INMAN, GLEN "COOKIE"
"Cookie" Inman, a native of LaFollette, TN, has pretty much written the book on bluegrass bass playing in the Dayton area.  He has played in the Allen-Lilly Band, the Wildwood Valley Boys, the Dorsey Harvey Band, with Red Allen, with Larry Sparks, with Mike Lilly, with Gerald Evans and Paradise, and with the Traditional Grass. He has also filled in with countless other bands when they¹ve been short a bass player.

ISAACS, BENJAMIN JOSEPH “BEN”  (c.1972-) 
Ben is the oldest of the three Isaacs siblings.  He sings, plays bass, and produces most of the CDs for the group.  Growing up, he was heavily influenced by Ricky Skaggs.

ISAACS, JOE  (1947-) 
Born in Jackson County, Kentucky, Joe Isaacs came to the Dayton, Ohio, area in 1964 and was soon playing guitar with Roy Lee Centers and, a little later, banjo with Larry Sparks.  In 1967, he joined Frank Wakefield in the Greenbriar Boys in New York City.  It was there he met Lily Fishman who was to become his wife.  With Fred Bartenstein and others, he formed the Lonesome Drifters before returning to Ohio to play guitar and sing lead with Ralph Stanley and later banjo with Larry Sparks again.  He then formed the Calvary Mountain Boys, who recorded for Old Homestead and Hamilton’s Melody Records.  In 1975, he and Lily began performing as Joe Isaacs and Sacred Bluegrass, which eventually became The Isaacs in 1986.  After he and Lily divorced in 1998, Joe began performing with the Cumberland Highlanders and also formed his own group, Mountain Bluegrass, with Stacy York singing a haunting tenor to his Stanley-style lead.

ISAACS, LILY FISHMAN  (1947-)          
Lily Isaacs was born in Germany to Holocaust survivors, who in 1949 moved to New York City, where Lily grew up.  She took voice lessons when she was young and became a folk singer performing in a duo known as Lily and Maria, which had an LP released on Columbia Records.  She met Joe Isaacs at a club in Greenwich Village, eventually married him, and moved to Ohio.  When Joe formed the Calvary Mountain Boys in 1971, she began singing with him and continued on through Sacred Bluegrass into The Isaacs.  When Lily and Joe split up in 1998, she took over leadership of the group, which by then included their three grown children.

ISAACS, SONYA  (c.1973-)           
Sonya is the older daughter of Joe and Lily Isaacs and plays mandolin in the group the Isaacs.  She has explored the possibility of a solo country career by traveling with Vince Gill and providing some beautiful harmony vocals for him, which led to a solo recording contract for her.  She had a couple of CDs issued but micro-management by the record company, over-production, and lack of promotion doomed the projects from the beginning.   She has also recorded harmony vocals with numerous artists including Dolly Parton, Rhonda Vincent, Vince Gill, Ralph Stanley, Reba McEntyre, and Brad Paisley.

JACKSON, TOMMY (1926-1979)           
The most prominent fiddle player of his time, Tommy Jackson came to Cincinnati in the late 1940s with the Pleasant Valley Boys, which included Jerry Byrd, Louie Innis, and Zeke Turner.  They worked on radio and TV at WLW, and as session musicians at King Records Studio and Herzog Studio.  In Nashville, he played on bluegrass sessions with Bill Monroe, with Jim & Jesse, with Mac Wiseman, and he and Art Stamper played twin fiddles on the Osborne Brothers’ first MGM recording session in 1956.  During the square dance era, he recorded numerous fiddle tunes on Mercury and Dot Records, often accompanied by Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland on mandolin.  Jackson was also part of Ray Price’s great Cherokee Cowboys band of the 1950s, where he originated the “single-string” style that has dominated country music fiddling ever since.

JARVIS, JOHN DILL “J.D.”  (1924-)    
J.D. Jarvis was born in Clay County, Kentucky, but wound up in Hamilton, Ohio, where he became the foremost exponent of bluegrass gospel music in southwestern Ohio.  He began recording in the early 1960s on the Ark label in Cincinnati, where his songwriting ability and primitive vocal style made him a favorite with many transplanted Appalachian people.  Some of his best known songs are “Take Your Shoes Off, Moses,” “I Am the Man, Thomas,” and “The Hyden Miners’ Tragedy.”  He recorded for Ark, Jewel, Sagegrass, Rural Rhythm, Melody, Sunrise, and his own Nation Wide label. 

