September 18 has been given as the release date for The Blue Are Still The Blues, a 15-song retrospective CD from Rebel Records taken from the four albums recorded for the label by The Traditional Grass in the 1990s.
The highly influential group featured the father/son team of the late Paul “Moon” Mullins, icon of The Boys From Indiana, and Joe Mullins, current leader of Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers. For many bluegrass fans, this was Joe’s introduction to the national market, along with Mark Rader on guitar and vocals, and north-central US legend, the late Gerald Evans. Mike Clevenger completed the band on bass.
Together they created a major buzz in the bluegrass world, bringing what has come to be described as the Ohio/Indiana sound to a wider market. They featured the sort of soaring harmonies that had been the hallmark of the Boys From Indiana two decades earlier, on a mix of newly-written songs and bluegrass classics.
While these original Rebel albums were enthusiastically received in the market, it was the band’s powerful live shows that cemented their status as bluegrass legends, and established the younger Mullins as among our most talented tenor singers and banjo players, a role he continues to this day.
Historians of the era rightly consider the emergence of The Traditional Grass as a major impetus for the revival among modern bands playing and writing new music within a solidly traditional bluegrass format.
Songs chosen for the retrospective project include:
The Blues Are Still The Blues
You Are My Flower
I’ll Not Be A Stranger
Rough Edges
The Shuffle of My Feet
A Broken Heart Keeps Beatin’
Old Joe
It’s Grand To Have Someone To Love You
I Believe In The Old-Time Way
She Has Forgotten
Lazarus
You’ll Never Be The Same
You Can Keep Your Nine Pound Hammer
Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar
Back To Hancock County
Anyone who missed this tremendous outfit in the ’90s will want to have this disc in their collection.
Two more bluegrass artists have checked in with their thoughts and reflections on the passing of George Jones.
First up, five-time IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year, Russell Moore.
“George Jones is a legend…not only in country music, but in probably every genre of music. His ‘crying’ vocal delivery, when spinning tales of sorrow, heartache, lost love and yearning, was a signature of his singing and he was absolutely the best at it. I’ve listened to his songs since I was a young boy growing up in Texas, and he has influenced me as well as so many countless others. Even though I’ll miss hearing new tales and songs from this great artist, I celebrate his contributions to the world of music and say… ‘Rest in peace, George. We love you and salute you!!’ “
In addition, Joe Mullins shares a remembrance through his dad…
“As most know, my Dad, fiddler Paul Mullins, was a renowned radio personality whose career began in 1960 in country radio. Known as Moon Mullins on air, he combined traditional country and bluegrass music along with his unique personality to entertain thousands of listeners until he retired in 2005.
He never allowed anyone to force him to follow a playlist, and he played only what he liked best most of the time. He loved George Jones, and dug deep into his recordings for 40 years. He didn’t just play the hits, he would search through every cut on the old LP’s and find tunes that Jones really shined on. What a treat to hear real country music sang with so much soul and power!
Dad played Jones tunes on air more than any country artist. Dad passed in 2008 and I think we still have nearly 100 Jones albums from his collection. Dad played one old album cut called Old Blue Tomorrow at least a thousand times on air. I recorded it in the Radio Rambler’s debut release on Rebel, the CD Rambler’s Call. It was written by an old Texas friend of Jones who penned dozens of songs for him, Don Edwards. His son is still living and came to our show the first time we were in Texas to hear that song.”
Joe Mullins has spent his life performing and promoting bluegrass music. In addition to time in the studio and on the road with his band, The Radio Ramblers, he owns and operates a network of broadcast radio stations that pump out bluegrass and traditional country music in southern Ohio.
His dad, Paul ‘Moon’ Mullins had also carried the bluegrass banner throughout his life, until his passing in 2008. Paul had served as fiddler with The Stanley Brothers in the late 1950s, and was later a founding member of both The Boys From Indiana and The Traditional Grass, the latter of which also included son Joe. Perhaps his most enduring legacy among modern grass fans is having written the song, Katy Daley, now enshrined in the canon of bluegrass classics.
The Mullins family just recently suffered the loss of Paul’s wife Prudence, Joe’s mom, and grandmother to regular Bluegrass Today contributor, Daniel. With their annual Southern Ohio Indoor Bluegrass Music Festival just two weeks following Prudence’s funeral, the family found a way to memorialize her while raising money for breast cancer research.
Joe says that he contacted the new owners of Janet Davis Acoustic Music, who generously offered to help.
