The Tradition

Bobby Osborne and C.J. Lewandowski. Photo Courtesy of C.J. Lewandowski

Preserving Bobby Osborne’s Legend

C.J. Lewandowski of the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys says that at fifteen years old, when he met Bobby Osborne, one of his heroes, he would never have dreamed of the friendship that would develop between the two musicians. Over the years that followed, Lewandowski, also a mandolin player, learned from Osborne—music lessons and life lessons. In…

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Photo by David Landreth

Wayne Jerrolds

Inventor—Entrepreneur—Musician—Songwriter—Community Servant—Mentor—Conservationist—Humanitarian Wayne Jerrolds grew up in a small farming community known as Burnt Church in the southern part of rural Hardin County, Tennessee (about 115 miles east of Memphis).  Savannah, Tennessee is the nearest town to this community.  When he was a young boy, Wayne and his brothers worked in the fields.  They cut…

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Notes & Queries – August 2023

Queries  Q: Do you know much (or anything) about the Armstrong Twins?  I recently heard a track on a radio program from an old LP. I know that Floyd died in 1994; I have made many attempts to discover when Lloyd died. I met Lloyd at IBMA Louisville in 1997 and we had a long…

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The cast of the Old Dominion Barn Dance, ca. February 18, 1956. Left to right: Allen Shelton, Roy Russell, Curley Howard, Irving Gurganus, Buster Puffenbarger, Sunshine Sue, John Workman, Zag Pennell, Janis Martin, Audie Webster, Earl Webster, and Carl Butler. Comedian/bass player Joe Phillips aka Flapjack sits at front. Photo courtesy of Matt Levine.

Notes & Queries – July 2023

Old Dominion Barn Dance  Multi-instrumentalist Matt Levine recently shared this photo of the Old Dominion Barn Dance that he won on eBay. He noted, “I actually got it pretty cheap. I usually don’t get photos on eBay, but I couldn’t pass that up.” From the looks of the various people in the shot, program attendees…

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The Dillards, c. 1966, left to right: Dean Webb, Doug Dillard, Rodney Dillard, Mitch Jayne. Photo courtesy of Diana Jayne, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum collection.

There Is A Time, 1962-1967

One day in 1953, Earl Scruggs answered a knock at the door of his suburban Nashville house. Standing there was a sixteen-year-old kid with a banjo and a grin as wide as the Mississippi River. It was Doug Dillard, and he wanted to know if Scruggs would sell him a set of “Scruggs tuners,” a…

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Muleskinner & Clarence White

Fifty Years Ago a Landmark Band was Formed and a Guitar Legend Passed Muleskinner The story of the legendary, extremely-short-lived band Muleskinner began fifty years ago when fiddler Richard Greene received a phone call from the public television station in Los Angeles. The station asked Greene to put together an all-star band of younger bluegrass musicians…

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