U.S. Navy Country Current

The United States Navy Band’s Country Current is the Navy’s premier country music ensemble. The seven-member group was formed in 1973 and quickly established itself in all aspects of country and bluegrass music. The group is under the direction of banjoist Senior Chief Musician Keith M. Arneson.

Country Current has performed with artists such as Boots Randolph, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill, and David Ball. Country Current performed at the “Branson Cares–Help Start the Healing” tribute to the citizens of Oklahoma City and at the Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in Branson, Missouri on Memorial Day in 1995. Other credits include the Grand Ole Opry, Wheeling Jamboree, and the Academy of Country Music Awards show.

Country Current’s performances include: Branson’s Silver Dollar City with Rhonda Vincent and Bradley Walker, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, North Carolina, the DirecTV 500 in Martinsville, Virginia, the G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, the 24th Annual Congressional Barbecue, the Mississippi Country-Bluegrass Spectacular with David Ball as part of The Pentagon Pops Musical Salute to America’s “Guardians of Freedom” at DAR Constitution Hall, the Fort Vancouver Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in Washington, the Nova Scotia International Tattoo, and the Swedish Army Tattoo in Stockholm.

In 1996, Country Current released Sugarland Run, featuring 18 country and bluegrass standards and originals. The group’s most recent recording, This is… Navy Country!, was released in 2010. The group received national acclaim during Operation Desert Storm for the original composition “We Are with You,” which aired on ABC’s Good Morning America, TNN’s Nashville Now and over 500 U.S. and Canadian radio and television stations. Country Current appeared on CBS’s This Morning in July 1994 and was featured for four years on the Department of the Interior’s “Salute to America” Independence Day Radio Program, which aired on over 1,600 stations nationwide.

The group features an acoustic bluegrass quintet that appeared in 2002 at the Folk Festival in Anchorage, Alaska and in 2001 at the Mississippi Bluegrass Reunion in Purvis. They have made multiple appearances at the Wintergrass Bluegrass Festival, the Winterhawk Bluegrass Festival, the Withlacoochee River Bluegrass Jamboree, the Music in the Mountains Festival, and the 1999 Kissimmee Bluegrass Festival. The bluegrass ensemble performed at the 2006, 2000, and 1997 International Bluegrass Music Association’s Awards Show and FanFest in Louisville, Kentucky, and at the IBMA’s Showcase. In 1995, the group performed with bluegrass legend Bill Monroe. Constantly in demand as part of the Navy Band’s “Music in the Schools” program, they offer a variety of concerts and demonstrations that complement music curricula in area schools.