Carrying Knowledge and Passing It Along
When watching a musical performance, people generally focus solely on the artist(s). Little thought is given to the promoters, the sound/technical crew, the songwriters, the managers/booking agents, the bus drivers, and everyone else behind the scenes that make it all happen. It takes a village. In bluegrass music, Fred Bartenstein is a mayor of one of these villages. Fred is a bluegrass scholar and a leading authority on the history and culture of the first generations of bluegrass music.
Born in 1950 and raised into music, Fred’s father and uncle had a musical duo. He grew up listening to Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cut-Ups on TV in Roanoke, Virginia. He vividly remembers seeing Bill Monroe for the first time in 1964 at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. After he graduated high school, he enrolled at Harvard University because of Boston’s thriving bluegrass community (Lilly Brothers, Bill Keith, Peter Rowan, Joe Val). He played guitar and sang with Don Stover and in several other bands.
When he was just 18 years old, Fred served as festival director for festival promoter and music entrepreneur, Carlton Haney. Bartenstein has colorful memories of his time working alongside the Bluegrass Hall of Famer. “In 1970, Bill Monroe and Carlton got into it. The musicians ganged up on Carlton telling him who to book and how to run his festival. I remember Don Reno saying, ‘If you don’t like it, Haney, that’s the way the pickle squirts,’” Bartenstein laughed.
In 1969, Bartenstein helped Kathy Kaplan and Carlton Haney start the music magazine Muleskinner News, and served as its editor throughout his college years. Iconic bassist, Tom Gray, weighed in. “Fred made an early impression on the bluegrass world when he was Carlton Haney’s competent right-hand man. It seemed Fred did all the work in running Carlton’s festivals and his magazine, Muleskinner News.”
Fred moved to Ohio, married Joy, the love of his life, in 1976, and settled into a professional career as executive of a historic theater, a community foundation, and organizational development consultant. During his college and working years, Bartenstein maintained music-related side gigs as a radio broadcaster, festival emcee/talent director, and musician. He was compiler of the first bluegrass market research and an analysis of the first 60 years of professional bluegrass recording artists which he titled “Bluegrass Generations.” The Virginia native was founder of a regional New England bluegrass association, a tenor in his church choir and local choral societies, and a lifelong fan of music.
From 2002-08, the bluegrass scholar hosted and produced 175 editions of “Banks of the Ohio: Music from the Homeplace of Bluegrass.” It was a three-hour weekly webcast/broadcast on the history of bluegrass music for the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. Rebroadcasts of his programs can still be heard twice weekly (Wednesday 10:00 pm – 1:00 am, Thursday 10:00 pm – 1:00 am) at bluegrasscountry.org “I played 10,000 different songs. I’ve had listeners from all over the planet. It was super fun,” Bartenstein said.
In 2006, Fred Bartenstein was presented with a Distinguished Achievement Award by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Currently, he serves as the chair/president of the IBMA Foundation, a leading philanthropic organization. Fourteen years since its formation, the IBMA Foundation has its fingers in many worthwhile entities. “It’s growing like crazy,” he proudly admits. “I knew all about foundations, so this was a perfect volunteer job for me.”
The organization, under executive leadership of Nancy Cardwell Webster, offers project grants which support bluegrass-related initiatives throughout the world. The Foundation also funds mini-grants which assist schools to hire bluegrass bands for school programs. The Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award recognizes excellence in academic research. College scholarships are granted for students working on a bluegrass-related degree, female bluegrass musicians, banjo players, broadcasters and sound technicians, songwriters, budding professionals in the bluegrass industry, and for college students who play bluegrass on the side while pursuing a different degree.
Bartenstein elaborated, “We also have the Arnold Shultz grants to bring more people of color into bluegrass. Over the past three years, it has been our fastest growing program.” Webster stated, “Because of his work with Carlton Haney at the first multi-day bluegrass festivals in the 1960s, Fred Bartenstein has been in the catbird seat for a long time, when it comes to knowing everyone in bluegrass music—from the first generation pioneers through the 2020s. His skills as a meeting facilitator benefited the IBMA board through several strategic planning sessions, he has been of invaluable assistance to the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, KY over the years, and he was a crucial part of the successful launch of IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass program in the role of program facilitator and planning committee member from 2000-2012.
