The Panfil Brothers

Reviews and Bios
CD- Thanksgiving- "This is highly recommend contemporary bluegrass" " Creek Bend excels at allowing the listener to have fun"
"Creek Bend is a very talented and entertaining band"
Bluegrass Now

Album- Life's Highway- "At a time when bluegrass has to battle pop walls of sound to be heard, Creek Bend demonstrates the continuing vitality inherent to the style that in many ways bespeaks a bygone era. They're steeped in tradition and traverse the wide stretch of musical territory"
Tony Trischka

The song"Creek Bend" along with the other entries comprising Life's Highway come highly recommended for extended airplay"
Bluegrass Unlimited

"A first class bluegrass album may be the last thing you might expect to be produced in western New York but Creek Bend's Life's Highway, proves it can happen"
The Buffalo News

CD- That Home Far Away- "The entire project features musical excellence." "Creek Bend delivers style, imagination and variety.
Bluegrass Unlimited

"The grass always seems to be bluer on the Creek Bend side of the fence"
The Buffalo News

Chris Panfil

Chris Panfil 's interest in bluegrass music can be traced back to his early teens when his brother Mark needed a mandolin accompanist for his banjo habit. The boys played Flatt and Scruggs tunes on the porch for hours at a time, much to the consternation of their northeastern steel town neighbors.

Chris moved to Florida after high school to play fiddle with the sun coast bluegrass band "Bluegrass Southern Style" in the 1980's . This resulted in an album and several tours including Europe and the Caribbean. An old banjo player friend from Buffalo moved to Florida and they formed the infamous "Sleepless Nites". This group toured the southeast and recorded "Live at the Garden" in 1985.

The country music boom soon led him to move to Nashville Tenn. where he found ample work as a touring and recording multi-instrumentalist. He played with many Grand Old Opry stars such as Jeanne Sealy, Del Reeves and Sheb Wooley. He also recorded many demo sessions and performed in the house band at the "Stagecoach" lounge, a popular musicians hangout in Nashville.
He joined up with Creek Bend to perform and play the northeastern US bluegrass festival circuit and recorded with them on the band’s Thanksgiving CD. Chris plays guitar and sings tenor and lead with the band. He is equally adept at playing mandolin and fiddle and has written several songs for the band.

Mark Panfil

Mark has played with Creek Bend since 1983. Before that he played in several local bands including the Erie Lackawanna Railroad with his brother Chris and the Hill Brothers, a school performance group for Young Audiences inc. He has taught dobro at the Augusta Heritage Workshops in Elkins WV for over fifteen years and has an instructional dobro video out on the (link hidden) label. He is a member of the Bluegrass in our Schools Committee for the IBMA. He sings lead and baritone and plays dobro, banjo and harmonica. When he isn't playing with Creek Bend he is a music teacher at an elementary school in Western New York where he also directs a student fiddle group. Mark’s harmonica prowess has earned him Youtube notoriety for his “hands free” method of playing harmonica with out hands or a rack holding them. He is also a first place winner of the Bushman’s Harmonica World’s International video harmonica contest.

We bring our own sound system and lights if the engagement is within 1.5 hours driving distance from Buffalo NY. We require one AC outlet and shade if our playing is to be in the sun.

We would like to be appropriately dressed for your event. Tell us how you would like to see us dressed and if there is any special music you would like us to prepare to play for you or played using prerecorded music during our break time.