I’m Going Back To Old Kentucky #133

From October 1, 2010 through to the end of September 2011, we will, each day, celebrate the life of Bill Monroe by sharing information about him and those people who are associated with his life and music career. This information will include births and deaths; recording sessions; single, LP and CD release dates; and other interesting tidbits. Richard F. Thompson is responsible for the research and compilation of this information. We invite readers to share any tidbits, photos or memories you would like us to include.

  • February 10, 1924 Guy ‘Vern’ Young was born in Palmyra, New York. *
  • February 10, 1986 ‘Art’ Satherley died in Fountain Valley, California, age 96. He had been in poor health.

* Vern Young only worked for Bill Monroe for about 10 days in 1951, playing guitar, while he was playing some shows in Indiana, Missouri and Arkansas. He replaced Jimmy Martin.

He first took an interest in music at the age of 15 and learned to play the guitar by watching others playing guitar at the dance halls in Palmyra.

Young has been performing bluegrass and country music for over 60 years, but it was only in 1990, after retiring from a government job in Utah and moving to Lamar, Missouri, that he formed the Vern Young Band and started performing full-time on the bluegrass circuit.

Since then he has won the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) Midwest traditional vocalist of the year title six times.

He has a few albums of his own including The Best of Vern Young on the Atteiram label (1714).

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About the Author

Richard Thompson

Richard F. Thompson is a long-standing free-lance writer specialising in bluegrass music topics. A two-time Editor of British Bluegrass News, he has been seriously interested in bluegrass music since about 1970. As well as contributing to that magazine, he has, in the past 30 plus years, had articles published by Country Music World, International Country Music News, Country Music People, Bluegrass Unlimited, MoonShiner (the Japanese bluegrass music journal) and Bluegrass Europe. He wrote the annotated series I'm On My Way Back To Old Kentucky, a daily memorial to Bill Monroe that culminated with an acknowledgement of what would have been his 100th birthday, on September 13, 2011.