“Fred also writes and edits books, makes presentations at academic conferences, and he has taught college-level courses on the history of bluegrass music and country music at the University of Dayton. I’m grateful that his current role in the bluegrass industry is chairperson and president of the IBMA Foundation, where I’ve worked as executive director since 2015. Fred’s previous experience managing and growing the Dayton Foundation, in addition to his facilitation work with numerous nonprofits over the years, makes him an effective leader for the Foundation board.
“He makes good suggestions. He is gifted at keeping a number of balls in the air. He inspires loyalty. He’s a powerful editor and he has an uncanny talent for leading productive board meetings that always end on time. The latter is probably related to his work as a radio broadcaster, which he started at age 16.
“Fred thinks better on his feet than most humans I know, and he’s good at drawing participation and a consensus from groups whose members sometimes have a wide range of opinions and perspectives. His leadership continues to make a significant impact on the professionalism and the growth of the IBMA Foundation, and we intend to keep him on the board as long as we can. Fred Bartenstein has been involved in nearly every part of bluegrass music for over 60 years, including playing guitar and singing in bluegrass bands and editing the Muleskinner News magazine for Carlton from 1969-74. I don’t know that he has ever built instruments, but perhaps he will pick that up, too, in his 80s.”
Gray noted, “When IBMA was in its early stages, Fred was organizing things, facilitating meetings. I can still see in my mind, Fred Bartenstein and Sonny Osborne in front of a meeting, with flip chart on a stand, making plans for the IBMA’s activities.”
Fred is also a published editor, author and contributor to books on bluegrass and related roots musics. His first was Bluegrass Bluesman: A Memoir by Josh Graves in 2012. He published his second in 2015, The Bluegrass Hall of Fame (1991-2014) as a fundraiser for the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, along with Gary Reid and several others. He compiled two books of writings by Joe Wilson, executive director of the National Folk Festival and National Council for Traditional Arts and co-inventer of the Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. In 2019, Bartenstein was a major contributor in Bluegrass Country Soul, a coffee table book which accompanied the boxed set commemorating the golden anniversary of the movie filmed at Camp Springs Bluegrass Festival where Fred had worked as festival director and emcee. His latest nonfiction title, co-edited with Curt Ellison, is Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy, published in 2021.
“It is the amazing history of a 50-by-50 square-mile territory where so many important musicians lived, performed, and recorded between 1947 and 1989. You could say that it was the first capital of bluegrass music, with numerous record labels, bands, studios, festivals, and radio stations. It was a story that needed to be told.”
The lover of history, words, and music recently helped to edit Steve Fishell’s 2022 book, Buddy Emmons: Steel Guitar Icon. “Fishell, Emmylou Harris’s steel guitarist, started with Buddy’s own memoirs, interviewed all the right people, did all the right research, and worked on it for a decade.”
In 2014, Bartenstein retired from his consulting business, but that didn’t slow down his passion for sharing his wealth of knowledge. He became an adjunct instructor in music at University of Dayton, teaching undergraduates and life-long learners (senior citizens).
“When COVID hit, it was the middle of the semester. They sent students home, gave us a weekend to learn ZOOM, and I taught from home the rest of that year. I had always thought I would enjoy being a college teacher, but my life went in another direction and I never got my PhD. At 71 I don’t need to prove it anymore,” so he walked away from instructor duties, but still gives occasional lectures.
Webster continued, “Although most of his work has been behind the scenes, it’s hard to think of anyone who has had a more profound effect on helping bluegrass music grow and thrive. Fred is a quiet encourager. If those of us who have been mentored or helped by Fred Bartenstein over the years were asked to stand up, probably more than half of the bluegrass community around the world would rise to its feet—including me.”
Reflecting on his lifetime, Bartenstein feels blessed. “I’ve been really lucky. I have always been at the right place at the right time. I’m the living link. I’m carrying a lot of knowledge and doing my best to pass it along.”
Bartenstein isn’t ready to settle back in a recliner and vegetate. Devoted to his wife, two daughters, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, he is family-oriented and faith-based. “I don’t know what I’m going to do next,” he admitted, but he definitely isn’t done.
Whatever he does, it will likely involve sharing his meaningful, impactful, and music-related knowledge with future generations.
