Author Archives: Bud Bennett

Highlights of the McConnell Library Appalachian Music Collection- Bela Fleck- Drive

Bela Fleck is a darned good banjo player and seems to be a darned nice guy too (I have not spent much of any time with him to actually know that, but the little bit that I have spent with … Continue reading

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Highlights of the McConnell Library Appalachian Music Collection- Butch Robins Part 2

(Used with permission from Bud Bennett, photographer) I started the first part of the Butch Robins posting with a story about how and when I met Butch.  Since this is the second part of the posting I will now continue … Continue reading

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Highlights of McConnell Library’s Appalachian Music Collection- John Hartford

(Used with permission from C.L. Garvin, photographer.) When I was younger, I had a very good friend, Billy.  Billy was a lot older than me and he loved bluegrass music.  He would play and loan his bluegrass records to me, … Continue reading

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Highlights of McConnel Library’s Appalachian Music Collection- John Balch

Earworm.  The definition of that word from dictionary.com is “a tune or part of a song that repeats in one’s mind”.  I did not need to look that word up actually but I did anyway just to see if there … Continue reading

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Highlights of the McConnell Library Appalachian Music Collection- JD Crowe

   (Used with permission from Mark Harvell, photographer.) If you ask a roomful of bluegrass banjo players who their favorite 5 banjo players are, I’ll bet two names will be on most every list- Earl Scruggs and JD Crowe.  I … Continue reading

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Rest in peace Earl Scruggs

Earl Scruggs passed away yesterday, March 28, 2012 around 10:00am at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville.  It is a sad day indeed.  Earl was, by all reports, a kind and gentle person and I know that I am not aware … Continue reading

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Highlights of the McConnell Library Appalachian Music Collection- Butch Robins PART 1

This will be part 1 of a multi-part post on local legend Butch Robins. In 1981, while a student at VPI, I had a show at WUVT, the college radio station there.  The show was from 6:00-9:00 AM Monday mornings … Continue reading

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Bascom Lamar Lunsford- the man who wrote Good Old Mountain Dew

Last semester I found myself talking to an Appalachian Studies class about Appalachian Music and used the song Good Old Mountain Dew as an example of a traditional song.  After the class, as I walked back to my office I … Continue reading

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Highlights of the McConnell Library Appalachian Music Collection- Farewell My Home

Some years ago electronic and rock musician Brian Eno recorded a series of albums he referred to as ambient music.  In the liner notes he mentioned that he tried to make music as enjoyable as it was ignorable.  I liked … Continue reading

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"Give Me the Banjo" on PBS Nov 4

There has been a documentary in the works for quite a while now and it is apparently finished and will air Nov 4 at 9:00-pm on PBS. The Banjo Project has a very nice website talking about this documentary and … Continue reading

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