JENNINGS, SHERRILL        
A native of Kingsport, Tennessee and son in law of Southwestern Ohio bluegrass gospel pioneer Paris Decker, Sherrill Jennings played banjo with the Dorsey Harvey Band, played mandolin with the WBZI Bluegrass Band, and has been a member of the Beacons gospel group.  He has written excellent gospel songs, some recorded by New Found Road.

JOHNSON, ENOS  (1928-)             
Born in east Tennessee, Enos Johnson learned to play both guitar and mandolin.  While working on radio for grocery store entrepreneur Cas Walker on WCRK in Morristown, Tennessee, Enos met Jimmy Martin, and the two of them formed a duet.  They left WCRK and came north to WPFB in Middletown, Ohio, where they worked with Smokey Ward.  Enos and Jimmy split up and Enos started working with Sonny Osborne and Carlos Brock at WPFB.  He was part of Sonny’s band when they recorded for Kentucky and Gateway Records in Cincinnati and did quite a bit of the lead singing.  The band eventually moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, but Enos quit because he had a family and needed the security of a day job.  Later he worked for Bill Monroe for a few months and then, in the 1970s, he entertained tourists in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with Jack Grooms and the Smoky Mountain Travelers.

JOHNSON, JAY           
Cincinnati-area singer and guitar player, Jay Johnson performed country, bluegrass, and gospel music.  He recorded with the Sandy Valley Boys on Briar, on Bobby Grove’s Oak label, on Big 6, and two great bluegrass singles in the 1960s backed by Earl Taylor and the Stoney Mountain Boys -- one on Cincinnati’s Rocket label and the other on Nashville, the Starday subsidiary.

JONES, LOUIS MARSHALL “GRANDPA”  (1913-1998)         
Born in Niagra, Kentucky, Grandpa Jones learned how to play guitar and was playing for dances when he was 11 years old.  He moved to Akron, Ohio, as a teenager and got a job on radio station WJW as “The Young Singer of Old Songs.”  He worked in the backup band for the popular “Lum and Abner” radio show, which at that time originated in Cleveland.  He went on the road with Bradley Kincaid and “Bashful Harmonica Joe” Troyan and eventually struck out on his own at WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia, singing old-time songs, Jimmie Rodgers songs, yodeling, and doing comedy.  While there he met Cousin Emmy (Cynthia May Carver), who taught him how to play clawhammer banjo.  He spent three years in Cincinnati on the Boone County Jamboree where he, Merle Travis, and the Delmore Brothers founded the gospel quartet “The Browns Ferry Four” and he met the woman who was to be his future wife, Ramona Riggins, an excellent fiddle player.  He and Merle Travis became the first artists to record for Cincinnati’s King Records, although their first four sides were actually cut in Dayton, Ohio.  Grandpa was to become a full-fledged star on King with hits like “Mountain Dew,” “Eight More Miles To Louisville,” “Old Rattler,” and “It’s Raining Here This Morning.”  A good songwriter, he wrote the classic “Tragic Romance” which his friend Cowboy Copas had a hit with on King (Wiley and Zeke Morris also claim authorship of “Tragic Romance”).  In 1962, Grandpa had a top-five country record with “T for Texas” on Monument Records, followed by an entire album of yodel songs.  He also cut a live album for Monument at the Black Stallion Night Club in Cincinnati.  Late in his career, Grandpa Jones recorded old-time country songs on CMH Records.  Grandpa was a long-time member of the Grand Ole Opry, and became a household name as a charter cast member of the “Hee-Haw” TV show.  There he sang and performed comedy as well as recycling the Browns Ferry Four’s repertoire with the Hee-Haw Gospel Quartet.  In 1978, Grandpa Jones was elected to the Country Music Hall Of Fame.

JONES, WILLIAM M. 
William Jones was a minister who founded Melody Records in Hamilton, Ohio in 1964.  Melody continued until at least 1979, recording virtually all gospel music.  He also formed Sunrise Records to record country music, and in 1970 acquired the Pine Tree label and used it for recording bluegrass.  Pine Tree was the most prolific of the three labels, recording such well known artists as Larry Sparks, Dave Woolum, Carl Story, the Wilson Brothers, Joe and Lily Isaacs, Charlie Monroe, the Kentucky Gentlemen, and the Nu-Grass Pickers.

