Obituary

We have learned this morning of the sudden passing Wednesday night of Dan Kelly, fiddler, prominent Nashvillian, and member of the popular act, Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. Details are few at this point, but we have this statement issued by the

Charlie Daniels, beloved country rock artist and fiddler, died this morning following what doctors describe as a hemorrhagic stroke. He died at 83 years of age at the Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, TN. His web site offers this brief biography

This remembrance of Ron Vigue is a contribution from Cheri Russo, Community Engagement Manager for WOUB Public Media in Athens, OH. WOUB is a member station of both PBS and NPR serving 55 counties throughout southeastern Ohio, western West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

Tony de Boer, widely regarded as the Grandfather of Canadian bluegrass, passed away on May 20. He was 81 years of age. According his family, Tony was walking out to his garden that day when he suffered a brain aneurysm, and

Kentucky bluegrass singer and songwriter Dale Pyatt passed away on April 15 in hospice care in Richmond, KY. He was 59 years of age. Owing to the COVID-19 restrictions, there was no public funeral. Dale was buried in Missouri near

Bluegrass lovers in northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania are without one of their favorites, as Tom Reeves passed away at his home in Aberdeen, MD on April 8, 2020. He was 86 years of age. Born Thomas Earl Reeves in 1934,

John Kaparakis on second guitar with Clarence White and The New Kentucky Colonels John Kaparakis, bluegrass guitarist and tenor singer, passed away earlier this month at what we believe was 83 years of age. This remembrance of his life is a

North Carolina banjo picker, Clinton Joyner, 92, of Concord, NC, passed away on April 12. Joyner first started picking banjo two-finger style in the 1930s, learning on his daddy’s second hand banjo. Around a decade later, he heard Earl Scruggs play

Arthur Conner, celebrated violin maker in southwestern Virginia, died yesterday at his home in Copper Hill, VA. He was 95 years of age. He was something of a folk hero in his part of the state, renowned for his beautiful fiddles

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