Author: Richard Thompson

On this day ..  On April 19, 1976, Country Gazette played at 8th The International Festival of Country Music at the Empire Pool (re-named the Wembley Arena in 1978), Wembley, London.  The band consisted of Roger Bush (bass), Alan Munde (banjo), Kenny

Lester Woodie passed away on March 23, 2018, at Lynchburg General Hospital Lynchburg, Virginia. He was 86 years old and had been ailing with Alzheimer’s disease for several years.  Lester Gene Woodie was born September 20, 1931, in western North Carolina,

In these days of severe, but necessary, restrictions, we are all looking for ways to relieve the monotony of ground-hog days with little changing, nor prospects of much changing soon. So, responding to a request, the host of Bluegrass Signal

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