think Lonnie may have hurt himself laughing that night!

We hope you enjoy our traditional bluegrass music, as we continue to search for those oldies but goodies. Half the fun is looking for them. No CD, album or cassette is safe around us. We are getting ready to start working on our first CD with our troop! It has been hard for us because as many of you know our friend and CD producer Jeff Isaacs had a stroke last December. We felt so comfortable with both Jeff and Sandi that we are hoping to find the same connection with another studio. We are thinking and praying that he will make a full recovery from this bump in the road. God be with them.

Highway Home would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season and a wonderful 2008. We are looking forward to seeing you in the New Year! Give us a shout on the guestbook or by simply e-mailing us! We would love to hear from you!

Lonnie, Mark, John, Doug, and Kathy

As you can see from our new photo, things are changing in Highway Home. We would like to give a big welcome to Doug Page playing the doghouse bass. Doug brings a lot of experience from playing in several central Iowa bands.

We wish all the best for Susan who will be moving on to play more with her family band, the Corder Family, in Lancaster Mo. She may pop in from time to time "just for the fun of it" when Doug is unable to play, but will really miss her solid rhythm,  sweet harmony, and lead vocals.

December 2007: Congratulations Lonnie - Again!!!  Thank you Everyone!!!

This just in from Jefferson City; Lonnie Fults was selected as SPBGMA's Midwest Male Vocalist of the Year for the second year in a row! Congratulations to Lonnie and all the award winners!!!!

We would like to thank everyone for their support in these nominations. Once again, we are all really honored by this.

Local News Story

2008 SPBGMA Award Nominations -- WOW Again!

Thank you all for your kind support and votes for SPBGMA awards. We are truly honored to receive these nominations this year:

* - Repeat nomination

Winter 2007

Jeff Isaacs Fund Raiser

Fall 2006 - SPBGMA Award Nominations -- WOW

We are absolutely blown away!!!        And humbled.

Highway Home received nominations for 9 separate awards at the Midwest convention for SPBGMA. We know votes for those nominations come from you. We can't begin to tell you how much this means to us. Everyone in the band does this music "Just for the Fun of it". We try to have fun while we're playing and hope you enjoy listening. But receiving recognition like this really touches every single one of us in this little bluegrass band.

We would just like to say "thank you" for this honor, and for letting us play the music we love for you.

God bless you all, and Happy New Year from your friends,

Highway Home

In case you have not seen this, the nominations are as follows for Highway Home:

Summer 2006

Where has the time gone? Seems like we were just looking forward to the summer festival season, then POW, we’re right in the middle of it!

It has been a really great summer for Highway Home. We have been really busy playing a lot of week-end festivals, and meeting lots of folks who love this bluegrass music. Everywhere from right down town in Des Moines to the little stage at the natural amphitheater on the hill at Kalona to the lake out at Rock Creek.

Everywhere we have gone; people could not have been nicer. It has been really great seeing our old friends (you know who you are!), and it has been good making new friends.

We hope you are enjoying our world tour. The travel is pretty rough, but it’s worth every minute of it to get those photos for you to enjoy. If you have any suggestions on where we should go next, just drop the  webmaster a note – pretty much any place is possible.

We’re into the heat of the bluegrass season, and we hope to see you all at a festival or other event real soon. Please look us up and say Howdy!

 Your friends, Highway Home

Spring 2006

The weather is warming up and the itch to get out to some bluegrass festivals is getting stronger. Looks like we're going to have A LOT of chances to play this summer , and we are really looking forward to it!!! We would like to thank our friends and the promoters for inviting us to participate in these events. Please make an effort for thank the dedicated people that organize these events where we can enjoy the music we all love.

Our second CD is doing pretty well even with the limited number of events over the winter. For all practical purposes, it's a new CD for this season.  That said, we're just completed our THIRD CD which is an all Gospel project. Click here for more information on this CD.

We're hoping you have been enjoying our "Just for the Fun of It" world tour. We have been having a lot of fun on it, even though the travel is pretty rigorous (pulling the trailer to Hawaii and Egypt was a real challenge). The response we have been getting from fans all around the world has been just "unbelievable"!!! If you have any ideas on where where we need to go, just drop the webmaster a note, and remember, you can believe everything you see on the Internet <grin>.

We look forward to seeing every one of you at an event this spring & summer. Please be sure to stop by and say hi - meeting and talking with you all is the very best part of what we do.

 Your friends, Highway Home

Winter 2006

 2005 was a great year for our little bluegrass band. We were able to make lots of new friends, record not one but two CDs, and spend a lot of time playing the music we love. Lot’s of people are visiting this web site, which is fun too. As we look back, we would just like to say thanks to our friends, people who enjoy our music, and the promoters who make the venues we play.

 A special part of 2005 was Lonnie and Kathy getting nominated for the SPBGMA Midwest Male & Female Vocalist of the Year (Traditional). We could not be more proud of them. Here's the article from the Newton Daily News from December 22, 2005.

