Bob Everhart, 16 June 1936-20 Aug. 2021

The BIB learns with regret, from Richard Thompson's feature on Bluegrass Today, of the death of Robert Phillip 'Bob' Everhart, of the mid-western USA, a week ago at the age of 85 from heart complications. Bob Everhart was founder and president of the National Traditional Country Music Association, and was dedicated to preserving America's heritage of a wide range of tradition-based music. Richard Thompson's feature includes a comprehensive discography, and this intriguing passage:

As a result of an exchange of correspondence with a like-minded group in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Everhart took his music and ideologies to foreign shores. In 1978 he made his first of many tours to Europe with dates throughout the UK and in Germany. Other visits followed in quick succession. In all he made well over 20 concert tours of Europe, where he was presented with many various accolades over the years.

Does anyone recall the Belfast contacts? Bob certainly visited Dublin in (we think, but cannot at present confirm) 2000, when the US association SPBGMA held a European Bluegrass Band Contest in a hotel at Howth. The image above is from the cover of one of his albums, still available on Smithsonian Folkways Records.

© Richard Hawkins