Joe Diffie

John Lawless reports on Bluegrass Today that country singer Joe Diffie died on Sunday after recently testing positive for COVID-19. An award-winning country srtist, he was from childhood involved with bluegrass music and musicians, and released in 2010 Homecoming: the bluegrass album on Rounder Records, for which (in Lawless's words) he

... used a band of Nashville super-pickers with Rob Ickes on reso-guitar, Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, Mike Compton on mandolin, Bryan Sutton on guitar, Mark Fain on bass, and Charlie Cushman on banjo. It included a new set of songs, and one Flatt & Scruggs classic, showing that he never lost the touch of grass.

This is amply shown even in the brief snippets of each of the twelve tracks that you can hear on Bluegrass Today. Ralph Schut (NL/CZ), leader of the Czech band G-Runs 'n' Roses (concert performers at the 2018 Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival), sends a comment on the Bluegrass Today post: 'Rest in peace, you were a great singer!!!'

PS: Sharon Loughrin of the Red Room at Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, sends the news that John Prine is now in hospital with COVID-19; his condition has been critical, but is now stable.