TALLGRASS EXPRESS

Annie Wilson (on guitar) helps her husband John on their ranch in Chase County where they raised three daughters. Annie is a former teacher and Coordinator of the Flint Hills Map & Education Program.  She helps with the Emma Chase Friday Night Music jams in Cottonwood Falls. Annie enjoys pasture walks where she gets ideas for her songs about the Flint Hills.   She was a founding member of the band in 2004, and has managed and performed in the band since that time.  She is on all the band's five albums.  In 2013 she was named the Flint Hills Balladeer of Kansas.

Carl Reed (on bass, guitar, and harmonica) lives in Manhattan where he worked with the international programs of the K-State Grain Science Department for nearly thirty years. He comes from a musical family and bought his first guitar when he was serving in the Peace Corps. His songs have been recorded by the bluegrass groups Special Consensus and Continental Divide. Carl joined the band in 2009, contributing his amazing lead and harmony vocals, as well as instrumental, song-writing, and arrangement skills, which have been an essential part of our sound.  He plays on our last three albums - all the Songs of the Flint Hills series. 

Derrick Doty enjoys preserving and sharing traditional music, and brings  this extensive knowledge of local music and history to the band.  See his website Flint Hills Fiddler.  In NY State, he played with O’Shanigans and the Finnish band Metku. Derrick, his wife Kelsie, and their two young boys live in Manhattan.  Derrick was a founding member of Tallgrass Express, but left the band in 2006 to pursue many goals in life (wife, children, new places). He returned to us in 2019, and having his musical talents back again has been terrific.  He plays on both our first CD, and our Peace on the Prairie CD.  See also Derrick Doty - Writing & Music.