As reported by Bluegrass Today on Thursday, banjo innovator Mike Lilly passed away on February 12, 2020, while in care at Hospice of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio. Funeral arrangements are available now and details are as follows … Visitation: The family will receive
Author: Richard Thompson
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GoFundMe campaign set up for Mike Lilly, now in hospice care
Wendy Miller, Mike Lilly, and Larry Sparks Innovative banjo picker Mike Lilly, who has been battling ill-health – specifically a form of leukemia and cirrhosis of the liver – for several years, was moved into hospice care on February 4 (2020). His
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Stanley Brothers’ I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow receives Grammy honor
The Stanley Brothers’ 1951 Columbia release of the classic song, I’m A Man of Constant Sorrow, is among the 2020 Grammy Hall of Fame Inductees. The Stanley Brothers, Carter (guitar) and Ralph (banjo), along with the Clinch Mountain Boys – Pee Wee
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Marking 100th anniversary of Curly Seckler’s birth
Years ending in “9” figure quite prominently in the life of Curly Seckler. John Ray Seckler (or Sechler) was born a few miles north-east of China Grove, Rowan County, North Carolina, in December 1919; in 1949 he joined Lester Flatt, Earl
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Rick Townend – Jan Jerrold Award winner 2019
Rick Townend, who has been playing bluegrass music since he was a schoolboy, is the 2019 recipient of the British Bluegrass Music Association’s Jan Jerrold Award. The award salver was presented in his absence at the association’s recent AGM held
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Lamar Grier passes
Lamar Grier, banjo player with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys and the Strange Creek Singers, among other notable names, passed away on Tuesday December 10, 2019. He was 81 years of age. Born on April 15, 1938, Philip Lamar Grier Jr
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Gospel Choices with Bob Amos
Here’s a further contribution of an occasional feature, where we ask bluegrass personalities to choose their top five Gospel songs. This week we hear from Bob Amos who has a particular love for the songs on an early 1970s Ralph
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Fiddler Ray Legere honored by home province
One of Canada’s top fiddle and mandolin players, Ray Legere, was inducted into the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame on September 14, 2019. Legere shared this reaction to his honor…. "I’m truly grateful for the induction. Meeting friends through music,
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Young Uns – Brayden Williamson
Watching the Grass Grow is a recent song written by the subject of this Young Uns feature, Brayden Williamson. In it he talks about the youth of bluegrass growing in the music, and how the pioneers of the music inspired them
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On This Day #57… Stanley Brothers Gospel
On November 22, 1964, the Stanley Brothers began a few days of recording in Baltimore for radio personality Ray Davis. Over a three-day period the Stanley Brothers committed 22 Gospel songs to tape. They were released on two albums on the










