Edd Mayfield remembered

The 146th Bluegrass Unlimited weekly newsletter includes a link to the BU archives for a forty-year-old article by Doug Hutchens, bluegrass historian and former Blue Grass Boy. Published originally in the August 1983 issue of BU, it chronicles the tragically brief career of Edd Mayfield from Texas, who played three stretches as a Blue Grass Boy before his death from leukemia in 1958, aged 32. Bill Monroe considered him 'a wonderful guitar player and a wonderful singer' and had a high personal regard for him, which can be heard in his voice in 'Bill Monroe speaks about Edd Mayfield - 1965 Ralph Rinzler interview'. So anyone who might say that Monroe thought only Kentuckians could play bluegrass, can be answered with two words: 'Edd Mayfield'.

© Richard Hawkins

Bill Monroe, born 13 Sept. 1911

Richard D. Smith, author of Can't you hear me callin': the life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass (New York, 2000), writes:

We celebrate Bill as the 'Father of Bluegrass', probably the only individual yet to create a distinctive genre of popular music; as a powerfully innovative virtuoso mandolin player; and as a compelling vocalist whose melody lines and high harmonies still thrillingly define 'the high, lonesome sound'. But Bill Monroe is also arguably the first great autobiographical singer-songwriter in country music history [...]

... and goes on to substantiate his case on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Blue Grass Boys of the past

From Richard Thompson's article on Bluegrass Today, the BIB learns with regret of the death of guitarist and singer (Esmond) Arnold Terry (22 June 1933-17 July 2022) of Virginia, one of the generation that began playing bluegrass before it was generally known by that name. He served in the US army during the Korean war; afterwards, on the recommendation of Bobby Hicks, he auditioned for Bill Monroe on 17 Dec. 1955 and played as a Blue Grass Boy to 2 Mar. 1956. He then became a member of Jim Eanes's Shenandoah Valley Boys, recording with Eanes, with other musicians, and under his own name (Richard Thompson's feature includes a discography and four YouTube videos), and in the 1960s left the music business to become a preacher. His funeral took place on Thursday 21 July.

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Arnold Terry did not record with the Blue Grass Boys, but Richard Thompson has also drawn attention to another Virginia musician and Korean War veteran, Rudy Lyle (17 Mar. 1930-11 Feb. 1985), who joined the band in mid August 1949 and contributed his powerful playing, solidly based in Scruggs style with his own distinctive touch, to a dozen recording sessions between Oct. 1949 and Jan. 1954. The substantial interview article by Doug Hutchens for Bluegrass Unlimited in 1985, reprinted in Thomas Goldsmith (ed.), The bluegrass reader (2004), has been one of the fullest sources on his life till now. Max Wareham, banjo-player for the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, has written Rudy Lyle: the unsung hero of the five-string banjo, due for release on 23 Aug. This is not only a biography including previously unpublished photos, but an analytical study, with transcriptions, of all Lyle's recorded lead and backup playing with Monroe. More details, including a link for pre-ordering, are on Bluegrass Today.

Update 4 Aug.: Another of Richard Thompson's valuable obituaries - Leslie Matheson 'Les' Sandy of North Carolina died on 28 July, less than two weeks short of his ninety-fourth birthday. He spent brief periods as a Blue Grass Boy in the 1950s, but these included recording (on guitar) several tracks on Monroe's first LP, Knee deep in blue grass. He also played and recorded with Jim & Jesse and other major figures of the founding years of bluegrass. Much more detail is on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

Mark Hembree on Bill Monroe: book now published

Since last autumn, the BIB has mentioned a few times the coming publication of On the bus with Bill Monroe: my five-year ride with the Father of Blue Grass, the book on his personal experience of Bill Monroe by Mark Hembree, who played bass as a Blue Grass Boy from July 1979 to June 1984. The book has now been published (26 Apr.) by the University of Illinois Press at $110 in hardback, $19.95 in paperback, and $14.95 as an e-book. It is on Amazon.co.uk for £16.92 (plus postage) in paperback and £12.93 in Kindle; and from Book Depository at €17.81 (paperback; postage free).

Following Richard Thompson's recent feature on the book in Bluegrass Today, Henry Carrigan has contributed to the 'Reading Room' department of No Depression a useful review of it, including reflections from Hembree's own perspective on the factors affecting the writing of a memoir of this kind.

