Ray davis bluegrass biography examples
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True Blue
Backstage, behind the thick, dark curtain, they heard the hum come on slowly. “Like a bee swarm,” recalled banjo player Walt Hensley. It was a Friday night in early April, 1959, and hundreds, if not thousands, of urbanites had gathered here, in the heart of New York City, to hear these country musicians play.
Decked in cowboy hats and string bow ties, the Stoney Mountain Boys were not used to such sophisticated audiences or grand and gilded venues. After all, they were from a small industrial city south of the Mason-Dixon, some 200 miles away. But they’d been invited here at the behest of famed folklorist Alan Lomax, who wanted to show the world a “panorama of the contemporary American folk song revival,” with the evening’s concert also including gospel singers and blues acts, like Muddy Waters and Memphis Slim.
Looking out over the giant room, the band stood wide-eyed in wonder at the bright golden lights and the four tiers of balconies filled with red velvet seats. “It began to take effect,” said Hensley. “This wasn’t the kind of hall I was used to playing . . . ”
Banjo made in Baltimore in 1845.
National Museum of American History
But after calming their nerves with whiskey, the band took to the stage—frontman Earl Taylor on mic and mandolin,
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Bluegrass Today Profiles
Renowned bluegrass DJ Ray Davis passed away during the evening of December 3, 2014. He had been battling against leukemia for most of the past year.
As we have told Ray Davis life story quite well in the past, we asked notable Bluegrass Unlimited columnist Walt Saunders to share his recollections of Ray Davis’s career….
“Ray was a veteran broadcaster who started as a teenager, and worked many stations. I first heard Ray on station WBMD in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 1960s when he was broadcasting from Johnny’s Used Cars (‘the walking man’s friend’). One of his sayings was, ‘Working close to save you money.’ He started selling albums on his on Wango label (pronounced ‘Wine-go’), and I ordered some from him – the Stanley Brothers, who recorded for him under the name ‘John’s Gospel Quartet’ and ‘John’s Country Quartet.’ He also MCed countless live shows (and later bluegrass festivals) in the region.
For many years he was affiliated with WAMU (public radio from American University) in Washington, D.C., on Bluegrass Country. Twice a year, he would host a fundraiser on his show, and raised a whole lot of funds for the station, far out of proportio
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Biography
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