KELLY, CLARENCE  
As leader and lead vocalist of the Jewell Mountain Grass, Clarence Kelly wrote and recorded a song entitled “Mountain Laurel,” which has lasted as a favorite around Dayton for many years.  With a unique voice, he has been the lead vocalist for the Legends Of Bluegrass, and more recently for Nu-Cut Road.  He has also developed into a competent songwriter.

KIDWELL, VAN
Originally from Madison County, Kentucky, Van Kidwell settled in the Dayton area and began appearing with the Hotmud Family in the mid 1970s. As “Fiddlin” Van Kidwell he cut two LPs of old-time fiddle tunes for Vetco Records.

KINCAID, BRADLEY  (1895-1989)        
Bradley Kincaid was born in Kentucky where he learned many of the old folk songs.  He secured a job on WLS in Chicago, where he became what today we would call a superstar, singing those old folk songs on the “National Barn Dance.”  He published 13 songbooks which he sold over the air by the thousands.  He eventually moved around to different radio stations, winding up at WSM in Nashville on the “Grand Ole Opry.”  In 1950 he retired from performing and helped start radio station WWSO in Springfield, Ohio, which was later sold to a group who moved it to Dayton and changed the call letters to WAVI.  Bradley then bought Morelli’s Music Store in Springfield and changed the name to Kincaid’s after a few years.  His major contribution to bluegrass was preserving folk songs which have been used by countless bluegrass musicians over the years.  He was also instrumental in launching the careers of Grandpa Jones and Hylo Brown.

KING, NELSON (1914-1974)        
Nelson King was one of the first members of the Country DJ Hall of Fame.  In the Cincinnati area, he presided over the “WCKY Jamboree” and “Hillbilly Hit Parade” when they had their greatest popularity and were on the air for four hours every night.  At that point in time, bluegrass had not been divorced from country music, so he played bluegrass artists right along with country artists.  He was voted the top DJ in the U.S. for eight consecutive years.

LAKE, STEVE (c.1943-)      
Steve Lake promoted bluegrass and country shows at Chatauqua Park between Miamisburg and Franklin, Ohio, during the late 1960s.  These shows were on a par with shows at other country music parks around the eastern and midwestern United States and were only discontinued because the park was sold and Steve wasn’t allowed the opportunity to buy it, even though he submitted the highest bid.  After Chatauqua, he promoted the All-Ohio Bluegrass Festival at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton and bluegrass and country shows at Dayton’s Memorial Hall and other venues.  He is one of the owners of Lake Jewelry in Franklin, which for a long time has been a source for bluegrass and country records and CDs.  He is a bass player and has maintained a country band (the Swingmasters) for many years.  They backed Connie Smith and other nationally known artists, and played as the house band at various shows around the Dayton area.  He was also involved with Delbert Barker in Central Records in Middletown, and in running an Opry-type show in Middletown.

LAKE, WILBUR “RED” (    -1987)          
Red Lake founded Lake Jewelry in Franklin.  He was a true country and bluegrass fan.  At one point in time, you couldn’t go to a bluegrass or country show in this area without seeing Red and his two sons, Steve and Gary, sitting on the front row.  He eventually added records to his store inventory and made Lake Jewelry the destination for fans looking for country and bluegrass records in the Dayton/Cincinnati area.

LAUR, NANCY KATHERINE “KATIE” (1944-)       
Journalist, bluegrass singer and band leader, jazz singer, and radio broadcast personality,  Katie Laur got into professional bluegrass with the Appalachian Grass and then formed the Katie Laur Band, becoming one of the first women to lead a bluegrass band on the national festival circuit. With her recording of “T for Texas” she won acceptance for female singers on bluegrass radio and paved the way for later female band leaders such as Lynn Morris and Rhonda Vincent.  She cut three bluegrass albums for Vetco in the mid to late 1970s and a jazz album for Octev, Vetco’s sister label in 1982, and more recently, a bluegrass CD in 1997 for Jim-Bob Records.  Her first LP featured the first-ever glamour shot cover in bluegrass music. She has written for numerous Cincinnati and Ohio newspapers and magazines and co-hosts with Wayne Clyburn a long-running and popular bluegrass DJ show on WNKU, as well as being active in the Cincinnati arts community.  Katie Laur is a life member of the Board of Directors of Bgrass, Inc.
 
