[ATTACH=CONFIG]194797.vB5-legacyid=2118[/ATTACH]Fairview Heights IL–Old school. Like one room country schoolhouse old school. Like you plug in the homemade amp and the power goes out for a mile old school. An apt description for Jason Vivone & the Billy Bats, this year’s winner of the Missouri Lottery 2011 King of the Roots competition. Their reward? A main stage slot and performance at the upcoming Roots “N” Blues “N” BBQ Festival and a stage full of Heil Sound microphones.
The competition began earlier in the summer and pitted some of the best blues and roots bands from St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, and Springfield. The field was narrowed down to four acts that squared off in the finals at Columbia’s “The Blue Note” with the title hanging in the balance.
Vivone and his band are well known in the Kansas City area and feature a wide variety of instrumentation. The Heil Sound mic package was both timely and hugely useful. Vivone states, “Gotta tell you we’re enjoying the mics. At full power we have six members of which five are singers. And we’re all multi-instrumentalists. I’ve found the Heil mics: PR 35s, PR 31s, and the PR 40 to be great for every need of our band- vocals, guitar, percussion, fiddle, mandolin, cigar box guitar, blues harp. They fit our style of music perfectly.”