© Richard Hawkins

BU Apr. 2022

The April 2022 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited (BU), the Mother of Bluegrass Magazines, has Doyle Lawson (headliner at Omagh in 2006 with his band Quicksilver) on the cover, and a six-page retrospect of his career by Bill Conger inside, together with a feature by Sandy Hatley on Authentic Unlimited, the splendid new band with a core consisting of three members of Lawson's last lineup of Quicksilver.

The many other good things include a feature by Professor Jack Bernhardt on the cafe/ music venue run by Lorraine Jordan, and one by Hatley on Jordan's banjo player Ben Greene, who recalls his tour of Ireland and Europe in 2003 as a member of the James King Band. Joe Ross writes 'The Far East embraces Far Western: bluegrass and country music in Japan'; Dan Shaw interviews Mark Hembree about his book On the bus with Bill Monroe: my five-year ride with the Father of Blue Grass', due to appear later this month; David McCarty writes on the makers of Ellis mandolins; and that's by no means all.

BU's 73rd weekly newsletter includes a podcast with Butch Robins in which 'Butch will share with us his always insightful perspective about Bill Monroe and bluegrass music'; a bass lesson, jam track, and Spotify playlist; and an archive article from 1975 by Don Rhodes on Mac Wiseman.

© Richard Hawkins

New music from the Special C. - and more

Thanks to John Lawless on Bluegrass Today for the news that the Special Consensus will release this coming Friday (25 Mar.) the first recording with their current lineup (above, l-r: Dan Eubanks, Greg Cahill, Greg Blake, Michael Prewitt). The single on the Compass label is 'Blackbird', with Greg Blake singing lead, Dale Ann Bradley and Amanda Smith singing harmony, Rob Ickes guesting on dobro, and Alison Brown on second banjo. It can be heard on Bluegrass Today (where there's a characteristically upbeat quote from Greg Cahill) and on YouTube.

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Thanks to East Public Relations for a reminder of the Bluegrass Music Hall Of Fame and Museum's 'My Bluegrass Story' series of video interviews, in which the latest, featuring Joe Mullins, will be shown on Friday 25 Mar. on RFD TV. A thirty-second trailer can be seen on YouTube. More details are on the East PR press release.

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A month ago the BIB mentioned mandolin master Mike Compton and his new album, Rare & fine: uncommon tunes of Bill Monroe, on which he plays Monroe instrumentals, some of which were never released on a record label. No Depression has now published a substantial and rewarding article by Compton, in which he describes how he came to the music of the Father of Bluegrass, and his reasons for selecting the tunes, the musicians, and the sound engineer for the recording. He writes that the album

... is not meant as a solo mandolin recording. The point is to illustrate Monroe’s use of single, duo, and triple fiddle formats and to celebrate that sound. All I attempted to do with the mandolin is to play the melodies straight as I could get them off the source material so that people will know how they go and players will have a fair chance at learning them, not to see how many notes I can get on the head of a pin. This is an album primarily dedicated to Monroe’s love of fiddle music, not my Mississippi-influenced interpretation of his mandolin style.

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Also on No Depression, Stephen Winick marks Women's History Month and Irish American Heritage Month with his article 'Roots in the archive: two Irish American women who carried songs across time'. The first is Carrie Grover (1879-1959), born in Nova Scotia, who lived in Maine, USA, from the age of 12; was recorded by Alan Lomax singing and playing music learned from her family; and later published a book, A heritage of songs, which was the source for 'Arthur McBride' as sung by Paul Brady. Carrie Grover's 1941 recording of the song can be heard in this article. The second is Maggie Hammons Parker (1899-1987) of the famous West Virginia Hammons family, whose singing of 'Ireland's green shore' can also be heard here. Stephen Winick has missed the distinction between 'conscription' and 'enlistment', but otherwise the article is well worth reading.

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The IBMA sends a reminder of its Zoom discussion on the theme 'The Bluegrass Global Village' - in which Uri Kohen of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival is on the panel - which will take place this coming Saturday (26 Mar.) at 6.00 p.m. GMT (see the BIB for 11 Mar.).

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The Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC, announces that the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival, postponed for two years by the pandemic, will be held at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, Mill Spring, NC, with a constellation of bluegrass acts, on 2-4 Sept. 2022. More details are on the Festival website.

