Ray Goins Archives - Bluegrass Today

Melvin Goins and Tim O’Brien to WV Music Hall of Fame

The 2013 West Virginia Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony is scheduled for November 16, 2023 at Charleston’s Culture Center Theater. This fifth class of inductees contains three artists beloved by bluegrass fans: The Goins Brothers, and Tim O’Brien.

Melvin Goins has been involved in the music since the mid-1950s when he joined the legendary Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, an outfit that helped launch the careers of other bluegrass notables like Paul Williams, Bobby Osborne, Charlie Cline, and Curly Ray Cline. He worked for a time afterwards with The Stanley Brothers, but made his largest mark with his younger brother Ray as The Goins Brothers over 35 years. When a heart attack took Ray off the road in ’94, Melvin continued on as Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain, a show he fronts to this day.

Goins was born in 1933 on Sinai Mountain, close to the coal mining town of Goodwill in Mercer County, He was recognized by the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2011 for his contributions as a resident of the Commonwealth, and now his home state gets the chance to stake their own claim to this iconic performer.

The Hall of Fame induction includes both Melvin and Ray Goins.

Tim O’Brien was born in Wheeling in 1954, the same year that Goins joined up with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. By the mid-1970s, he was headed west to Colorado where he hit the national scene with Hot Rize in 1978. They had a stellar run for the next 12 years, after which Tim embarked on a solo career as a singer and songwriter.

Living now in Nashville, O’Brien continues to record in a variety of venues, and is currently touring in support of his latest album with Darrell Scott, Memories and Moments.

Other 2013 inductees include Peter Marshall, Wayne Moss, Ada “Bricktop” Smith, Eleanor Steber, and The Swan Silvertones.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting will offer the induction ceremony live on radio starting at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on the 16th.

Further details can be found online.

More reactions to the loss of Ray Goins

Here are two more reflections on the passing of Ray Goins from his friends and contemporaries in the music business.

Paul Williams had this to say about his old friend.

I first met Ray Goins, when I was with The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in 1951. Jimmy Williams had left to go and work for Mac Wiseman, and Ezra hired Ray to play the banjo. He was a good lead singer as well. We did the first recording on RCA Victor with the Fiddlers, and became and remained friends.

Ray was a real good person, sorta laid back, and easy going in those days. We had some great times together in Bluefield, WV on WHIS. I have very fond memories of a real good person.

He was ready to leave here, he had told me in the past. Now his troubles, pain, heartaches and worries are all over. He is at rest in the Paradise of God. He will be greatly missed in the Bluegrass world.

Larry Sparks also shared a few thoughts about Ray.

Ray Goins played a part in the making of bluegrass music, starting back in the early years with his banjo playing and his good tenor singing playing with his brother Melvin Goins. I remember Ray as being a very nice man – always friendly with everyone and willing to give of himself to his fans. He loved this music.

I’m glad we got to meet over the years and to sing together a few times. We were friends, and most importantly, brothers in Christ Jesus.

Ray Goins, gone at 71

We lost another bluegrass pioneer this week when banjo player and singer Ray Goins passed away on Monday, July 2, 2007. Ray had been ill for some time, and was hospitalized in Pikeville, KY when he died.

He was a member of the legendary Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, formed by Ray and Charlie Cline in 1938. This group has been regarded by many early bluegrass historians as providing a “missing link” in the development of what became bluegrass music from the old time string bands and popular brother duets of the 1930s. Other members of Lonesome Pine Fiddlers during their nearly 30 year run included future bluegrass luminaries like Bobby Osborne and Paul Williams.

Ray joined the group with his brother Melvin in 1951, and they remained members until The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers disbanded temporarily in 1955, resurfacing in 1961 with the Goins brothers and Curly Ray and Ezra Cline. The band had a major brush with bluegrass history in 1954 when they turned down the Martha White sponsorship that then went to Flatt & Scruggs.

After the Fiddlers broke up in 1963, Ray and Melvin performed together as The Goins Brothers until Ray’s heart attack in 1994 slowed him down. Ray retired in 1997, while Melvin continued as Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain. Ray would share the stage with his brother on occasion, mostly close to home in eastern Kentucky.

There are a few more details, including funeral arrangements, in a piece published today in The Appalachian News-Express.

Charlie Sizemore had this to say about his departed friend:

I’ve known Ray Goins for over thirty years and known of him ever since I can remember. He and Melvin gave me my first job when I was a kid and I traveled with them for the better part of a year.

So I know what I’m talking about when I say this: On the day of Curly Ray Cline’s funeral, Ray and I were talking outside the church and the conversation turned to some of the inflated egos we’d seen over the years. Ray said, “Charlie, I’ve never thought I was better than anyone.”

He was wrong on this point. I’ve never known a better man. He was, to quote Curly Ray, “solid.” And also, I’ll add, a sorely underrated musician. Not that he would mind.

I’m among many who has lost a friend. I’ll miss him.

Kerry Hay of Hay Holler Records, where The Goins Brothers recorded in the 1990s, remembers him with fondness.

I had never met Ray Goins before the Goins Brothers signed on with Hay Holler Records in 1993. My remembrances and opinions of him can be summed up in a few statements:

In addition to being a fine banjo player, and one of the top vocalists I have heard in bluegrass, he was one of the finest gentlemen, in any walk of life, I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

He was always upbeat and friendly and always kept a positive attitude – I don’t ever recall seeing a frown on his face.

He obviously got great pleasure out of playing bluegrass music for the music itself. Bluegrass has lost a great and under-appreciated artist.