Banjo

Earl Scruggs died last week and though not a Kentucky boy, his banjo playing was so elemental to what we now know as bluegrass that it defines our indigenous music. There is much more that defined the man, but most important is the hard picking banjo sound he brought to the music we know today as bluegrass. Legendary Kentucky musician Bill Monroe's band was named the Blue Grass Boys before he joined them, but it was Scruggs' playing that moved the banjo from the back row, and with Monroe's other frontman, guitarist Lester Flatt, blew Grand Ole Opry fans away and set the standard for what had been previously and informally known as hill music, hillbilly, high lonesome and many other names.

LANCASTER - Necessity is the mother of invention, but it also was the catalyst that eventually brought Laurie Grundy here. Grundy, a Porepunkah Victoria Australian native, became a fan of the banjo around the mid-'70s. He obtained one and learned to play. "If anything went wrong with it there was no one there to repair it" because it was an American instrument, he said. That's when he started repairing them himself. Friends starting bringing their banjos for repair, too. Then he started making them.

Lee Sexton's fingers caress the strings of his banjo on the sweeter tunes he plays. On faster songs, they fly nimbly as he performs traditional old-time banjo music for a rapt audience. Clad in overalls, a navy shirt and boots, 79-year-old Sexton focuses on his playing as he performs. Tunes such as "Linefork," "John Henry" and "Battle of New Orleans" are played for the assemblage. At the end of a number, he looks up, grinning, eyes twinkling merrily, and relates a page from his life.

Bobby Osborne and the Dean Osborne Band will be in town for a concert tonight, but the bluegrass musicians won't be the only Kentucky-based presence on stage. A Winchester family and the winners of a recent vocal talent contest at the Leeds Center for the Arts will be the openers. Kaitlyn MacMillan and her children, Brenna, 11, Theodore 13, and David, 17, go by the band name For Heaven's Sake. MacMillan sings while her children play the banjo, fiddle and backup guitar, respectively.

Tickets for the Heart of Kentucky Winterfest '07, featuring Gary "Biscuit" Davis with special guests Kevin Moore, and Phil Leadbetter & Wildfire, are on sale now. Davis, three-time national banjo picking champion, along with Kevin Moore, fiddle player, will perform at the Centre Square Convention Center in Lebanon, Ky., Jan. 6 as part of the weekend-long Winterfest '07. This year, Phil Leadbetter & Wildfire, winner of the International Bluegrass...

The Bluegrass Heritage Museum is offering Clark Countians an alternative to sitting in front of their television sets waiting for election returns Tuesday night. David Hurt of Berea, a Kentucky Chautauqua performer, will present a program of traditional mountain music on the banjo at the museum, 217 S. Main St. at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Many of the selections he will play and sing have not been heard in 50 years. Hurt, a retired farmer, plays both the guitar and banjo has acted at Stage One in Louisville as well as in Lexington theaters.

A trip to Natural Bridge State Park near Slade highlighted the Oct. 24 annual fall foliage outing for members of the JOY/XYZ Club of the First United Methodist Church. Members learned that the park is adjacent to the Daniel Boone National Forest near the Red River Gorge Geological Area. The natural sandstone arch bridge spans 78 feet and is 65 feet high. The park features 35 lodge rooms, 11 cottages, camping facilities, a restaurant, gift shop and meeting rooms. The group was told there will be a Lily May Ledford Day on Saturday at Natural Bridge's own Hoe Down Island.

David Hurt, portraying Grandpa Jones, will perform at 6 p.m. Jan. 27 at Toy Box Deli. Tickets are $15 and include a catered meal. To register, contact Dick McGuire at (859) 236-5799. Louis Marshall Jones (1913-1998), better known as Grandpa, was the son of Henderson County sharecroppers, but his destiny was the road, not the land. A singer, banjo picker, songwriter, and, late in life, television star, Jones was constantly on the move during a musical career of more than 60 years.

Seven-time International Bluegrass Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year Rhonda Vincent has signed on as a featured performer at the 2009 Kentucky Bluegrass Music Kickoff Jan. 9-10 in historic downtown Lebanon. Vincent and her group, The Rage, will join Gary "Biscuit" Davis, the Hager's Mountain Boys and others in this two-day celebration of the state's official music. Vincent & The Rage won the International Bluegrass Music Association's Album of the Year for "All American Bluegrass Girl" and won Song of the Year for the title track in 2007.

Homer Ledford never saw himself as a bluegrass icon. "He always thought of himself as a very ordinary person," said Colista Ledford, Homer's wife. But the city of Winchester thinks otherwise. Ledford, a local instrument maker and musician, who died in December 2006, will be celebrated Saturday when his historical marker is dedicated at College Park. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. at the Homer Ledford Amphitheater. The marker, which was erected Wednesday, stands next to the Daniel Boone Statue in the park.