LaWARRE, BILL  (c.1941-)
Bill LaWarre was an advertising executive by day and bluegrass musician by night for many years around the Cincinnati area.  He played mandolin on Katie Laur’s first LP and on her most recent CD, “Main Street.”  He was a member of the Walker Street Band in the late 1970s and early 1980s with Wayne Clyburn, Mark Rader, and Joe Brashear.  He appeared on Ed Cunningham’s CD, “Bluegrass Live At the Comet,” featuring various Cincinnati artists.  In 2006 he was living and playing music in Montana.

LEACH, ROBERT       
Robert Leach was the first banjo player in the Dry Branch Fire Squad and appeared on five of their early LPs, as well as recording with Chris Montgomery on Kanawha and Dorsey Harvey on Poca River.  He has written a number of articles in “Bluegrass Unlimited” on Dayton, Ohio, area bluegrass musicians.  His article on Carlos Brock is a wonderful look at the early bluegrass history of Dayton.

LEE (SCARBOROUGH), ESTEL
Estel Lee grew up in Hamilton.  He traveled what was probably one of the vaudeville circuits with his own western band and also performed on the shows as a magician.   His influence on bluegrass began when he returned to the Cincinnati area and became involved with Lou Epstein and Jimmie Skinner.  He worked at the Jimmie Skinner Music Center and started and owned the Excellent and Arvis record labels, which recorded bluegrass, country, and gospel artists.

LEET, CHARLIE (1944-)
LEET, MARY JO (DICKMAN) (1947-)  
Mary Jo and Charlie Leet have been performing and recording in the acoustic music industry for a combined total of more than 40 years, traveling internationally as well as throughout the United States. They spent over 15 years as the rhythm core of the Dry Branch Fire Squad bluegrass band and recorded many projects with the band on Rounder Records. They have recorded two independent music projects: the recently released CD “Duet” and an early project (now on CD) “I Love Bluegrass.”  They are currently working with their local group, True Life Travelers, and a regional group, Nuance...And Old Uncles, despite their relocation to Stuart, Virginia, in 2006.

LEWIS, JESSE E.  “JOE” “CANNONBALL” “JAY CEE”  (1924-) 
Born  in Laurel County, Kentucky, Joe “Cannonball” Lewis grew up in Connersville and Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and eventually made his home in Hamilton, Ohio.  He worked the clubs in Cincinnati and secured a recording contract with MGM Records, where he attracted attention with “Train Whistle Nightmare,” in which he vocally imitated a train whistle.  An excellent country singer with a strong and expressive voice, he made eight singles for MGM.  Many of them had a strong bluegrass flavor, with instrumental leads taken by fiddle and mandolin and a five-string banjo in the background.  He wrote and recorded “Before I Met You” on Gateway, which later became a bluegrass standard when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs cut it.  He also had singles on other local labels -- Kentucky, Lucky, Lunar, and Sunrise -- but these were much more country, using electric lead and steel guitar.  He and his wife also recorded gospel music on Hamilton’s Melody label.

LEWIS, WAYNE  (1943-)     
Wayne Lewis was born in Sandy Hook, Kentucky, but moved to New Boston, Ohio, (just outside Portsmouth) when he was five years old.  Playing guitar and singing lead, he helped to form a band called the Kentuckians in the 1960s (not the same band as that headed by Red Allen & Frank Wakefield).  They played a lot of the bars in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus and recorded two singles for Jalyn Records in Dayton, as well as backing Paul Mullins on two albums.  After that band broke up, Lewis played with Ralph Stanley and with Lillimae Whitaker before joining Bill Monroe as guitar player and lead singer in 1976, a job he retained for ten years.  After leaving Monroe, he started his own booking agency and band and eventually recorded three LPs, two on Old Homestead (“Bluegrass Traditions” featured Kenny Baker playing fiddle and Bobby Osborne singing tenor) and one on Atteiram.

LILLY, MIKE (1949-)  
Mike Lilly played banjo for Larry Sparks in one of Larry’s best early bands.  He and Wendy Miller left Larry’s band and performed together for a while, making some LPs for Old Homestead.  Mike went with the Country Gentlemen for a few months before returning to Dayton.  He and Harley Allen formed the Allen-Lilly Band which was popular in the Dayton area, putting out one LP on the Folkways label.  Later, Mike formed his own band, Mike Lilly and the Country Grass, and cut an LP on Old Homestead.

