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Well I found another one of those “button” pictures…  This is a lot more “grainy” somewhere I’ve got the original 8×10’s if I come across them I’ll  edit this one and fix it – Here’s me as a kid (on the right) with the Bill Monroe the man who invented Bluegrass Music.  Gosh he was old when I was a child and I’m over 50 now —  Bill Monroe died in 1996

This was taken at Hillbrook Recreation Center (Ohio National Bluegrass Festival) that my Dad started with Henry Verhoff (the guy that owned the campground).  Bill made several appearances in Ottawa along with Don Reno & Red Smiley – Don Reno’s banjo book has a pictures of him at Ottawa and my dad took me one year to a festival that Bill Monroe put on every year in Brown County Indiana called “Beanblossom”.

One of the things I remember well as a child was Bill Monroe coming to our camper, where my dad and his friend Junior Stennet always had a band playing and Bill would often play with them or stand around the fire and listen. I remember one of my Dad’s friends David Eisenburger thanking Bill for starting this wonderful music. Dave was from Cleveland where we had moved and I think he was amazed that we knew all these people? When I got my first guitar Bill signed the inside of my guitar case along with Jim and Jesse and I remember when I turned 16 or so, I loaned that guitar to a cousin who was visiting us in Ohio and I never got it back from her –

At the time I had upgraded from that no-name “first guitar” to a Fender accoustic that my Dad bought me so when she wanted to “borrow it” I had no problem doing that after all she was family and I had two….  Anyway — I really wish I had that guitar back mainly just to have case with all the signatures – I asked her about it once YEARS later and she said it’s gone….

Oh well… I’d learn later in life as I got older and started dating that —  anything you give a women — you might just as well figure it’s a gift and if you ever happen to get the item(s) back… well it’s a BONUS… — Maybe that’s why I never got married, I probably didn’t give enough stuff away to the girls I was dating to make it worth marrying them just to get my stuff back LMAO… BTW Renee Cauley wherever you are? Where are all my signed albums you borrowed and ran away with?

Bill is best known for Uncle Pen – Here he is in his prime with Peter Rowan on guitar.

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I also love Christmas Time’s A’Coming – Tex Logan was a fiddler and engineer at Bell Labs I was surprised Ralph knew that…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXfBYXElPII

On a previous post, I mentioned Gary Brewer, this guy does a great job on Norman Blake’s Graycoat Soldiers. Gary is from Kentucky and I think he is very similar to Jimmy Martin only he does a lot of picking as well as rhythm.

Graycoat Soldiers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGyW-0Qc-OI

Money to ride the train http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN1c1_8X9L4

Little Drummer Boy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmzeHHizG-c

Gary Brewer Website www.brewgrass.com

Me and Jimmy Martin at a Bluegrass Festival in Greenwitch Ohio

I used to talk to Jimmy a lot and I spent a significant amount of time with Jimmy as he hit most of the Bluegrass Festivals in Ohio, he loved to go coon hunting and a lot of coon hunting clubs put on festivals. When Tom T. Hall wrote the song “Bill Monroe for Breakfast” a song he penned after eating breakfast one morning and the fancy hotel was playing some music and when they asked Tom about it he said, well where I come from we are used to Bill Monroe for Breakfast – when that song came out another artist Gary Brewer penned “Jimmy Martin songs for Dinner” Jimmy was so proud of that song, he invited me back to his bus to hear it.  Jimmy was a very unique guy, what was on Jimmy’s mind came out his mouth, because of that and his temper and attitude, the Grand Ole Opry never invited him to be a member. Some say he had an uneducated foul mouth, but I grew up listening to Jimmy and his driving stubborn attitude was just Jimmy – you either liked him or you hated him. He told off color jokes and was just a character –

Here’s Jimmy signing my 1974 Martin D28 guitar – Why have CF Martin sign it when you can get Jimmy to sign in? BTW this is the guitar I usually take to festivals and it’s loud – The sound hole is opened up a bit (like Tony Rice’s Clarence White guitar) and it has had the braces scalloped – Bryan Kimsey out in Arizona did the work and made that guitar sound like a 50’s Martin. – I’ve also got two Martin D-18 “Andy Griffiths” more on that later..

