Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1974, Volume 9, Number 1 In some far-flung corners of the world a controversy rages over who was the world’s first chromatic banjo player, but in Nashville, Bobby Thompson—one of those in the dead center of the controversy—pays little heed to it. He’s too busy as Nashville’s top studio…

When Bill Emerson retired from the Navy in 1993, at the age of 55, he was far from retiring from his life in bluegrass music.  He continued to record and perform with various artists and then he later started his band, Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie.   In an interview conducted by John Lawless and…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1975, Volume 9, Number 11 When bluegrass music was in the developmental stage some thirty years ago only five instruments were associated with the music. Those were the ones that appeared in the famous Bill Monroe band of that period—guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and bass. Somewhere along the line…

Although Bill Emerson joined the United States Navy at the end of May, 1973 to perform with the Navy’s bluegrass and country band Country Current, he did not completely cut himself off from the bluegrass world outside of the Navy.  Examining Emerson’s discography, it does appear that he focused primarily on his Navy duties between…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine November, 1988  Volume 23, Number 5 On February 15, 1987, Blaine Sprouse, who has been hailed as one of bluegrass music’s finest fiddlers, made his last stage appearance as a member of the Osborne Brothers band, an event that brought to a close one of the many phases of a…

By the end of 1972, the Country Gentlemen—with Charlie Waller, Bill Emerson, Doyle Lawson, and Bill Yates—had become the most popular band in bluegrass music.  However, in early 1973 the US Navy proposed to Bill Emerson an offer that he could not refuse and he left the Country Gentlemen to join the Navy and become…