Why I Can Write About Music

   I'm going to take a moment and explain my background in music (since my blog hasn't dwelt much on the subject yet). Before WWII my father was a young musician with a weekly show on WRUF, which was then a 50,000 watt clear channel AM radio station. That meant that they covered the entire Southeastern US with their broadcast.  One of the members of their band was Chubby Wise, before he became an original member of the Bluegrass Boys. Dad and his older brother were also members of the Toby Dowdy band at the same time.  My maternal grandfather was a friend of Roy Acuff.

   At the age of three I met Gentleman Jim Reaves when he was a guest in our home. Dad no longer was an active musician, but I got to meet many of his friends who had gone on to Nashville. However, I was a science prodigy and did not learn to play music until I was older.

   When I was 25 and on active duty in the Army, I bought my first banjo.  I struggled, not realizing that the banjo is not a good beginner's instrument (unless you are Earl Scruggs). When I was approaching 40 (1986) my older son started fiddle lessons with the legendary George Custer. Within a year he was playing on stage with George and Red and Murphy Henry. Before he was 16, he was asked to go on tour with Red and Murphy. A few years later Henry was invited to join a old-timey country band and the lead vocalist thought that I looked like I could play the wash-tub base. I finally found an instrument that I could not only play, but became a virtuoso. Then I actually was able to learn to play the banjo, eventually becoming good enough to play on stage for pay in East Tennessee, even playing some on local tv. I also played and sang at a number of churches, including one that had been the TV station where the Flatt and Scruggs show was broadcast.  I played on the stage that was used for that show, and also played at Ciderville.

   When I went to Knoxville in 1993 I had the opportunity to get to know legendary folklorist Tillman Cadle, the folk-music archivist who introduced the song "Which Side are You On"  to Pete Seeger.  During this time I also got to know Anthony Fels (Hopeless Sam), who had been a TV folk musician in NYC for about 7 years after the Vietnam War, until PTSD led him to go another route with his life. We became friends and eventually began to play out and record both our originals and traditional songs. I had to return to Florida to care for my elderly mother and grown children. A few years ago I had a stroke and can no longer pick the banjo.  But I still can listen.