We’re looking ahead to 2006. We’re starting to get our schedule planned, and we’re looking ahead to possibly recording an all Gospel CD.

 As your reading this we trust you are well and warm. We hope to see you at an event soon.

 Your friends, Highway Home

Fall 2005

It's been a great summer for Highway Home. Lot's of festivals, lot's of music, and lot's of friends.

We're getting pretty excited about our second CD. Just a little mixing and and a little more cover art left, and it will be on it's way. The whole band pitched in a little more on the CD, and we think it has really helped the overall sound of our group. Kathy sings lead on “It’s Only the Wind”, and Susan adds harmony to “Girl from West Virginia” and “It’s Only the Wind". Rex does the lead on “Midnight on the Highway” and Fred has added a dobro track on several songs. We also have two original tunes on this CD; Lonnie wrote “The Way it Ought to Be”, a remembrance of his dad, and Steve created the mandolin tune ”Wynona". We hope to have it available in November.

We have also added a guest book to this web site. Hope to see our friends friends from across the region sign in and say hi.

 Hope to see you soon. Keep on pick'n!

Congratulations Lonnie & Kathy!!

Lonnie and Kathy were nominated for the SPBGMA Midwest Male & Female Vocalist of the Year (Traditional). We could not be more proud of them. Here's the article from the Newton Daily News from December 22, 2005.

Summer 2005

Well the weather is hot and so is the bluegrass here in Iowa. During the next few months we will be playing with some really great bands in some really HOT Midwest festivals. We recently played at the Kirksville Mo. and the Tipton Iowa, festivals as well as some private parties in our area. We met many new friends and a good time was had by all.

At this time we want to introduce and welcome our newest member to the band, Susan Miller. Susan lives in Knoxville Iowa and is no stranger to bluegrass music. She has played bass with her family band, The Corder Family, from Lancaster Mo. for many years. Along with her experience on the upright bass she brings a great attitude, a BIG smile, and the love for bluegrass music that we all share. Susan is a joy to be around and we are proud to have her in Highway Home! The next time you see us play, stop by our table and meet her.

We plan to play everything and anything throughout the summer and to meet as many people as we can. We are having more fun now than ever and look forward to talking to each and everyone of you at the festivals. Remember, if you are looking for a traditional bluegrass band for your birthday, anniversary, retirement, or any reason just give us a call. I'm sure we can work something out.

Our plans this fall include a 2nd CD with some of our own music as well as more of the OLD stuff. We are also planning on doing an all gospel project that will include our favorites (and yours). Hope to see you soon. Keep on pick'n!

Spring 2005

Spring has finally arrived here in central Iowa and I'm sure we are all looking forward to getting some warmer weather.

Springtime also marks the beginning of the outdoor bluegrass events. Something else we look forward to. It won't be long before we load our campers up and head to a weekend filled with the music we all love.

We recently finished our first CD and we are proud to say it is doing real well so far. It hasn't gone platinum or gold but Fred says it is in the "tinfoil" stage. We want to say thanks to everyone that has purchased it and we hope you enjoy it!

Steve has been working hard trying to keep our website up to date and adding some new things as well. It is growing in the number of "hits" each and every day. Email us and let us know what you think of it.

A special thank you goes out to Larry and Cindy Friedrich of St Peter Minnesota for presenting Rex with a rooster hat at the Newton festival. We know that a lot of hard work went into making it and we really appreciate it. It has become our new mascot and will bring great laughs and conversations. Thank You again.

Check our schedule often as we are steadily adding to it. We look forward to seeing all of our old friends and making many new ones this year. Stop by our table and say hi!! Hope to see you all soon.

Winter 2005

It's been an exciting winter for the members of Highway Home. We had a wonderful time at the New Day Coffee house in Ankeny. New Day is a wonderful place, and the folks that came out to see us on that icy night made us feel right at home. What a wonderful crowd!!

Perhaps our biggest news is that we have been working on recording a CD at the Grand Junction Recording Studio in Waterloo. We hope to have the CD available in February, so watch this site for information, and some preview tracks from the CD.

Back in Studio G we have been working up some new songs - we hope you like them.

As usual, we very much want say THANK-YOU to everyone that comes out to listen and support Highway Home. Please stop by and say hi next time you see us. We would love to visit with you.

God bless,

Your Friends, HIGHWAY HOME

December 1, 2004

Hello Bluegrass Friends, Well, we had our first measurable snow here in central Iowa and that marks the beginning of a long cold winter. We are planning on staying busy this winter so the time will pass more quickly. We just finished playing the Newton festival and had some great comments from all of you. That really gives us the motivation to work harder this winter to make improvements on what we love doing. We are excited about getting back to work in Studio G to learn some more new (old) songs. We are working on a CD project that should be done by the middle of February. We are also working on setting up a web-site so we can keep you up to date by pushing a button.

Once again, we want to say THANK-YOU to everyone that came out to listen to, and support us. We look forward to seeing YOU and meeting new friends next summer. Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Your Friends, HIGHWAY HOME