After posting yesterday about the anniversary of Bill Monroe’s passing in 1996, we heard from Richard Crowson, a regular reader of Bluegrass Today, who is the editorial cartoonist for The Wichita Eagle newspaper in Kansas.
Richard offered to share this cartoon he drew for the paper at the time of Monroe’s death, which perfectly captures the no-nonsense, headstrong personality of our Father of Bluegrass (click to enlarge).
Crowson is a banjo player as well as an artist, and performs with his wife Karen on guitar as The Crowsons. He told us that he is such a music nut that he moved from Memphis to Wichita to take the job with the Eagle primarily so that he could be closer to the Walnut Valley festival in Winfield, which is coming up next week.
He also offered to let us post this other cartoon which he drew for the Eagle in 1990 as a promo for the Winfield fest. I think I know that guy!
Richard is semi-retired at this point, but still draws for the paper, and for himself. You can see his many cartoons – including a Winfield retrospective – on his blog at www.richardcrowson.blogspot.com.