“My sincere THANKS to ALL who contributed to the festival and the fundraiser. Our friends, Dave and Vicki Thompson of Janet Davis Acoustic Music, donated a Martin guitar. Raffle ticket sales were over $2000 for the guitar.
Other efforts, including Isaac Moore singing for tips, allowed us to generate a $2500 donation to the Breast Cancer Fund for our local health network in memory of Mom – we are grateful!”
Southern Ohio Indoor Bluegrass Music Festival attendee Bill Breeze took home the guitar.
Vicki Thompson also shared some remembrances of their participation in the raffle.
“I never imagined that the raffle would be so successful! What an honor it was to provide the Martin guitar that raised so much money in memory of Joe’s dear mother.
Nearly everyone who purchased a ticket had a story to tell – some were celebrating their recovery from breast cancer; others shared the story of a loved one who did not survive the struggle. One gentleman bought $20 in tickets because his wife was celebrating 20 cancer-free years. Another gentleman bought tickets to honor his wife who had passed away, not from cancer, but from other causes. He said that ‘she was a wonderful person and would have wanted me to do something good like this.’
Other people who received treatment for various cancers at the Miami Valley Hospital wanted to buy tickets because of the wonderful care and attention they received there. Some people bought tickets because they knew Joe’s mother, and they all shared stories about her, especially about how she loved to feed the hungry!
So many people said they had always wanted a Martin guitar and hoped to win one – I wish they all could have won. I am so glad I had the chance to hear all of these wonderful stories, and what a pleasure it was to be associated with this memorial to Joe’s mother, Prudence Mullins.”
Here is a gallery of photos from the festival shot by Bill Warren.
On December 5, 1983, The Traditional Grass was formed.
Joe Mullins, banjo player for The Traditional Grass, retells the history of the group …..
“We worked a Flea Market in downtown Dayton, Ohio, and it was a live broadcast for WPFB Radio, the station my Dad was heard on for about 25 years.
The first line-up was Paul “Moon” Mullins – fiddle and vocals, Mark Rader – guitar and vocals, Joe Mullins – banjo and vocals, Bill Adams – bass.
We had no clue the group would last 12 years! And we had few changes, mainly bass players. Glen Inman came to the group on bass in 1986, then Mike Clevenger in 1992. The only other member was Gerald Evans Jr, who joined in 1990 on mandolin, fiddle and vocals. Sadly Dad and Gerald have both been gone for a couple of years now.
When the group organized, I was only 17 years old! Mark Rader and I started jamming together in late Summer of 1983, and we even met Bill Adams at a local festival. I turned 18 in October that year, and by then, Mark Rader and I had developed a friendship that has now lasted 28 years. We would dig for songs and sing together two or three days a week! Dad was a very popular radio personality and fiddler, and we quickly had work throughout the region almost every weekend.
By 1989, we had released three independent recordings, and were coming into our own as a band. Dad and I both left full-time radio work in March 1989 and the band began booking a full time schedule. After Gerald Evans, Jr. joined in 1990, our sound and show really expanded and we soon signed with Rebel Records. We really hit the tour schedule full-blast in those days with everyone in the group writing and arranging, Mark taking care of the bus, I did the booking and promotion and Dad cooked for the band – best cornbread and fried chicken in the business!
All total, we did eight recordings in 12 years, four indies and four for Rebel. Three of the Rebel releases are still available. My current band, Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers, still carry the CD’s with us and we do a couple of the songs from those days. Other Traditional Grass tunes have been covered recently by Adam Steffey, Brandon Rickman, Mickey Harris and Dailey and Vincent.
I was blessed with an opportunity to buy my first radio station in 1995, and the Traditional Grass wrapped up with our final show September 17, 1995.”
Paul Mullins was the band’s direct link with tradition. In the 1950s he played fiddle with the Stanley Brothers and in 1974 he helped to form the Boys from Indiana.
Mullins passed away on August 3, 2008 at the age of 71.
He hosted a bluegrass radio program on WPFB in Middletown for more than 20 years, and won the IBMA award for Broadcaster of the Year in 2000.
The Traditional Grass worked extensively throughout the region due to the popularity of Paul and Joe’s radio programs. After they both resigned from the Middletown station in 1989, the band began performing, recording and touring full-time on a nationwide basis.
The Traditional Grass produced and recorded several albums, four of which were for Rebel Records.
Joe formed Town and Country Broadcasting in 1995 for the purpose of purchasing WBZI AM 1500 in Xenia, Ohio. With such a business demands led to The Traditional Grass disbanding in September of that year.
