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Walnut Valley Festival
The Walnut Valley Festival is an acoustic music festival held annually in the small city of Winfield, Kansas, United States. The main genre of music is bluegrass, but a wide variety of other acoustic styles are represented. The festival is held on the Wednesday through Sunday that includes the third Saturday of September. History The first official "Walnut Valley Festival" was held in September 1972 and was organized by a trio of founders-- Stuart Mossman, Joe Muret, & Bob Redford. The festival featured a two-day flat-picking contest."Winfield: The Walnut Valley Mystique" ''NPR'', October 6, 2009. In 1999 the |
Winfield, Kansas
Winfield is a city and county seat of Cowley County, Kansas, United States. It is situated along the Walnut River in South Central Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,777. It is home to Southwestern College. History 19th century Winfield was founded in 1870. It was named for Rev. Winfield Scott, who promised to build the town a church in exchange for the naming rights. The first post office at Winfield was established in May, 1870. In 1873, Winfield incorporated as a city. Railroads Railroads reached Winfield in the late 1870s, and finished at Arkansas City in 1881.''Marion County Kansas : Past and Present''; Sondra Van Meter; MB Publishing House; LCCN 72-92041; 344 pages; 1972. Eventually, a total of five railroads passed through Winfield. State mental hospital In 1881, the State of Kansas established the Kansas State Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, temporarily established at Lawrence, but moved to Winfield in 1887/1888, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His fingerpicking and flatpicking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. Blind from a young age, he performed publicly both in a dance band and solo, as well as for over 15 years with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm. Biography Early life Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina. According to Watson on his three-CD biographical recording ''Legacy'', he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname. A fan in the crowd shouted "Call him Doc!", presumably in reference to the literary character Sherlock Holmes's companion, Doctor W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hot Rize
Hot Rize is an American bluegrass music, bluegrass band that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. Established in 1978, Hot Rize has appeared on national radio and TV shows, and has toured most of the United States, as well as Japan, Europe and Australia. History Hot Rize started performing January 18, 1978, with Tim O'Brien (musician), Tim O'Brien on mandolin and fiddle, Pete Wernick on banjo, Charles Sawtelle on bass and Mike Scap on guitar. Scap left the band with eTown, Nick Forster (electric bass) joining in April, thereby allowing Sawtelle to switch to acoustic guitar. That established the four-man line-up that lasted over 20 years: Tim O'Brien (musician), O'Brien on mandolin, fiddle and lead vocals, Forster on electric bass, harmony vocals, and emcee work, Sawtelle, on guitar and occasional lead vocals, and Wernick as "Dr. Banjo". Their first, self-titled album was recorded in 1979 with follow-up Radio Boogie (album), ''Radio Boogie'', released in 1981. The band issued ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Grass Revival
New Grass Revival was an American progressive bluegrass band founded in 1971 and composed of Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, John Cowan, Béla Fleck, and Pat Flynn. They were active between 1971 and 1989 releasing more than twenty albums as well as six singles. Their highest-charting single is " Callin' Baton Rouge", which peaked at No. 37 on the U.S. country charts in 1989 and was a Top 5 country hit for Garth Brooks five years later. In 2020, the group were inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. Origin The origins of New Grass Revival lay in the Bluegrass Alliance, which Bush (vocals, fiddle, guitar, mandolin) and Courtney Johnson (banjo, vocals) joined in 1970. At the time, the Alliance also featured bassist Walker and fiddler Lonnie Peerce. After that Curtis Burch (dobro, guitar, vocals) joined the band but in 1972, Peerce left the band. The remaining members decided to continue under the new name New Grass Revival. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Cross (musician)
Mike Cross (born October 25, 1946, in Maryville, Tennessee) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His music blends rock, country, pop and folk. Signed to prominent label Sugar Hill (notable for releases by Doc Watson, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ... and numerous others), Cross enjoys a strong fan following at live performances across the nation. Best known for his humorous songs such as "The Scotsman," his catalog features a wide variety of musical genres and moods. Discography References External linksOfficial Website [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merle Travis
Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born in Rosewood, Kentucky, his songs' lyrics were often about the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners. Among his many well-known songs and recordings are " Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues", " I Am a Pilgrim", and " Dark as a Dungeon". He is best known today, though, for his unique guitar style, still called Travis picking by guitarists, as well as his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Travis picking is a syncopated style of guitar fingerpicking rooted in ragtime music in which alternating chords and bass notes are plucked by the thumb, while melodies are plucked by the index finger. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977. He is considered by some to be one of the most influent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Chapin
