Author: Richard Thompson

Johnny Thelbert Montgomery, bass player with Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt, passed away on September 4, 2015, in Watertown (part of Lebanon), Tennessee. He was 87 years old. Montgomery was the eldest boy of 16 children. Music was his first love and

On This Day … Starting on Friday, September 3, 1965, the first Fincastle Bluegrass Festival, in Fincastle, Virginia, took place. “Wow, hard to believe it's been fifty years ago ...  I was there for both of Carlton's first multi-day festival in 1965

In April we mentioned that the Deep Gap, North Carolina, band Cane Mill Road had been invited to participate in a youth El Concierto En Iguazu (Iguazu in Concert) that took place in Argentina from 25 to 30 May, 2015. The

This is fun series in which we ask bluegrass music personalities, some famous, some not so famous, about some of their interests as well as about the music that they love.   Joining me for coffee this morning is Peter Wernick,

Patsy Stoneman, described as “country music royalty” because of her long relationship with the iconic Stoneman family of talented musicians, died in her sleep on July 23, 2015, at the age of 90. She had been in failing health for

The recently re-constituted European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA) board, with Irish banjo player living in Belgium Eugene O’Brien as the chairperson, has issued a mission statement indicating a new direction for organization. The EBMA came into being in February 2001 following

Bluegrass music was introduced to the Netherlands by US military service men and American Forces Network Broadcasting Service. It is likely that it was the case for western Europe; it was certainly so for Britain. Service men and European natives co-existed

Charles Thurman Pugh of Galax, Virginia, bass player with the Mountain Ramblers, passed away in the Grayson Nursing and Rehab Center, Independence, Virginia, on Wednesday, July 29, 2015. He was 80 years old. The Mountain Ramblers is a name synonymous with

On the Day …. On July 17, 1944, bluegrass music DJ Gary Henderson was born in Silver Spring, Maryland. Henderson has been involved with radio all his working life. In fact Henderson decided at the age of 10 that getting into radio

Otis Lynn Dillon, owner and operator of the River Track Studio in Fort Gay, West Virginia, passed away on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. He was only 57 years old. He was born in Louisa, Kentucky, on November 29, 1957. Dillon owned and