Here’s a few Jimmy Martin URLs (you might say he’s more “acid grass” the real deal) no drums, nothing but wire and wood (accoustic) the man could do more with three chords than anyone EVER…. Bluegrass sound was created by Flatt, Scruggs, Monroe and the King of Bluegrass Mr. Jimmy Martin <insert G run here>…

Free Born Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETVlu5yqFHk

Who will sing for me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMZVyRDyAWw

Rest in Peace Mr. Good N Country….

In 2005, I was surfing around on eBay when I came across a writer who was selling his personal copy of a TV script he wrote for the Andy Griffith show called “A GIRL FOR GOOBER” it was the last episode of the Andy Griffith show before it changed to Mayberry RFD. The writer selling the script was Bruce Howard – turns out Bruce wrote for many TV shows and also wrote King Kong versus Godzilla http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=192816

 When I told him I was purchasing the script because I had recently purchased two Andy Griffith Martin D18 guitars and thought it would be a nice B-day present for myself, he was kind enough to have his wife Gaye take a picture of him holding the script for me (to verify it was genuine) and he even took the time to autograph it wishing me a happy birthday.

I talked to him for the next several months after the exhange over email and we talked about all sorts of things and I really enjoyed his perspective on life and Hollywood and I helped him with his computer issues. I was sad to hear he passed.

Bruce Howard (III) (1925–2012)

Writer | Miscellaneous Crew | Actor Trivia:Narrator of The Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios in

Florida.Born:June 6, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, USA

Died:January 30, 2012 (age 86) in Studio City, California, USA

 Bruce Howard wrote one episode of The Andy Griffith Show. He also wrote episodes of the TV series “The Red Skelton Hour” (for which he received an Emmy Award nomination), “My Favorite Martian”, “McHale’s Navy”, “Gilligan’s Island”, “The Beatles”, “The Flying Nun”, “The Mothers-in-Law”, “I Dream of Jeannie”, “The Doris Day Show”, “That Girl”, “Love American Style”, “The Brady Bunch”, “The Jeffersons”, “One Day at a Time”, “What’s Happening!”, “The Love Boat”, “Alice”, “Good Times”, “Too Close for Comfort”, “The Dukes of Hazzard”, “Trapper John M.D.”, “The Jetsons” and “Punky Brewster”.

Tony Rice is likely one of the best flatpicking guitarist there is, the guy who introduces him is John Hartford, the banjo picking guy that was on Glen Cambell’s goodtime hour TV show and wrote “Gentle on my mind”. The folks in this band are about as good as it gets including Warren Ohio’s Jerry Douglas…

I always liked his version of Blue Railroad Train http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhI-4Agmax4

They do a lot of picking on this Jimmy Martin classic Free Born Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVl1ibykWZU

But I always liked when Tony got with Norman Blake on the Blake and Rice CD. Norman always writes awesome tunes, while this videos audio isn’t so good it’s worth listening to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9RuwwhJ3vo

Tim Stafford is one heck of a guitar player who left Alison Krauss’s band to start Blue Highway. I used to belong to a list server that Tim used so he used to send us guitar tab – great all around guy… anyway I can’t pick anything these guys do, because I don’t think they stay in any one chord more than 10 seconds.. haha

So here they are on the Opry with Ricky introducing them…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOTnJXeYCJ0

Here’s an overview of Blue Highway – Hung my head

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLxtbXhXf78

I like this civil war song – He walked all the way home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU5dhLzB0Ic

Years ago they used to make buttons out of photos – Here’s an old photo of me as a kid (on the left) with Lester Flatt.  My brother Rod is in the Middle and Bob on the right. This was taken at Hillbrook Recreation Center in Ottawa Ohio. This was the first “Ohio National Bluegrass Festival”. My Dad along with Junior Stennet (both police officers in Ottawa Ohio) convinced Henry Verhoff to host this festival at his campgrounds in Ottawa.  Another officer who worked with my dad was Curt Martin and his wife Maxine played banjo. My dad passed in 86 and Junior and Curt are gone too.

Lester died in 1979 and Earl Scruggs died in 2012

We all know they did the Beverly Hillbillies theme but they also did these….

Foggy Mtn Breakdown (Theme from Bonnie and Clyde)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RvI6ZI2JWc

Petticoat Junction (Spin off that didn’t last long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YvoSOztN6U

Jimmy Brown the Newsboy (my favorite) an old Carter Family tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE73TjcXIXM