Morehead State University Bluegrass Program Surprises Steve Cooley With a Scholarship With His Name On It
Steve Cooley is a veteran of the Louisville, Kentucky, bluegrass scene that has played with many of the greats of the genre over his extended music career. He was lucky enough to be around back in the days when Sam Bush was on the Louisville scene when J.D. Crowe still played the hotel bars in that Ohio River city and steadily in nearby Lexington, and when Béla Fleck first came to town.
Cooley also did stints with the Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe, The Dillards, Katie Laur, The Bluegrass Alliance, and more top acts while playing the banjo and the guitar. These days, he plays the banjo with the Common Loon Records act the Bibelhauser Brothers band.
It was while Cooley was onstage with the Bibelhauser Brothers recently that an odd thing happened, something he could not have predicted in a hundred years. “We were scheduled to play an event at Ashbourne Farms, which is in Oldham County, near La Grange, Kentucky, and east of Louisville on I-71,” said Cooley. “We were playing our music for the folks at the farm and for bluegrassers such as Barry Bales, Woody Platt, Buddy Melton, and Bennett Sullivan, who were there because they all duck hunt together and they will also play at various events for the Ducks Unlimited organization. It is a side thing and a fun thing for them because they are all sportsmen and the farm was hosting a duck hunting event that weekend. We were brought in to play and the guys in their Duck Hunters band were going to perform as well.”
At one point, some official-looking members of the farm and others came onto the stage to make a presentation, or so it seemed, so the Bibelhauser Brothers took a break. “We have played a number of those events so somebody coming onstage to speak was nothing unusual,” said Cooley. “Somebody came up and said to us, ‘Can you take a break? We are going to make an announcement.’ So, we unstrapped and put everything down and I was going to go and get a glass of ice water. Then, popping out from around the corner was a lady from Morehead State University named Alison Caudill and she is walking up with a binder. Right behind her was my pal Béla Fleck, which was unexpected for me. He and I have been pals for a long time and we check back and forth with each other to find out how everybody is doing and we had a text exchange the night before this show, where he talked about all of us being in our 60s and what was wearing out on our playing hands and how we were all holding up and still playing, and we talked about everyone’s family as well.”
Cooley told Fleck that he had to go to bed because he had an early call to get up and go set up for a gig the next day. “Béla asked me, ‘Where are you playing tomorrow?’” said Cooley. “I told him it was at Ashbourne Farms and he said that he had never heard about it. The next thing I know, there he is walking onstage the very next day. But even then, as he was trotting out with a nice lady with a binder who began to say nice things about a musician and about music venues and such, I honestly thought it was about doing something nice for Béla. Then, somebody blocked me from leaving the stage and said, ‘Steven, stay here for just a minute.’ But this person was not in the music business, so I didn’t think anything of it, thinking they thought that I’d be jazzed up about my friend Béla getting another award. That was when Allison Caudill, the Vice President for University Advancement at Morehead State University, said my name into the microphone and I was terribly shocked.”
At this point, Cooley was flabbergasted, as the reason for the presentation was being unveiled. Amazingly, an anonymous donor has decided to set up a $95,000 scholarship for Morehead State University’s Bachelor of Traditional Arts program that is a part of their Kentucky Center For Traditional Music. The grant will be for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts program or going for a minor degree in Traditional Music with a preference for banjo players.
In doing so, the anonymous donor decided to name it the Steve Cooley Banjo and Bluegrass Scholarship. “I was in equal parts humbled and embarrassed as it was a whole lot of much ado with my name attached to it, and Béla said nice things about me onstage as well and it was all very wonderful,” said Cooley. “Ms. Caudill went all of the way through talking about the new scholarship and then, deep into the presentation, that is when she mentioned my name and said that the endowment was created ‘on behalf of Steve Cooley.’ After the big build-up, my name wasn’t mentioned until the very tail end of the speech and I was overwhelmed. It was all very special. The best part about it is they are going to be able to access much-needed funds for students. And now, since it happened, I have had other people calling me that want to add more money to the scholarship.”