In 1997 Joe Mullins became part of the group Longview, then in Spring 2006 he formed Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers, originally put together to help to promote the radio station.
Discography:
Paul Mullins and the Traditional Grass (1985)
A Touch of the Fifties (1987)
Traditional Favorites (1989)
A Lonesome Road to Travel (1990)
All have long been out of print, but The Traditional Grass did re-record the most requested tunes on the CD 10th Anniversary Collection, along with a new selection of tunes. That CD is still available.
Bluegrass lost another of its favorite sons last week. Noah Crase, former banjo player with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys and The Boys From Indiana, died on April 13. He had been born in Barwick, KY in 1934.
He was an influential musician in the Dayton, OH area where he lived, and where he met and performed with the legendary Paul “Moon” Mullins while Crase was working for the Post Office in Franklin.
Jon Fox published a lovely tribute to Noah in Inside Cityfolk, an online publication from Cityfolk, Ohio’s premier presenter of traditional music events.
Some of Crase’s best music of the 1960s and 1970s came in the company of Paul “Moon” Mullins, fiddler and legendary DJ on WPFB in Middletown. Crase played with Mullins in the Valley Ramblers (which had a weekly TV show on Dayton’s WKEF-TV), the Nu-Grass Pickers and, beginning in 1973, the Boys from Indiana, which was originally known as Noah Crase, Paul Mullins and the Boys from Indiana.
The Boys from Indiana was a powerful, dynamic and highly entertaining band in the mid-1970s, and Crase was a big part of the band for the first couple of years, playing on the albums We Missed You in Church Last Sunday and the highly popular Atlanta is Burning. Crase more or less retired from playing in a band in 1976, though he periodically picked up his banjo in later years for occasional shows, including The Dayton Bluegrass Reunion, Cityfolk’s 1989 bluegrass concert extravaganza, where he joined Mullins, guitarist Don Warmuth and bass player Bobby Gilbert for a reunion of the Valley Ramblers.
This independent release features the talents of recognized banjo great Joe Mullins, Adam McIntosh on guitar and vocals, Evan McGregor, fiddler and vocals, Mike Terry, mandolin player and vocals, and bass player, Tim Kidd. Matt DeSpain guests on resonator guitar.
After three years of performing and recording together the band has developed a classic bluegrass blend and assembled a diverse set of old and new songs that fit together very well. Examples of this include The Old Rocking Chair written by Mullins’ former band mate, Gerald Evans Jr., and a grassy treatment of Marty Stuart’s Farmer’s Blues with Mullins’ high lead vocals.
The band dedicated the new CD project in memory of Joe’s dad, DJ and fiddle player Paul "Moon" Mullins, who passed away in 2008. A few of the rare tunes on the album that were featured on his radio show many times include Old Blue Tomorrow, an obscure album cut from an old George Jones release Boston Jail and Another Day, Another Dollar.
Other highlights include the title track written by Aubrey Holt and featuring McIntosh doing lead vocals, as he does on four songs altogether; Don’t You Want Go Home, an a cappella gospel song, on which Terry sings lead.
McGregor served as engineer and co-producer, with Mullins.
Mullins owns a network of Ohio radio stations; WBZI AM1500, WKFI AM1090 and WEDI AM1130. Most weekdays he is on the air from 2 until 5 p.m. featuring Bluegrass and Old-Time Gospel music on all three stations and webcasting at www.myclassiccountry.com.
Bluegrass fiddler and legendary Ohio Valley radio personality Paul ‘Moon’ Mullins passed away on August 3. He had been in a nursing home for about a month. He was 71 years old.
Mullins was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy in 2007, a neurological disease often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s Disease. He was cared for at his home in Franklin Township until 6 weeks ago when admitted to Hillspring Nursing facility in Springboro, Ohio, where he passed away on Sunday evening.
Born September 24, 1936 in Frenchburg, Menifee County, Kentucky, Mullins was an exceptional fiddler, learning to play the instrument while in the army in which he served from 1955 through to 1958. He played with some of the elite from the first generation of bluegrass bands, notably the Stanley Brothers, with whom he worked from September 1958 through to January 1959. Stage fright got the better of him.
In 1962 he joined The Bluegrass Playboys and wrote and recorded one of his best contributions to the bluegrass genre, namely the song, Katy Daly, which has been a bluegrass standard for 40 years.
