Gospel, Rock-a-billy, Bluegrass?

Ha,Ha,Ha! Last night I went out to a Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike band concert at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen.
It was soooo funny.....fun. I went into it without a clue who this band was, but they were billed as gospel, rock-a-billy, bluegrass???? Sorry, come again?
Well, they do some pieces similar to "Down to the River to Pray" in "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?", and Valerie Smith is the most 'high energy' musician I have ever seen. I like her singing voice, but the band has this technique of crowding the mike, and then moving back and forth closer and farther away from the mike that 'works' well, except Valerie has the vocal power of a fog horn. It just didn't seem like there was enough room in the place for little Valerie, and her BIG voice.
Then, Becky Buller, another musician in the group came to the mike, and is sounded like the sound guys turned the mike off?! What in the-----?!?
Valerie was on stage, switching off several different instruments, as are the other band members, but she is bouncing around, clogging and just pumped with energy and never missing a beat musically.
It was more than I am used to. Most concerts for me are laid back old mellow rock, or classical...even some jazz. I just wasn't ready for this rock-a-billy bluegrass stuff.
The group was definitely worthy of a much larger audience. The auditorium was only 1/3 full, and some crackpot in the middle of the auditorium wouldn't shut up making cracks about the warm up musician, so after the brief intermission, there wasn't another person sitting within 10 feet of him.
I checked out their music online, and it's much more traditional sounding than the booming and fading they did last night. And Becky has some very nice pieces also. All in all, my favorite was a piece called buzzed. Itunes has it, but if you want a sample of the song at itunes, you won't get it because the piece they chose to use as a sampling of Buzzed is just band member intros?
Oh well, they won't be back in Richmond in '07, but I definitely reccomend them if you like Blue grass. You can find out more here: http://www.valeriesmithonline.com/
Toodles for now.
I have to go to church, and then teach my Sunday afternoon weaving class.
Cherri