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Ken Perlman, master of 'melodic clawhammer' banjo, announces that the next two online live instructional banjo workshops in his 'Clawhammer Clinic' series will be 'Playing in the key of D from open G tuning (gDGBD)' on Mon. 11 Apr., and 'Arranging a song or simple melody for performance, clawhammer style' on Mon. 2 May. Ken's 72-minute appearance as featured artist and interviewee on Deering Live in January can be seen on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

More (assorted) US news

Mandolin master Mike Compton, who visited Ireland with the Nashville Bluegrass Band in 2007, is a recognised authority on the music of the Father of Bluegrass. He now has a new album, Rare & fine: uncommon tunes of Bill Monroe, scheduled for release early next month. On it, he plays Monroe instrumentals that are not often heard, including some that were never released on a record label. An example is his new single, 'Orange Blossom breakdown'; the tune was learned from a recording of a radio broadcast. It can be heard on Bluegrass Today, and (the BIB recommends) on the Bluegrass Situation and YouTube, where the video includes footage and stills taken during the recording of the Compton version.

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On 22 Feb. the BIB mentioned Hurricane Clarice, the forthcoming album by the 'apocalyptic stringband duo' of Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves (left). The Bluegrass Situation (BG) now presents a substantial article on the album by Steve Hochman, 'Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves reunite to honor their grandmothers', with input from both musicians on the background of the album, the choice of numbers, the contributions of producer Phil Cook, the importance of 'the idea of family, whether that’s family that you’re connected with at childhood or your musical community', and much more. There are three videos of de Groot and Hargreaves playing items from the album, and one sixty-eight-minute full concert video.

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In his latest e-newsletter, Michael J. Miles announces that he will be teaching at three banjo camps this year: 'If you play the banjo these can be utopian. If you don't, that's another story.' Michael's other forthcoming events include concerts, fundraisers, and one-time-only workshops for clawhammer banjo and fingerstyle guitar, which will be streamed on Zoom. More details, and two videos, are here.

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Finally - and of special interest to anyone who likes skiffle and jug-band music - the Birthplace of Country Music Museum announces in its latest e-newsletter that on 8 Mar. Scott Paulson, who contributed to the Museum's 'Instrument interview: the kazoo', will give a talk on 'The kazoo's place in history and music'.

© Richard Hawkins

A new act - the Stanley Brothers

Bluegrass Today has published a major article by Richard Thompson, 'Stanley Brothers got their start 75 years ago', focused on the brothers' forming their first band around 1 November 1946 (a very short time after Ralph got his discharge from the US Army) and on their early recordings on the Rich-R-Tone label. YouTube audio recordings are included for 'Mother no longer awaits me at home' and 'The girl behind the bar', from their first recording session in mid 1947.

The image above, based on a 1960 photo of Carter and Ralph, is the jacket design of Gary Reid's book The music of the Stanley Brothers, published early in 2015 by the University of Illinois Press as part of its 'Music in American Life' series. As a study of the brothers and their music together, it is unlikely ever to be superseded.

Gary Reid writes (ibid., p. 7): 'When the Stanley Brothers first began their professional career, they were very much in the old-time camp.' However, their admiration for Bill Monroe led them to model their sound on his - something which at first annoyed him, but which has since been seen as a decisive step in the transition of bluegrass from the sound of one band to the sound of a genre of music.

© Richard Hawkins

Butch Waller, Bill Monroe, and 'The little beggarman' (update)

The BIB editor writes:

The latest 'California report' in Dave Berry's ongoing series on Bluegrass Today is subtitled 'Butch Waller on High Country and Bill Monroe'. Butch Waller (left) is of course the leader of High Country, the premier hardcore California bluegrass band that took part in the first Athy bluegrass festival in 1991, returning by popular demand in 1993, and then again fifteen years later; in the photo, Butch is shown on stage at Athy in 2008.

Berry's feature is a major interview, covering the full range of Butch's career from his schooldays onwards, the people he's played with (including the full list of past and present members of High Country), the bands he's been in besides High Country, his instruments, his influences, what makes a band last fifty years, and much more. Any bluegrass enthusiast should benefit from reading it. Bill Monroe is foremost among the influences on Butch and his playing and singing, and this interview would be well worth reading just for what Butch has to say about him. Five videos are included. One point is relevant to Ireland - Butch remembers:

My dad played the harmonica and loved to sing. 'Buffalo gals' and 'She’ll be comin’ around the mountain' were familiar songs. He also could sing all the words to the fiddle tune 'Little beggar man' — I don’t know where he learned it, but he studied law in Virginia and his family was from Kentucky.