Daxson Lewis is the Director of the Kentucky Center For Traditional Music, following Don Rigsby and Raymond McClain who also held the position. “I had been playing music since I was 11 years old, but by the time I got to college I was interested in getting a Nursing degree,” said Lewis. “My nursing studies went fine, but music was still so important to me that I could not get away from it. I was studying nursing at Morehead State University in a work-study situation yet when I was there, I kept seeing all of these guitars, banjos, and fiddles walking past me and I thought, ‘Gosh, I’d rather be doing that.’ So, I came through the Kentucky Center For Traditional Music program when Raymond McClain was there. In 2016, Raymond had surgery on his hand and he had to take a break from playing, so he asked me to fill in with the McClain Family Band and I haven’t left since then.”
Around that same time, an Adjunct Professor position became available at the Center and Lewis grabbed it up, “When Raymond retired about four years ago, I applied for the position of Director,” said Lewis. “I was fortunate enough to see Raymond’s leadership firsthand, both when I was here as a student and then as faculty. Some of the things that I now do in my job as Director came to me as I watched Raymond handle various situations, how he planned ahead, and how he worked for the betterment of our program and our students. These days, the program is growing steadily and we keep having a great crop of students joining us.”
Under Lewis’ leadership, the word came of the scholarship to be created in Cooley’s name by a wonderfully generous anonymous donor. “I am so thrilled that this happened because this scholarship will go a long way to support folks who are enthusiastic about this music as they enter their college career,” said Lewis. “Our anonymous donor believes strongly in our program and they have seen the work we’ve done and the quality of the students that have left our traditional music program. This person wanted to support the furtherance of this music while also being passionate about supporting Steve Cooley and his legacy in music, which is far-reaching.”
The Steve Cooley Banjo and Bluegrass Scholarship will offer up to $15,000 a year and it is renewable. The deadline for submitting a request for a possible scholarship for the 2025-2026 school ended in April. But, as those who have dealt with the collegiate world know, it is never too soon to think about the future and to prepare to submit a request when the time is right.
“I have been a fan of Steve Cooley and his work in the bluegrass genre for a long time, so when I realized that all of this was happening, it took everything in me to not call him up and tell him the good news and to congratulate him,” said Lewis. “When everyone traveled to Ashbourne Farms to make the announcement, with Alison Caudill representing our university and folks like Béla Fleck in attendance, Steve was none the wiser until he was told about it onstage that day. Steve was obviously thrilled and surprised and humbled that someone would recognize him like that, yet he really is worthy of the honor. And, we are so appreciative of our anonymous donor, and I mean, even I do not know who it is.”
The Steve Cooley Banjo and Bluegrass Scholarship joins two other pre-existing scholarships at Morehead State University’s Kentucky Center For Traditional Music, including the Andrews Family Fund For Student Success and the Hal Rogers Scholarship endowed in honor of Congressman Rogers.
“Our job as educators and mentors in this music program is to help students live their lives as happy and healthy creative people who are musicians,” said Lewis. “That concept doesn’t only take into account someone’s ability to have a good technique while playing an instrument, it is also about students having a thorough understanding of the overall music industry. That includes understanding how to promote yourself, how to develop a network of connections, and how to be versatile. We have former students, like The Price Sisters for example, who have made wonderful careers that are well-rounded and run the gamut from recording and touring to working in administrative positions in the music industry as well as the educational side of it all, and we want to keep that focus moving forward.”
As for Cooley, now that he has had some time to think about what has happened, he feels super privileged to have been given this honor, mostly for how it will help young people. “Working with Daxson Lewis has been great, and he is just a good guy and a solid fellow in general,” said Cooley. “I’ve enjoyed the times that we have got to spend together. I’d also like to mention my friend Jim Smoak, who is also from this region and one of the original five-string pickers who learned from Snuffy Jenkins and played for Hylo Brown and the Timberliners, and Bill Monroe. I’ve always enjoyed playing with him over the years, and there are all kinds of folks like that who have helped me be a better musician. In return, I try to help people whenever I can do so. While my name may be on the endowment, as for the folks who helped me, their influence is a part of this scholarship as well. As for the students that will benefit from this endowment, I am just happy that this scholarship will help some kids to further their education and get them further down the road to doing what they really want to do.”
