SUNNY SIDE UP BAND

   The Sunny Side Up Band current membership, with one exception, has worked together since 2004, and has appeared before enthusiastic audiences at churches, political rallies, and festivals since that time, averaging about thirty performances per year.  Members of Sunny Side Up include both seasoned performers and relative newcomers to the field of entertainment.
  Dean VonAllmen of West Plains, Missouri, plays fiddle with the group.  He is a great fan of Kenny Baker’s style of playing, and in August, 2005, he took second place in Missouri at the fiddling contest at the State Fair in Sedalia.  He has been playing the fiddle “most of his life,” he says, and brings a drive and fire to his rollicking fiddle that others try to imitate.
  Sonya White of Raymondville, Missouri, plays bass fiddle and sings alto and lead with Sunny Side Up.  She works as a Medical Technologist at Texas County Memorial Hospital in Houston, and adds a depth of harmony to the group that is without parallel.  She has been playing bass a little over two years, and has been singing gospel songs in church choirs all her life, giving her a rich background in music that touches the hearts of those in her audiences.
  Matt Meacham of West Plains is a multi-talented member of Sunny Side Up.  He has been with the band about a year, and sings lead, tenor, and baritone.  According to fellow member Ed McKinney, “He plays both guitar and mandolin with skill and precision that is rarely heard in any group.”  He is from Illinois originally, but has lived in Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, and has accumulated a large repertoire of Bluegrass and folk music during his time in those widely varying areas.  Matt is a folklorist with the West Plains Council on the Arts and teaches courses at Missouri State University-West Plains.
  Ed McKinney rounds out the membership of Sunny Side Up.  He plays guitar mostly, but occasionally plays mandolin with the group.  Like Dean, Ed has played guitar almost all his life, beginning at about age twelve, which he admits was “some time ago.”  He sings lead, bass, and some tenor, and loves to play guitar in the Carter style as Mother Maybelle did.  He also likes “corny” songs!  At the State Fair in August 2005, he took third in the state in the back-up guitar (for fiddlers) contest.  He is chairman of the history department at Missouri State University, West Plains, and serves as business manager for Sunny Side Up.