Author: Richard Thompson

Banjo virtuoso Jimmy Henley passed away on Sunday, March 22, (2020) at his home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, of throat cancer. He was 56 years of age The diminutive Henley started playing banjo at the age of seven, his earliest performance

Roy Crockett passed away on April 28, 2019, while in the Emogene Dolin Jones Hospice House, in Huntington, West Virginia. He was 91 years old.  Born, one of 12 children, on May 22, 1927, in Wayne County, West Virginia, he was

Eric Weissberg, banjo player, multi-instrumentalist, and singer passed away on March 22, (2020) in a nursing home near Detroit, Michigan, aged 80.  He had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease for many years.  Born in New York City on August 16, 1939,

The South Carolina Arts Commission and the and the University of South Carolina McKissick Museum have announced that Kristin Scott Benson is one of the recipients of the 2020 Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards. Benson had this to say in

Earl Webster, of the Webster brothers’ duet, passed away on April 24, 2018, of natural causes. He was 85 years of age.  William Earl Webster, born on March 4, 1933, in Philadelphia, Tennessee, was the guitar player and lead singer in

As reported by Bluegrass Today on Thursday, banjo innovator Mike Lilly passed away on February 12, 2020, while in care at Hospice of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio.  Funeral arrangements are available now and details are as follows … Visitation: The family will receive

Wendy Miller, Mike Lilly, and Larry Sparks Innovative banjo picker Mike Lilly, who has been battling ill-health – specifically a form of leukemia and cirrhosis of the liver – for several years, was moved into hospice care on February 4 (2020). His

The Stanley Brothers’ 1951 Columbia release of the classic song, I’m A Man of Constant Sorrow, is among the 2020 Grammy Hall of Fame Inductees. The Stanley Brothers, Carter (guitar) and Ralph (banjo), along with the Clinch Mountain Boys – Pee Wee

Years ending in “9” figure quite prominently in the life of Curly Seckler.  John Ray Seckler (or Sechler) was born a few miles north-east of China Grove, Rowan County, North Carolina, in December 1919; in 1949 he joined Lester Flatt, Earl

Rick Townend, who has been playing bluegrass music since he was a schoolboy, is the 2019 recipient of the British Bluegrass Music Association’s Jan Jerrold Award. The award salver was presented in his absence at the association’s recent AGM held