Country Best of Class, Chandler, highlight performance of the concert series | News, Sports, Jobs

From left: Dave Roberts as Johnny Cash, Reinnie Leavitt as Loretta Lynn, Tim Wilson as Conway Twitty and Sherry Wilson Braid as Patsy Cline in local group Country Best of Class, the headline act Thursday in the Artsbridge Summer Music Series at City Park. (Photo provided)

PARKERSBURG – The Summer Music Series concert on Thursday at City Park will feature songs from country music legends.

Country Best in Class plays classic country and features Sherry Wilson Braid as Patsy Cline, Reinnie Leavitt as Loretta Lynn, Dave Roberts as Johnny Cash and Tim Wilson as Conway Twitty.

JP Chandler, a local musician, will open the show.

The weekly Summer Music Series, organized by Artsbridge, takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the City Park bandshell. In case of rain, the event will be held in the Horseshoe Pit.

CFI Engineering and the City of Parkersburg are sponsors of Thursday’s concert.

JP Chandler of Parkersburg will open the show at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the weekly Artsbridge Summer Music Series at City Park. (Photo provided)

Members of Country Best in Class are also active in other performing arts groups in the community.

Braid, a Wood County Schools nurse who has been performing since she was four, also sings with Track 9, a popular local band.

She was awarded the Kahlil Award by the Actors Guild of Parkersburg for outstanding achievement.

Leavitt, director of the cancer division at Camden Clark Medical Center, is a longtime performer with the bluegrass band Laurel Creek and once sang with the Southern gospel trio The Williams Family.

Wilson began singing in third grade and performed at school, church and college

Choirs and is an IT system administrator.

Roberts, a singer since high school, has served as sound engineer and operations manager for the Actors Guild of Parkersburg. He is vice president of information systems and technology at CU*SOUTH.

Braid formed the band about two years ago. She has performed as Patsy Cline since 2000 and believed that a group representing other country music legends would be successful.

Each member of the group has talent and is perfect for the legend they represent, she said.

Braid and Leavitt were good friends on and off stage.

“It was quite natural to use her as Loretta Lynn,” Said Braid.

Roberts has a voice that makes him an excellent Johnny Cash, Braid said.

“I was right,” She said. “He’s a very good Johnny Cash.”

Wilson is Braid’s ex-husband.

“Tim is one of the best tenors I have ever sung with,” Said Braid. “He’s an excellent Conway Twitty.”

The group will perform a total of 18 songs that Cash, Twitty, Lynn and Cline made famous, either all together, as duets or individually. Among the songs are “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Hi darling,” “Daughter of a miner” And “Crazy” by Cline.

“The song that people always ask me to sing,” Said Braid.

The songs to be performed in duet include “I’m going to fly away,” “Will the circle be unbroken” And “Dad sang bass.”

Chandler is from Parkersburg and has been performing since the 1990s, singing country, folk and light rock.

Admission to the concerts is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.

Shows will be Thursdays from 6:30-8:00 p.m. through August 22. Other acts include Band of Brothers, Insured Sound, Highway 7 Band, Back Porch Swing Band, Todd Burge, JP Chandler Band and the Showcase of Bands from local high schools.