For several years beginning in 1967, Mullins assisted the late Bill Monroe, serving as the Master of Ceremonies for the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festivals in Brown County, Indiana. For over 10 years, Bean Blossom was the biggest bluegrass event of its kind in the country. In addition to his role as a Master of Ceremonies at bluegrass events, he also personally promoted dozens of other area festivals and concerts.
In 1974 he helped to form The Boys From Indiana and he remained with the band until 1979. The group recorded seven LPs for King Bluegrass during that time. A recent Rebel collection, ‘Good Time Blues’, features Mullins on a 14-song retrospective look at this very talented and entertaining band.
Mullins formed The Traditional Grass in 1983, a group that worked locally originally. The band, which included son Joe Mullins on banjo, went full time from 1989, touring nationwide. The Traditional Grass produced and recorded many independent recordings and, eventually, four CDs for Rebel Records.
Up until 2004, Mullins still played fiddle occasionally when the WBZI Bluegrass Band would be called upon for special promotions.
In addition to being a working musician, Mullins was a radio personality of long-standing. In all he had over 45 years of service in broadcasting.
His unique broadcasting style was developed at WGOH in Grayson, Kentucky, WMST in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and WTCR in Ashland, Kentucky, before moving to Ohio in 1964 where he joined the staff of WPFB in Middletown. His ad-lib advertising style for the thousands of sponsors he has been a spokesperson for and his stories of real life experiences, many relating to his Appalachian heritage, will never be forgotten by his many loyal listeners. The nickname ‘Moon’ caught on quickly after a few months on air in Ohio. From this point on, Mullins was instrumental in promoting the kind of music he loved to the people of the Miami Valley.
The Traditional Grass disbanded in 1995 when Joe Mullins formed Town and Country Broadcasting for the purposes of purchasing WBZI AM 1500 in Xenia, Ohio.
Moon was right at home again behind the mic at WBZI and once again thousands of listeners were endeared to his style each weekday. No other broadcast personality in the world could speak daily to listeners about planting potatoes, churning butter, grinding corn meal or curing country hams. Moon did not merely speak of these events from memory. He continued to carry on these rural traditions himself.
In 2004 the Mullins network of stations extended to include WKFI AM 1090 in Wilmington, and WEDI AM 1130 in Eaton and Paul Mullins could be heard on all three stations until his retirement from Classic Country Radio, as the group of stations has become known, on March 4, 2005.
In 2000 he was recognised twice by the IBMA, receiving the Radio Personality of the Year award and the Certificate of Merit.
Last year, Paul Mullins was awarded an Ohio Heritage Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council for his contributions to the bluegrass music industry and his 45 years of contributions to the Appalachian community.
To read what Katie Laur and Fred Bartenstein have to say about Paul Mullins you can download this PDF file.
After their comments, read on to see some “Moonisms”, typical Mullins sayings gathered from various of his radio programmes.
Mullins’ passing has been acknowledged already in local newspapers, the Middletown Journal and the Dayton Daily News, where details of visitation, services and burial can be found.
Bluegrass fiddler and legendary Ohio Valley radio personality Paul “Moon” Mullins will accept a well-deserved honor at this Saturday’s Cityfolk Festival in Dayton, OH. On June 30, he will receive the 2007 Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award for Performing Arts, given by the Ohio Arts Council for exemplary Ohio artists and musicians.
The award is described in this way by the OAC:
These Fellowships are awarded to an individual or group whose achievements have had a positive impact on the excellence, vitality and public appreciation of folk and traditional arts in Ohio.
Nominated individuals or groups should have a history of continuing artistic accomplishments and be actively participating in their art form as performers, teachers or both. Criteria in this category include authenticity, artistic excellence and significance within the tradition of the performing art form.
Paul was the fiddler with The Stanley Brothers from 1958 to 1960, and wrote the song Katy Daly, one of Ralph Stanley’s most enduring numbers. He was a founding member of The Boys From Indiana in the 1970s, and The Traditional Grass in the 1980s – along his son Joe.
He began his broadcasting career in the early 1960s, and The Moon Mullins Show was a popular program on WPFB for many years. He joined his son at WBZI in Xenia, OH when Joe decided to give up his career as a bluegrass performer and purchase the station in 1995, and remained there for the next ten years until his retirement.
In 2000, The IBMA voted him Broadcaster of the Year, and bestowed their Distinguished Achievement Award as well.
Congratulations to Paul “Moon” Mullins for the Ohio Arts Council recognition, and thanks for the many years of service to bluegrass music!
