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Bluegrass Memoirs: The First Canadian Bluegrass Festival (Part 1)The first Canadian festival, a modest affair billed as a “Bluegrass Jamboree,” took place in August 1972. I was involved in its organization and presentation. Subsequently, the Jamboree grew into an annual festival that’s still running. The Nova Scotia-based Downeast Bluegrass & Oldtime Music Society's website reads: The annual family…
Bluegrass Memoirs: 'Industrial Strength Bluegrass' and the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion (Part 4)(Editor’s Note: Read part one of our series on the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion here. Read part two here. Read part three here.) My series of memoirs on the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion closes with a gallery of snapshots taken during the day's proceedings. I had a new Japanese automatic camera of the type…
Bluegrass Memoirs: 'Industrial Strength Bluegrass' and the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion (Part 3)(Editor's Note: Read part one of our series on the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion here. Read part two here.) Working on CityFolk's Dayton Bluegrass Reunion, I heard local terminology for the culture in which this music grew. "Industrial working-class Appalachian migrants" was rarely spoken. "Hillbilly" was said sometimes with disdain, sometimes…
Bluegrass Memoirs: 'Industrial Strength Bluegrass' and the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion (Part 2)Editor's note: Read part one of Industrial Strength Bluegrass and the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion here In 1987 I became involved with CityFolk's Dayton Bluegrass Reunion, "An All-Star Salute to Dayton's 40 Year Bluegrass History." Between October 1987 and March 1989, I worked by mail and telephone to help shape the…
Bluegrass MemoirsDec 9, 2020
On October 3, 2020, during IBMA's Virtual World of Bluegrass, I watched the Bluegrass Situation's presentation of Shout & Shine Online, the fifth annual showcase celebrating equity and inclusion in bluegrass and roots music. This year it featured Black performers, including Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton, the blues, folk, bluegrass, and jazz multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from…
Bluegrass MemoirsOct 19, 2020
On the morning of March 24, 2020 I learned Eric Weissberg had passed away when a friend posted a long and detailed obit. I found several other substantial ones online -- Rolling Stone, Variety, New York Times. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Weissberg's family had a press release ready; he'd been in decline,…
Bluegrass MemoirsSep 18, 2020
In December 1953, Decca released "Plunkin' Rag" by the Shenandoah Valley Boys. It was the first recording by a banjoist other than Earl Scruggs to use Scruggs pegs: Hubert Davis. Born in Shelby, North Carolina, in 1932, Davis grew up in a musical family. He was already playing the banjo when, at the age of…
Bluegrass MemoirsAug 12, 2020
Let's begin with a 45 RPM record I played banjo on. In July 1964, I was hired by the Rick Sutherlin Orchestra to play banjo for one night at the Monroe County Fair in Bloomington, Indiana. They needed a banjo player, because they were going to back up the fair's featured music that night, the…
Bluegrass MemoirsJun 24, 2020
Tom Power's recent Toy Heart episode with Alice Gerrard, whom I first knew as Alice Foster, reminded me of a 1959 visit several of us Oberlin College folkies made to Antioch College. In 2009, doing research on my early bluegrass experiences, I sent my friend Mayne Smith an email asking about his experiences when he met…