Is it beyond possibility that Butch's father may have learned the words from the singing of Sarah Makem and Tommy Makem of Co. Armagh on the 1956 Tradition LP The lark in the morning? Wikipedia calls this 'the first album-length recording of Irish music to be recorded in Ireland'.

Update 24 Oct.: Last year Chris Henry interviewed Butch about Monroe-style mandolin, with an emphasis on less-familiar tunes. You can watch the forty-minute interview on YouTube.

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The BIB mentioned on 13 September that forthcoming books on Bill Monroe would include bassist Mark Hembree's On the bus with Bill Monroe: my five-year ride with the Father of Blue Grass, scheduled to be published by the University of Illinois Press in April 2022 at $19.95 in paperback and $14.95 as an e-book. For more on the book and its author, see Richard Thompson's feature on Bluegrass Today two days ago.

© Richard Hawkins

Bill Keith and Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo (UPDATE)

The BIB editor writes:

Earl Eugene Scruggs (1924-2012) and William Bradford 'Bill' Keith (1939-2015) were the two most influential bluegrass banjo players of the second half of the twentieth century. In the mid 1960s they collaborated: Bill's meticulous analyses of Earl's playing, transcribed into tablatures, were combined with text by Earl and Burt Brent to form the highly successful book Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo. The collaboration did not have a happy ending.

A full biography of Bill Keith has not yet been published. The one publication to date that has given an account of what followed the success of Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo, centring on Bill's own words, is Barry R. Willis's America's music: bluegrass. A history of bluegrass music in the words of its pioneers (1997). The relevant section of the book can now also be read in the fourth and latest instalment of Barry's blog.

Update 26 Nov.: This section of the blog now includes substantial and important comments by Larry Perkins, banjo player and friend of Earl Scruggs, by Bill Palmer, friend of Bill Keith, and by Barry, which should be read by anyone interested in the issue.

BIB editor's note: Barry wrote that when Bill Keith joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, 'Because Monroe didn’t want two Bills in the band, he always called him "Brad” after his middle name, Bradford.' Keith himself has made it clear that this was not imposed in any 'I'm-the-only-Bill-around-here' spirit; Monroe suggested it to him because of possible confusion in the band from having two people with the same first name.

© Richard Hawkins

Bill Monroe, 13 Sept. 1911-9 Sept. 1996

Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass music, was born 110 years ago today. Last Thursday (9 Sept.) was the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death.

The only safe rule for anyone who wants to know about his life is to read everything there is. While Richard D. Smith's Can't you hear me callin': the life of Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass (2000) comes closest to being a single general-purpose comprehensive biography, Jim Rooney's compact Bossmen: Bill Monroe & Muddy Waters (1971) is still very much worth reading after fifty years.

The music of Bill Monroe (2007) by Neil V. Rosenberg and Charles K. Wolfe is an exemplary bio-discography of all that Monroe recorded during his life, but Rosenberg's earlier Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys: an illustrated discography (1974) is worth finding for the pictures.

Anything written by those who played with Bill Monroe (or were otherwise as close to him as he allowed) should be given priority. Rosenberg both played with Monroe and managed the Brown County Jamboree during the 1960s, as recounted in his Bluegrass generation: a memoir (2018). Two more banjo players and a fiddler have published their own reminiscences - Butch Robins, What I know 'bout what I know (2003), Bob Black, Come hither to go yonder: playing bluegrass with Bill Monroe (2005), and Gene Lowinger, I hear a voice calling: a bluegrass memoir (2009). And Tom Ewing, who played guitar as a Blue Grass Boy for the last ten years of Monroe's career, has meticulously edited The Bill Monroe reader (2000) and written the monumental Bill Monroe: the life and music of the Blue Grass Man (2018), which he carefully describes as 'not necessarily a biography [...] more accurately, a chronicle'. Some of what is in The Bill Monroe reader is also in the Ottawa Valley Bluegrass Music Association's compilation of tributes by people whose lives were touched by Bill Monroe.

Richard Thompson's year-long daily chronicle of milestones in the life of Monroe, compiled for Bluegrass Today in 2010-11, should not be forgotten. What else would BIB readers suggest?

It seems appropriate to mark the present occasion with a recording of 'Bill Monroe for breakfast', written and sung by Tom T. Hall, who died on 20 August.