Conrad Shiba has been playing folk music for more than 40 years, after picking up his first stringed instrument sometime before the age of 14: a ukulele.    Real-life stories “I taught myself to play a ukulele when my uncle left his with me after he moved away,” Shiba says.  He recognized the small instrument was much like the four-stringed tenor guitar he'd watched folk singers play; the ukulele looked like a smaller...

Earl Scruggs died last week and though not a Kentucky boy, his banjo playing was so elemental to what we now know as bluegrass that it defines our indigenous music. There is much more that defined the man, but most important is the hard picking banjo sound he brought to the music we know today as bluegrass. Legendary Kentucky musician Bill Monroe's band was named the Blue Grass Boys before he joined them, but it was Scruggs' playing that moved the banjo from the back row, and with Monroe's other frontman, guitarist Lester Flatt, blew Grand Ole Opry fans away and set the standard for what had been previously and informally known as hill music, hillbilly, high lonesome and many other names.

LANCASTER - Necessity is the mother of invention, but it also was the catalyst that eventually brought Laurie Grundy here. Grundy, a Porepunkah Victoria Australian native, became a fan of the banjo around the mid-'70s. He obtained one and learned to play. "If anything went wrong with it there was no one there to repair it" because it was an American instrument, he said. That's when he started repairing them himself. Friends starting bringing their banjos for repair, too. Then he started making them.

Seven-time International Bluegrass Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year Rhonda Vincent has signed on as a featured performer at the 2009 Kentucky Bluegrass Music Kickoff Jan. 9-10 in historic downtown Lebanon. Vincent and her group, The Rage, will join Gary "Biscuit" Davis, the Hager's Mountain Boys and others in this two-day celebration of the state's official music. Vincent & The Rage won the International Bluegrass Music Association's Album of the Year for "All American Bluegrass Girl" and won Song of the Year for the title track in 2007.

The Bluegrass Heritage Museum is offering Clark Countians an alternative to sitting in front of their television sets waiting for election returns Tuesday night. David Hurt of Berea, a Kentucky Chautauqua performer, will present a program of traditional mountain music on the banjo at the museum, 217 S. Main St. at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Many of the selections he will play and sing have not been heard in 50 years. Hurt, a retired farmer, plays both the guitar and banjo has acted at Stage One in Louisville as well as in Lexington theaters.

Homer Ledford never saw himself as a bluegrass icon. "He always thought of himself as a very ordinary person," said Colista Ledford, Homer's wife. But the city of Winchester thinks otherwise. Ledford, a local instrument maker and musician, who died in December 2006, will be celebrated Saturday when his historical marker is dedicated at College Park. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. at the Homer Ledford Amphitheater. The marker, which was erected Wednesday, stands next to the Daniel Boone Statue in the park.

Charlie Fields picks a Civil War tune on a mandolin he made of black walnut. Tom Bentley accompanies him on a guitar he fashioned out of cherry with a western cedar top. They harmonize like they did for so many years while playing in the bluegrass group Just in Tyme. In the background of Bentley's Stanford shop, Curtis Scott blends in, also on a banjo he made. "We play about anything that has strings on it," says Fields as they finish playing "Under the Double Eagle. " When Fields was growing up, the ability to play this tune plus "Wildwood Flower" gave one elevated musician status.

Lee Sexton's fingers caress the strings of his banjo on the sweeter tunes he plays. On faster songs, they fly nimbly as he performs traditional old-time banjo music for a rapt audience. Clad in overalls, a navy shirt and boots, 79-year-old Sexton focuses on his playing as he performs. Tunes such as "Linefork," "John Henry" and "Battle of New Orleans" are played for the assemblage. At the end of a number, he looks up, grinning, eyes twinkling merrily, and relates a page from his life.

Tickets for the Heart of Kentucky Winterfest '07, featuring Gary "Biscuit" Davis with special guests Kevin Moore, and Phil Leadbetter & Wildfire, are on sale now. Davis, three-time national banjo picking champion, along with Kevin Moore, fiddle player, will perform at the Centre Square Convention Center in Lebanon, Ky., Jan. 6 as part of the weekend-long Winterfest '07. This year, Phil Leadbetter & Wildfire, winner of the International Bluegrass...

A trip to Natural Bridge State Park near Slade highlighted the Oct. 24 annual fall foliage outing for members of the JOY/XYZ Club of the First United Methodist Church. Members learned that the park is adjacent to the Daniel Boone National Forest near the Red River Gorge Geological Area. The natural sandstone arch bridge spans 78 feet and is 65 feet high. The park features 35 lodge rooms, 11 cottages, camping facilities, a restaurant, gift shop and meeting rooms. The group was told there will be a Lily May Ledford Day on Saturday at Natural Bridge's own Hoe Down Island.