the JWB debut performance on Feb 23 at the Station Inn. Photo by Gary Chasteen.

Acclaimed flat picker and vocalist Josh Williams has signed his Josh Williams Band to be booked by Roe Entertainment, an Owensboro, Ky., agency that represents several top-flight bluegrass artists and bands.

Agency president Jim Roe’s resume includes stints with MCA Nashville and Skaggs Family Records. He began his own booking agency, Roe Entertainment, in November 2005.
Among acts that Roe Entertainment currently represents are The Steel Drivers, the Lonesome River Band, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Dan Paisley and Southern Grass and the Freight Hoppers.

“The members of the ‘JWB’ and I are looking forward to working with Jim and all the folks at Roe Entertainment, and are especially excited about getting back out to work with all our good friends out on the bluegrass circuit,” Williams said in a statement on his Web site, http://www.joshwilliamsmusic.com. “We are honored to have become part of such a great roster as we prepare for the 2009 and 2010 touring season.”

Williams, who gained attention working with Special Consensus and later Rhonda Vincent’s The Rage, formed his own group in January. Members include Tim Dishman on bass, Clayton Campbell on fiddle, Jason McKendree on banjo and Chase Johner on mandolin.

“I feel I have put together an excellent band of great players and great people, a musical group that is second to none,” Williams said, adding the band “is looking forward to playing every festival or event that likes a good mix of traditional and contemporary bluegrass music, done with high energy.”

After selling out a July show at Nashville’s bluegrass Mecca, The Station Inn, Williams and his group will return there for a 9 p.m. Aug. 23 show.