Members of the East Tennessee State University Bluegrass Pride Band and Director of ETSU Bluegrass, Old-Time and County Music Studies Dan Boner have been climbing national bluegrass charts alongside two nationally known alums.
Together they released the single, âWhen the Water Goes Down,â to weave a tale of mystery that adds to the regionâs rich folklore.
âWhen the Water Goes Downâ is a ballad written by award-winning ETSU alumni Becky Buller and Tim Stafford, both of whom took part in the recording. It combines regional history and storytelling set in the Northeast Tennessee town of Butler.
Evacuated and flooded in 1948 by the Tennessee Valley Authority for the creation of Watauga Lake, Butler has its own unique history, but Buller and Staffordâs song adds a fictional account set 35 years in the future, of a minister suspected of killing his wife after facts emerge when the lake is drained in 1983.