Hickory Rose: Scranton, Pa. Band Keeps Traditional Country Music Roots

It could be a country song in itself.  Rock-and-roll bass player boy meets girl who can croon at a graduation party.  Boy marries girl and they literally start making music.  But girl has a passion for country music.  Girl wins.

The above is the nutshell version of how Scranton’s Hickory Rose formed.  The time?  1992, just as the class of ’89 (read: Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Alan Jackson) were taking the country by storm.  But Scranton was behind the times with this country music craze, explains lead singer Phyllis Pitch.

“Scranton wanted no part.  You had to go south of Wilkes-Barre or north of Binghamton.  My husband said, ‘Give ‘em ten years.’  Now, people are turning country,” she said.  Pitch’s husband, the band’s bass player, passed away three years ago, but fellow band member, the Nashville-trained steel player Gerard Drury, encouraged Pitch to keep the music going. 

Despite the changes in country music over the past decade, Pitch is keeping her roots firmly planted in the place where Hickory Rose- and the genre- got it’s start.  

“This is my comfort zone for singing country music,” explains Pitch. “A lot of people don’t want to put this music in clubs, even if it is just one day from 5:00-9:00.  They are closing the door to a lot of people.”  Pitch added that they have a gig coming up in May at the Green Alley Pub in Throop, which is adding a country night.

Mainstream country has certainly grown in the past few years, even since the class of 1989, with a new class of superstars.  Pitch does not discredit their talent or success, however, she feels it’s not “true country music.”

“It’s something else.  They just didn’t give it a name yet.  I could scream out a Gretchen Wilson song, yeah, we’ll do new stuff, but I like to sing the traditional.  I prefer doing what I do best.  They say take one thing and give it all you got,” she said.