Valerie Smith Music

Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike love to play music. It is just that simple....each member has performed for audiences across the United States, Canada, UK, Europe and on cruise ships

Mandolin/Vocals 

Lisa Kay Howard has been playing bluegrass professionally across the US and Canada for 25 years. She started out at 14 in 1989 performing with her family band, Crooked Run and later founded the DC-based band Badly Bent. She spent several years touring and recording with southern Maryland's Flying Blind Bluegrass, and Jay Armsworthy and Eastern Tradition. In 2007, she began fronting her own Lisa Kay Band in the region, and in 2013 she joined the group East Of Monroe, an Americana band that showcases original material. Lisa Kay is a 26-year veteran bluegrass radio host and concert MC, and hosted a show for many years on Washington DC-based WAMU's Bluegrass Country, before joining Valerie Smith's host roster on Bell Buckle Radio. She is also the co-founder of the DC Bluegrass Union, an organization that promotes and encourages bluegrass in Washington DC and beyond, including extensive youth outreach.

Fiddle, Vocals, Guitar, Dobro

Wally Hughes is an excellent singer and multi-instrumentalist originally from Delaware, now residing in Northern Virginia. Wally has been playing bluegrass  across the US and Canada since 1972.  His Dad tried to get Wally to play fiddle at age 9, but he was too interested in horses and baseball. But, then Wally's family went to a festival in Georgia and there was only one dobro player there, so at age 11, Wally decided that was the instrument for him and he picked up the dobro. Within  weeks he was on stage playing with the family Bluegrass Band called the Hughes Family. Playing fiddle with the family for square dances finally gave him his love for that instrument. His sisters played guitar and banjo, so  he  soon learned the instruments they played as well.  For a number of years, he fronted his own band in Delaware called Fretloose while recording and playing with other groups from the area as well. He is also a member of "Level Best" and "East of Monroe." 
He recorded and played in a band called Penn Central with Steve Huber in the early 80s and has performed with Mike Auldridge, Bill Emerson, Mike Munford and many other top DC bluegrass musicians since moving to Northern Virginia. He regularly teaches at festival camps, including Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival's Kids Academy, teaching fiddle, Dobro, and guitar.

Upright Bass / Vocals

Bassist Stephen Hu has played bluegrass, Americana, jazz, and musical theater for 25 years. He has played bluegrass with The Believers and The Wellions in the Fredericksburg area and helped host the bluegrass Sunday night at The Sunken Well Tavern. He currently plays in the duo Swing N Strings with pedal steel player Gary Lee Gimble, and occasionally with the pit orchestra at The Riverside Center For the Performing Arts.