Don Rigsby on American Idol Sunday night supporting Noah Thompson

Kentucky bluegrass artist Don Rigsby is set to appear on this Sunday’s American Idol broadcast, in support of a young man he knows back home, Noah Thompson, who is a finalist in this season’s competition.

Noah is a country singer from the same town as Don, in the same part of the state where Ricky Skaggs and Larry Cordle grew up. When we caught up with Rigsby this afternoon, he asked if we might share this news.

“I work for a company called Addiction Recovery Care in Louisa, KY. It’s recognized as the number one company of its type, certainly in America, and perhaps the world. There’s a boy who also works for the company in the Construction Division, whose name is Noah Thompson.

Noah is 20 years old, and he is fine young man who has very humble beginnings. You can find out more about him is by Googling his name. He is in the top three finalists for American Idol this season. Last Tuesday night, he came home the first time in two months to a huge reception with well over ten thousand people in attendance to play a concert and say hi to the hometown folks. I was tasked with assembling a top notch band to support him and his efforts.

So I contacted my friends Ray Salyer, Mark Stevens, Jared Ward, and Jeff Branham. These guys are all great musicians. I played in the band myself to as a guitarist.

In addition to that, Noah has a road sign on country music highway now, and as I am honored with that same distinction, the company asked me to present it to him and unveil it on the road. So that’s all been filmed, and it will be airing this Sunday night in the finals.

If anyone would be willing to do it, I would really appreciate it if they would go watch the show on Sunday night and vote for Noah. He as good as he seems. Just a real small town country boy who’s had a rough life up till now, and is deserving of a good outcome.”

Even though Noah is primarily a country singer, he obviously was raised hearing plenty of picking and singing as well. Don said that when he did the concert earlier this week for the home folks, one of the songs Thompson did was Blue Side of the Mountain from The Steeldrivers.

Best of luck to Noah in the finals.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.