Joe Moretti - a 'Blue Grass Boy'

Thanks to Louis O'Dwyer for this news of Joseph Edward Moretti (1938-2012):

Joe Moretti died today - Johnny Duncan & the Blue Grass Boys, etc. - and a formidable contributor later to commercial UK country music. I'm sure you recall that high lonesome sound on Radio Luxembourg in the '60s when we were supposed to be asleep. Check out the tributes here.

Joe has taken his 'Last train to San Fernando' and his next stop will rightly be amongst the Celestial All-Stars.

For younger readers: John Franklin 'Johnny' Duncan (1932-2000), from Tennessee, made a mark on the skiffle scene in Britain in the late 1950s with his high tenor singing, his 'Blue Grass Boys' band, and such recordings as 'Footprints in the snow', based on Bill Monroe's version, and (as Louis mentions) 'Last train to San Fernando'.

The BIB editor recalls that his grandmother and her sisters were tickled by hearing Duncan sing 'Footprints' on the radio, as they had known it as a late Victorian popular song.