Since it started 10 years ago, Fresh Rain has performed over 500 songs, covering all types of genres such as jazz, blues, gospel, pop, R&B and country.

“I really wanted my band to be diverse,” said Donald Wesley, the group’s founder. “I want it to appeal to all people.”

New Florence area residents will get an opportunity to listen to the St. Louis-based group as it will be making a performance at the 141st Old Settlers Picnic on Aug. 6 in New Florence. The band will be performing from 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., wrapping up a two-day event that will start at 6 p.m. on Aug. 5 with the queen contestants in the dunking stand.

Also on Aug. 5, the picnic will have bingo at 6:30 p.m., a jam session from Montgomery City resident Juanita Hadden at 7 p.m. and a washer/cornhole tournament at 7 p.m. Hadden, who graduated from Montgomery County High School in May, has been playing the guitar since eighth grade.

A parade, backyard cookoff, baby show, horseshoe tournament, an Old Settlers awards show, a cake walk, a pedal tractor pull, a greased pig contest and the princess and queen contests are scheduled for Aug. 6.

There is no pre-registration for the baby show, but there is a $2 entry fee. All contestants must wear white T-shirts and diapers.

There are three candidates in the princess contest and four in the queen contest. Two of them – Montgomery County juniors El Reagan and Alexa Groeber – are competing in the queen contest for the second year in a row. Reagan and Groeber were named first and second runner-up, respectively, in 2021.

Admission for both days of the picnic is free.

Wesley was doing gospel music before forming his band in 2012.

“The main reason I started it was because I was a songwriter,” Wesley said. “My plan was really to be in an original band that did covers. But when I saw how hard it is to be in an original band, I decided to start a cover band. It took us two years to get to that point. So we started doing covers and we got paid gigs to do cover music.”

Three years ago, Fresh Rain was getting plenty of gigs. But the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 put a halt in the band’s performing schedule.

“My thought was that it was hard to pinpoint on who is doing what because we have some people who didn’t want a gig because of COVID and we have some people who wanted to make sure it was safe and stuff like that,” Wesley said.

The band started performing again in 2021 after the COVID-19 vaccine came out.

“We started getting a lot more gigs because people were tired of being cooped up (at home) and they wanted live music,” Wesley said. “We did a wide variety of music.”

Wesley came up with the band’s name after experiencing a dry summer years ago.

“I knew I was aggravated,” Wesley said. “We didn’t have rain for a while. I remember waking up before dawn and thinking to myself how nice it would be hearing this rain hitting my window. It hasn’t rained in weeks at that time. I decided to call the band Fresh Rain.”

Wesley said his band earned an invitation to the Old Settlers Picnic after sending a proposal to the Old Settlers board members.

“I sent them some links of how we sound,” Wesley said. “They liked what they heard. They they contacted us and said, ‘We would like to hire your band.’”