Tom Chapin (born March 13, 1945) is an American musician, entertainer, singer-songwriter, and storyteller. Chapin is known for the song " Happy Birthday", released in 1989 in his ''Moonboat'' album. It takes its melody from "Love Unspoken", a song featured in the opera ''The Merry Widow'' by Franz Lehar. Biography Chapin is the son of Jim Chapin and the brother of Harry Chapin and Steve Chapin. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School. He attended State University of New York at Plattsburgh where he played basketball and baseball. Chapin is a member of the school's 1,000 Point Club in basketball and is a 1986 inductee of the Plattsburgh State Athletic Hall of Fame. He graduated in 1966. From 1971 to 1976, Chapin hosted '' Make a Wish'', an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Sunday-morning children's TV series broadcast on ABC. He occasionally appears in Harry Chapin tribute concerts (often with brother Steve Chapin). He has appeared in the Broadway production '' Pump ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hartford
John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country, and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore. His most successful song is " Gentle on My Mind", which won three Grammy Awards and was listed in "BMI's Top 100 Songs of the Century". Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles throughout his career, and is perhaps best known for his solo performances where he would interchange the guitar, banjo, and fiddle from song to song. He also invented his own shuffle tap dance move, and clogged on an amplified piece of plywood while he played and sang. He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2010. Early life Harford (he changed his name to Hartford later in life on the advice of Chet Atkins) was born on December 30, 1937, in New York City to parents Carl and Mary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Blake (American Musician)
Norman L. Blake (born March 10, 1938) is a traditional American stringed instrument artist and songwriter. He is half of the eponymous Norman & Nancy Blake band with his wife, Nancy Blake. Music career Early performing Blake was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and grew up in Sulphur Springs, Alabama. He listened to old-time and country music on the radio by the Carter Family, the Skillet Lickers, Roy Acuff, and the Monroe Brothers (Charlie Monroe, Charlie and Bill Monroe). He learned guitar at age 11 or 12, then mandolin, dobro, and fiddle in his teens. When he was 16, he dropped out of school to play music professionally. In the 1950s, Blake joined the Dixieland Drifters and performed on radio broadcasts, then joined the Lonesome Travelers. When he was drafted in 1961, he served as an Army radio operator in the Panama Canal Zone. He started a popular band known as the Fort Kobbe, Kobbe Mountaineers. A year later, while he was on leave, he recorded the album ''Twelve Shades of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dan Crary
Dan Crary (also known as Deacon Dan Crary) was born September 29, 1939, in Kansas City, Kansas, and is an American bluegrass guitarist. He helped re-establish flatpicked guitar as a prominent soloing bluegrass instrument. Crary is an innovator of the flatpicking style of guitar playing. He is also a Speech communications Professor at California State University, Fullerton. Crary categorizes himself as a "solo flatpicker" and has recorded several projects that feature him along with guests, usually other innovators of the guitar in all styles. The beginning Crary started playing guitar at the age of 12. In 1957, after graduating from high school, he attended Chicago's Moody Bible Institute to study theology. In 1960, he moved to Lawrence, to study at the University of Kansas, he played guitar and sang in a trio called the Carltons. 1965, he went to San Francisco to study at the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary — playing locally both with groups and solo to make a living ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byron Berline
Byron Douglas Berline (July 6, 1944 – July 10, 2021) was an American fiddle player who played many American music styles, including old time, ragtime, bluegrass, Cajun, country, and rock. Life and career Berline was born in Caldwell, Kansas, on July 6, 1944. He started playing the fiddle at age five and quickly developed his talent. In 1965 he recorded the album '' Pickin' and Fiddlin''' with the Dillards. That year he met Bill Monroe at the Newport Folk Festival and was offered a job with Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, but he turned it down to finish his education. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1967 with a teaching degree in Physical Education and joined the Bluegrass Boys in March, replacing Richard Greene. He recorded three instrumentals with them, including "Gold Rush", which Berline and Monroe co-wrote, and which has become a jam session standard. Berline left the group in September 1967 when he was drafted into the Army. Discharged from the Army in 1969, Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer, fiddler and music producer. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of eight and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join Union Station, releasing her first album with them as a group in 1989 and performing with them ever since. Krauss has released 14 albums, appeared on numerous soundtracks, and sparked a renewed interest in bluegrass music in the United States. Her soundtrack performances have led to further popularity, including the ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack, and the ''Cold Mountain'' soundtrack, which led to her performance at the 2004 Academy Awards. Platinum-selling '' Raising Sand'' (2007) was the first of her two collaborations with English rock singer Robert Plant. As of 2019, she has won 27 Grammy Awards from 42 nominati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
