Missouri Mandolin Master

Photos By Caty Smith If you’ve spent time around bluegrass festival jam sessions you may recall hearing someone in the jam who is as good as anyone that you’ve ever heard play and wonder, “Wow, who is this?”  There are many such local and regional bluegrass pickers and singers who are extremely talented but have not made a big name on the national level.  Joey Wieneman is one of those guys.        Although Joey has played in bluegrass bands from the time he was a young kid, he has also opted—for the most part—to keep a day job and stay local.  So, while Joey is known to bluegrass fans and pickers in his home state of Missouri, he may not be as well-known elsewhere in the bluegrass world.         One of the most famous bluegrass artists from Missouri, Rhonda Vincent, knows Joey well as he was a member of her bluegrass band—the Rage—back in the mid-1990s. Rhonda said, “I love Joey. We’ve grown up as kids playing at the Missouri