To come: The University of Illinois Press expects to publish in 2022 Bob Black's Mandolin man: the bluegrass life of Roland White (guitarist for Monroe 1967-9) and Mark Hembree's On the bus with Bill Monroe.

© Richard Hawkins

Kenny Baker, 1926-2011

Kenneth Clayton 'Kenny' Baker of Kentucky, considered by many (including Bill Monroe) to have been the supreme bluegrass fiddler, died ten years ago today (8 July 2011). He had been inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 1999, the second fiddler to be so honoured - Chubby Wise was inducted in 1998. Thanks to Niall Toner for the photo above, which he took at Belfast in 1975 during a backstage warm-up by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.

© Richard Hawkins

Art, magic, and country music history

The Bitter Southerner online magazine has published a set of writings collectively titled 'Summer voices', with the main focus on artist and puppeteer Wayne White, raised in the South and subsequently based in New York and Los Angeles, who will be guest editor of the BS for a month.

BIB readers may be specially interested in 'Art & magic: a conversation between Wayne White & Tyler Mahan Coe'. Coe, a musician and writer, hosts the 'Cocaine & rhinestones' podcast series on country music history. The BS feature includes reproductions of artworks by Whyte: paintings of Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Buck Owens & the Buckaroos, and Lightnin' Hopkins, all of these having the names of the subjects underneath.

No name is under the picture that heads the article; it's given right at the end, but bluegrassers will recognise it as based on a 1939 photo of the original Blue Grass Boys lineup, showing (l-r) Art Wooten (fiddle), Bill Monroe (mandolin), Cleo Davis (guitar), and Amos Garen (bass). As with Robert Crumb's book R. Crumb's heroes of blues, jazz & country (2006), the painting tells the viewer less about the subject than the original photo does. No matter; it's a work of art by Wayne White (or Robert Crumb).

© Richard Hawkins

The scene begins to reopen in Britain

The latest issue (no. 94, summer 2021) of British Bluegrass News (BBN), journal of the British Bluegrass Music Asociation, maintains its high standard of presentation and solid content. The cover story, 'A bluegrass girl in a folky world' is Abbey Thomas's account of playing bluegrass for a degree in folk music at Leeds Conservatoire.

The many other features include Chris Courogen on the US group Gangstagrass; French maestro Francois Vola on Tony Rice, his 1935 D-28, and his playing; an obituary of banjoist Roger Blackbourn (72) of the band Monroe's Revenge; a review of the EP Put all your troubles away from The Foreign Landers; and the Gospel Corner, featuring Gillian Welch's 'Orphan girl'. Jack Baker's 'Tab Corner' feature gives tabs of Bill Monroe's 'Old Daingerfield' for banjo, fiddle, and mandolin, together with details of how Monroe's original compositions evolved over time.

There are also indications of the revival of live music in Britain. Maria Wallace of the True North Music agency is presenting a 'Streaming across the Sea' online festival next month (4 and 10 July) on the agency's YouTube channel, but later in July the Battlefield Bluegrass Festival is to be held in Northamptonshire, and a month later the Banjo in the Holler gathering in Surrey. The big news is that the 25th Sore Fingers Summer School, Europe's leading organisation for bluegrass and old-time music camps, has now been rescheduled for the week Sunday 24 to Thursday 28 October 2021. Full details of tutors and courses are given here.

Guitarist Hubert Murray of Tullamore appears again in BBN's list of music teachers, and his Hot Rock Pilgrims band is on the page of band and media members, together with Navan's Pilgrim St.

© Richard Hawkins

Looking to get lost

The BIB editor writes:

Not all that many books have a cover photo showing Bill Monroe, so when this photo (right) appeared at the full size of a computer screen, heading a feature on the Bitter Southerner online magazine, it had my attention. The book is Looking to get lost: adventures in music & writing by Peter Guralnick, which was published by the Little, Brown Book Group last autumn and is available through all the usual channels. The feature is 'Getting caught up: a talk between Marty Stuart & Peter Guralnick'.

And now - for mandolinists

The BIB has carried news about online instruction for banjo and guitar this week, so it's opportune that Bluegrass Today now reports on the new Mandolin skill builder workshops from Tristan Scroggins (right), who has many admirers in Ireland already from his performances as a member of his father's band, Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, and filling in with Chris Jones & the Night Drivers. He also teaches in festival workshops and music camps during the year.

