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Bob French (bluegrass Musician)
Shelby Gene "Buddy" Jones (February 2, 1937 – August 13, 2014) was an American bluegrass musician and songwriter, and music recorder and distributor. He is best known for his performance work with the bluegrass band, Rainbow Valley Boys. He was also the founder of former recording, radio promotion, and record distribution companies B.J. Promotions, Tapes Unlimited, and Northern Music Distribution. Early life Shelby Gene Jones was born on February 2, 1937, in West Virginia in Montcoal to Bert and Ethel Jones (née Queener) (born 1902 and 1903 respectively). He was the youngest of 6 children in the household. He had five siblings, brothers Ralph, Herbert, and Kenneth; and two sisters Dolly and Juanita. All of his siblings had been born in Newark, Ohio, but his family had moved to Beckley shortly before he was born. Jones attended Woodrow Wilson High School in fall 1949, and attended three years, with only his sisters as his brothers were already almost adults when he began s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montcoal, West Virginia
Montcoal is an unincorporated community and coal town in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States. Montcoal is located on West Virginia Route 3, south of Whitesville. Coal mine explosion Montcoal is home to the Performance Coal Company, a division of Massey Energy, Inc. On April 5, 2010, at approximately 3 pm, a methane gas explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ... killed 29 mine workers, and injured two others.http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/10/west.virginia.mine/index.html CNN News coverage of 2010 mine explosion in Montcoal References Unincorporated communities in Raleigh County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Mining communities in West Virginia Coal towns in West Virginia {{RaleighCountyWV-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marty Robbins
Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, and NASCAR racing driver. Robbins was one of the most popular and successful country and western singers for most of his nearly four-decade career, which spanned from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. He was also an early outlaw country pioneer. Born in Glendale, Arizona, Robbins taught himself guitar while serving in the United States Navy during World War II, and subsequently drew fame performing in clubs in and around his hometown. In 1952, he released his first No. 1 country song, " I'll Go On Alone". Four years later, he released his second No.1 hit “Singing the Blues”, and one year later, released two more No. 1 hits, "A White Sport Coat" and " The Story of My Life". In 1959, Robbins released his signature song, "El Paso", for which he won the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rainbow Valley Boys 1965 Album
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the Sun. Rainbows can be full circles. However, the observer normally sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centered on a line from the Sun to the observer's eye. In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc. This is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilma Lee
Wilma Lee Leary (February 7, 1921 – September 13, 2011), known professionally as Wilma Lee Cooper, was an American country music entertainer. She was a guitarist, banjo player and vocalist, and was given the title of “First Lady of Bluegrass” by Smithsonian Institute in 1974. In 1994 She was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award from the IBMA. Biography Leary, according to the 1930 U.S. Census, was born Willma Leigh Leary in Valley Head, West Virginia whose mother was a schoolteacher and father who was a coal miner. Wilma’s mother played pump organ. She had two siblings, Jerry and Peggy. She began singing at the age of five. She sang in her youth with her family's gospel music group, The Leary Family, which included her parents and sisters. They recorded for the Library Of Congress in 1938. That year, they were also recognized at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C, having been chosen through a competition to represent the state of West Virginia. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Jones
George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last two decades of his life, Jones was frequently referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved." The shape of his nose and facial features earned Jones the nickname "The Possum". Jones has been called and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013. Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven, and was given a guitar at the age of nine. His earliest influences were Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Reeves
James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death in a plane crash. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame. Biography Early life and education Reeves was born at home in Galloway, Texas, a small rural community near Carthage. He was the youngest of eight children born to Mary Beulah Adams Reeves (1884-1980) and Thomas Middleton Reeves (1882-1924). He was known as Travis during his childhood years. Winning an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas, he enrolled to study speech and drama but quit after only six weeks to work in the shipyards in Houston. Soon he resumed baseball, playing in the semi-professional leagues before contracting with the St. Louis Cardinals "farm" team dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music style which expanded its appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily a guitarist, but he also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele, and occasionally sang. Atkins's signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, both in the United States and abroad. Atkins spent most of his career at RCA Victor and produced records for the Browns, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Floyd Cramer, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Sk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lester Flatt
Lester Raymond Flatt (June 19, 1914 – May 11, 1979) was an American bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the duo Flatt and Scruggs. Flatt's career spanned multiple decades, breaking out as a member of Bill Monroe's band during the 1940s and including multiple solo and collaboration works exclusive of Scruggs. He first reached a mainstream audience through his performance on "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", the theme for the network television series ''The Beverly Hillbillies'', in the early 1960s. Biography Flatt was born in Duncan's Chapel, Overton County, Tennessee, United States, to Nannie Mae Haney and Isaac Columbus Flatt. In 1943, he played mandolin and sang tenor in The Kentucky Pardners, the band of Bill Monroe's older brother Charlie. He first came to prominence as a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1945 and played a thumb-and-index guitar style that was in part derived from the playing of C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earl Scruggs
Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was radically different from the traditional way the five-string banjo had previously been played. This new style of playing became popular and elevated the banjo from its previous role as a background rhythm instrument to featured solo status. He popularized the instrument across several genres of music. Scruggs' career began at age 21 when he was hired to play in Bill Monroe's band, the Blue Grass Boys. The name "bluegrass" eventually became the eponym for the entire genre of country music now known by that title. Despite considerable success with Monroe, performing on the Grand Ole Opry and recording classic hits such as "Blue Moon of Kentucky", Scruggs resigned from the group in 1946 because of their exhausting t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Mandell
Stephen Arnold "Steve" Mandell ( – March 14, 2018) was an American bluegrass guitarist and banjoist. Most notably, he is known for the 1973 instrumental hit "Dueling Banjos," recorded in duo with Eric Weissberg and was awarded a Grammy. Life and career Mandell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, New York. In the early 1960s, along with mandolinist David Grisman, he was part of the Garrett Mountain Boys. In the 1960s and 1970s, Mandell was a prominent session musician, and he played on Judy Collins live album ''The Judy Collins Concert'' (1964) and studio album ''True Stories and Other Dreams'' (1973), among others. In 1972, Mandell recorded "Dueling Banjos" with another session musician, Eric Weissberg. In 1973, the single peaked at No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles, and No. 1 on Adult Contemporary chart, and the tune was the theme of the 1972 film ''Deliverance''. The song was also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Weissberg
Eric Weissberg (August 16, 1939 – March 22, 2020) was an American singer, banjo player, and multi-instrumentalist, whose most commercially successful recording was his banjo solo in "Dueling Banjos," featured as the theme of the film ''Deliverance'' (1972) and released as a single that reached number 2 in the United States and Canada in 1973. A member of the folk group the Tarriers for years, Weissberg later developed a career as a session musician. He played and recorded with leading folk, bluegrass, rock, and popular musicians and groups from the middle of the 20th century to its end. Life and career Weissberg was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Cecile (Glasberg), a liquor buyer, and Will Weissberg, a publicity photographer. He attended The Little Red Schoolhouse in New York's Greenwich Village and graduated from The High School of Music & Art in New York City. He went on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Juilliard School of Music. From 1956 to 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
