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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 Memoirs: 'Industrial Strength Bluegrass' and the Dayton Bluegrass Reunion (Part 1)On April 22, 1989, Cityfolk, a Dayton, Ohio-based concert series, mounted their most ambitious evening to date, The Dayton Bluegrass Reunion, "An All-Star Salute to Dayton's 40 Year Bluegrass History." It was held at Memorial Hall in downtown Dayton. I'm reminded of this concert now because of an essay I…
Bluegrass Memoirs: The Earl Scruggs Celebration (Part 3)(Editor's note: Read part one of Neil V. Rosenberg's Bluegrass Memoir on the Earl Scruggs Celebration of 1987 here. Read part two here.) Boiling Springs, NC on Saturday, September 26, 1987: My workshop in the Gardner-Webb College Library with Snuffy Jenkins, Pappy Sherrill and the Hired Hands ended at 4:30…
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…