The new online workshops are aimed at players at intermediate level who want to consolidate and develop their skills. Charges and further details are given on the Bluegrass Today feature, which includes a three-minute introductory video that can also be seen on YouTube.

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Also for mandolinists: Bluegrass Today reports that Pinecastle Records are celebrating the success on the charts of the song 'Bill Monroe's old mandolin' with a contest to win a new Loar LM-310F Honey Creek mandolin. The contest will run to 13 February this year, and the four ways of qualifying to enter are detailed here and on Bluegrass Today. John Lawless's feature there has the added bonus of showing again the video of the song, recorded by Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road. Ardara festival attenders will remember Lorraine appearing there in 2017 with the Garrett Newton Band.

PS: Those specifically interested in Bill Monroe's mandolin style might take a look at the video 'Monroe style mandolin - introduction to the lineage' which Chris Henry put on YouTube a year ago.

'Bill Monroe's ol' mandolin' celebrated TONIGHT on Facebook

Lorraine Jordan of North Carolina, leader of her band Carolina Road, visited Ireland three years ago and played at the 2017 Ardara Bluegrass Festival and other venues with the Garrett Newton Band. She is known as one of the most business-focused people in bluegrass - clearly shown in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today last Monday, which includes a music video of the song 'At Lorraine's', about her musical coffee house in Garner, NC.

Earlier this year Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road released their latest album, Bill Monroe's ol' mandolin. The title track is now #1 on the Bluegrass Unlimited National Bluegrass Survey for October, and the band is celebrating with a special concert tonight (Fri. 9 Oct.), which will also be streamed live on the Coffee House's Facebook. More detail is on this Pinecastle Records press release. The BIB strongly recommends this YouTube video of the song.

Learn Monroe-style mandolin with Chris Henry

For serious students of the music of the Father of Bluegrass, a comprehensive, deep, and intense online learning experience is offered by Chris Henry in his Monroe style mandolin improvising course. Chris put a brief introductory video on YouTube at the end of July; this is now incorporated in a twelve-and-a-half-minute video, half of which explains and introduces the course, with the rest composed of snippets and examples from various lessons. 

The full cost will be $250 for the twelve-week course, but it can now be booked for $199. More details are in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today, which also includes the longer introductory video.

PS 25 Sept.: For those interested in learning Bill Monroe-style mandolin online - note that the first Online Monroe Mandolin Camp was held last week (16-19 Sept.). A full report by Theresa Seiders is on Bluegrass Today.

BBN #90

The summer 2020 issue (no. 90) of British Bluegrass News, the magazine of the British Bluegrass Music Association (BBMA), is now out; as always, it's designed and produced to high standards, profusely illustrated with excellent photos, full of solid content, and worthy to stand beside any magazine in this genre. There are also, of course, reflections on the unprecedented cirumstances of this year.

This issue's cover story is on Midnight Skyracer (see the BIB for 19 June), interviewed by editor Chris Lord, who also plays banjo for The Vanguards. Andy Mackenzie contributes a very solid article on problems and solutions in sound enhancement for acoustic instruments; and nearly a quarter of the issue consists of 'Tab Corner' by Jack Baker, with plenty of bluegrass history, two of the nicest photos of Bill Monroe on stage I've ever seen, and tabs for various instruments of 'Roanoke', 'New Camptown Races', and 'Grey Eagle' - which, like its fellow fiddle tune 'Tennessee Wagner', is about a racehorse.

Two iconic instruments

THE BIB editor writes:

While preparing the 13 June post, I was sorry to have no ready-to-hand photo of the instruments mentioned; so thanks to Des Butler for the pictures above and below of Earl Scruggs's banjo, Gibson RB-Granada #9584-3, which he took during a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, TN.

The museum description of the banjo (shown above) mentions the trade of 1948/9 in which it came to Earl. This can be read if the photo is enlarged. It also mentions some of the many changes away from 'original condition', made during this instrument's hard-working life.

As a bonus, Des includes his photo of Bill Monroe's 1923 Gibson F-5 mandolin, #73987 - made when its future owner was not yet twelve years old. Des also quotes from Fred Bartenstein's essay on Lester Flatt, published in The Bluegrass Hall of Fame: inductee biographies 1991-2014 (2014) and readable here, on how relations between Flatt & Scruggs and their former boss deteriorated.