Bluegrass musician Wade Mainer has died

[J.A.W.]

Bluegrass musician and banjo pioneer Wade Mainer has died. He was 104.

Washington Post obit

[AllenLowe]

Dick Spottswood's book on Mainer is excellent and highly recommended.

[danasgoodstuff]

This is definately one of those cases where I gotta say "I had no idea he was still alive"!

[paul secor]

This is definately one of those cases where I gotta say "I had no idea he was still alive"!

Same here. A hundred and four is a bunch of years.

[Stereojack]

This is definately one of those cases where I gotta say "I had no idea he was still alive"!

Same here. A hundred and four is a bunch of years.

Ditto here.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yup.

[Neal Pomea]

Today would have been Bill Monroe's 100th birthday. He passed in 1996. Lots of tributes to him this week on bluegrass radio in DC. Really a giant of American music, especially bluegrass gospel. Quite a songwriter. I put him up near the top in country music! Don't know why he wasn't one of the first, 1961 inductees in the country music Hall of Fame along with Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose, and Hank Williams. (inducted in 1970)

Really enjoyed Wade Mainer with the Morris Brothers. I have a CD he did with his wife Julia that is from his later days but still enjoyable!

Edited September 14, 2011 by Neal Pomea

[danasgoodstuff]

Article linked above says he played the Opry exactly once! Guess this 'too country for country' thing ain't nothing new....or was he too modern in the '30s?

[Neal Pomea]

Not really. Uncle Dave Macon played until 1952. Doesn't get any more country than that!

(Rather go to hell riding a mule than heaven in an automobile!)

Uncle Dave used to yell "Murder" during the instrumental breaks of his songs!

Edited September 14, 2011 by Neal Pomea

[alocispepraluger102]

Today would have been Bill Monroe's 100th birthday. He passed in 1996. Lots of tributes to him this week on bluegrass radio in DC. Really a giant of American music, especially bluegrass gospel. Quite a songwriter. I put him up near the top in country music! Don't know why he wasn't one of the first, 1961 inductees in the country music Hall of Fame along with Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose, and Hank Williams. (inducted in 1970)

Really enjoyed Wade Mainer with the Morris Brothers. I have a CD he did with his wife Julia that is from his later days but still enjoyable!

is the bluegrass station in dc still kicking? i gave it up for dead 5+ years ago.

[Neal Pomea]

is the bluegrass station in dc still kicking? i gave it up for dead 5+ years ago.

Never missed a day. WAMU. 88.5. It went to HD radio only for a short while, then under protest they opened another tower and number (105.5) so you can catch it over regular radio in your car.

[AllenLowe]

well, the only reason I knew he was still alive was because Spottswood's a friend. I love the old recordings from that whole family.

[Larry Kart]

When I was in Arkansas in the summer of 1962 with a friend who was signing up artists for that winter's U. of Chicago Folk Festival, I met a fiddler, a friend of singer Almeda Riddle:

http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=609

who was over 100. Don't recall his name, but he said that his grandfather when in his early teens had fought at the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. I worked this out, and saw that this was quite possible. So I shook the hand of a man who shook the hand of a man who fought at the Battle of New Orleans.

[Big Beat Steve]

This is definately one of those cases where I gotta say "I had no idea he was still alive"!

Same here. A hundred and four is a bunch of years.

Ditto here.

Same here too.

104 years. Amazing ....

Will spin the Mountaineers' Old Timey LPs a bit later on in remembrance.

[AllenLowe]

Larry - that's like when Lenny Bruce said he was in the army with Artie Shaw, and an officer came over and said to Shaw he wanted to "shake the hand that patted the ass of Lana Turner."

well, maybe not quite the same thing....

[Brownian Motion]

obit