The Tradition

“In a dreary Yankee prison where a rebel soldier lay.”  That is the opening line to the Charlie Moore classic “The Legend Of The Rebel Soldier,” which Moore had recorded on his 1974 Old Homestead release, The Fiddler. But it was the Country Gentlemen’s cover of the song a year earlier on their 1973 Rebel…

Bluegrass has been beset with the recent passing of a number talented members of our community. In lieu of our regular “Notes and Queries” column, we use the space this month to honor their memories. Wayne Wendell Daniel February 14, 1929 – February 16, 2021 Wayne Wendell Daniel was a prolific author who specialized in…

Traveling the Hillbilly Highway On January 29, 2021, Smithsonian Folkways, the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution released “Readin’, Rightin’, Route 23.” The song is performed by Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers, but was penned and made popular by Betsy Layne, Kentucky native Dwight Yoakum.  “Readin’, Rightin’, Route 23” is the first single from Industrial Strength Bluegrass…

Joe Mullins began to recognize the power of music to bridge traditions and create new communities while listening to his father Paul “Moon” Mullins, a radio broadcaster and accomplished fiddle player from Kentucky. Like so many people, the Mullins family found themselves in the Dayton/Cincinnati, Ohio area as a result of the great Appalachian out-migration…

This is an excerpt from Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy (edited by Fred Bartenstein and Curtis W. Ellison, © 2021 by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Used with permission of the University of Illinois Press.). The book chronicles the important roles Cincinnati, Dayton and surrounding areas played in the development of…

NOTES “In the December 2020 issue, you answered a query about the song ‘Mountain Laurel.’  One recent version is by Open Road on their Rounder album …In the Life.  They credit the Bailey Brothers as the source for their version.”  Stewart Evans, Santa Cruz, CA “Dick Spottswood is right, the song (‘The Martins and Coys’)…