LONG, “LITTLE ELLER” (see MAYHEW, ELLEN)

LOWE, BILL       
Singer and guitar player Bill Lowe was born in Pike County, Kentucky, and grew up listening to old-time country music.  After serving in the Marine Corps, he lived near Los Angeles, California, where he actively played and wrote both bluegrass and country music.  He recorded a song in the late 1950s which made the country charts titled “Foolish Heart” on Sundown Records.  In the mid-1970s, he moved to Farmersville, Ohio and became heavily involved with the thriving bluegrass community that called WYSO in Yellow Springs its home.  Bill cut a great laid-back album on Ramblin’ Records (a subsidiary of Rounder) in 1976.  He recorded at least two albums on Vandalia’s Rose Records in the late 1970s as Bill Lowe and Cripple Creek.  He and Ron Thomason put together a joint project on Gordo Records in 1987.   (Note: There is a different Bill Lowe, who recorded with the Stanley Brothers on mandolin and vocals during the early 1950s.)

LUCAS, BOB     
Bob Lucas is music director and performer with the Mad River Theater Works in West Liberty, Ohio.  He has written many songs recorded by the New Grass Revival, Alison Krauss, and other artists.  Born into a singing family tradition, Lucas is a rhythm guitarist, banjo player, old-time fiddler, and has a rich tenor voice spanning over three octaves.

LUNSFORD, RAY       
Ray Lunsford played electric mandolin with Jimmie Skinner for years.  He had a funky, instantly recognizable mandolin style.  He recorded also with Ralph Bowman and with Rondell Barker, and cut some solo instrumentals for Sage and Sand, Excellent, and Rem.

LYNCH, JACK   
Jack Lynch was the founder of Jalyn Records which issued more records by far than any other label based in Dayton, Ohio, with the highest percentage of them being bluegrass.  Jack was a familiar sight around bluegrass festivals selling records from the trunk of his Cadillac.  He played most of the bluegrass instruments and recorded as Jack Lynch and the Lee Brothers and as Jack Lynch and the Miami Valley Boys.  He was friendly with the Stanley Brothers and booked them into spots around Dayton and filled in on bass fiddle for them when they were in town and short of musicians.  In the 1980s, Jack Lynch relocated to Nashville.

MAGAHA, MACK  (1929-2003)   
Mack was the fiddle player in the classic line-up of the Reno & Smiley band.  South Carolina-born, he was a great fiddler and entertained with his dancing as he played, always with a smile on his face.  He had the idea and co-wrote with Don Reno the band’s most popular song, “I Know You’re Married But I Love You Still.”  Thought by many to be a classic cheating song, it was actually about Mack’s future wife, whom he thought had married someone else.  After nine years with Reno and Smiley, he left to join Porter Wagoner on TV in Nashville.  After Porter quit the road, Mack played at Opryland for more than 10 years and recorded several solo LPs.

MARCUM, BILL
MARCUM, DEWEY     
Working the Dayton area as the Marcum Brothers and the Stanton Mountain Boys, Bill and Dewey Marcum cut an album on Jalyn and one on Old Homestead.  Dewey later recorded an album with the Newgrass Gentlemen on Central Records of Middletown.  The two brothers had recorded an earlier single with Herman and Delbert Holt as the Kentucky Mountaineers.

MARTIN, JAMES HENRY “JIMMY” (1927-2005) 
Jimmy Martin’s brash, cocky, “in your face” style endeared him to many and alienated others, but no one could dispute his talent as a bluegrass lead singer and rhythm guitar player.  Martin’s timing was the backbone of his Sunny Mountain Boys.  Born and reared in Tennessee, he worked for Smokey Ward at WPFB in Middletown, Ohio, early in his career.  Jimmy sang lead in Smokey’s Corny Four Quartet and their version of “Who’ll Sing For Me” was even better than the version Jimmy recorded later on.  He introduced banjo legend J.D. Crowe, barely a teenager, at the time he was working in Middletown.  Jimmy was lead singer for The Blue Grass Boys during several tours of duty over four pivotal years in Bill Monroe’s career in the early 1950s.  He worked and recorded on King with Bob Osborne, and on RCA with the Osborne Brothers, before forming his own band in 1955 and securing a contract with Decca Records.  He had several Billboard chart records, the highest charting being “Rock Hearts,” at #14.  He was a member of the WWVA Jamboree and the KWKH Louisiana Hayride, and in 1995 was elected to the IBMA Hall of Honor.

MASTERS, JOHN       
Banjo player with Larry Sparks in the mid 1980s, John Masters sang baritone and played banjo on three of Larry’s Rebel albums.  He also worked with Jim McCall.

MAYHEW, ELLEN “LITTLE ELLER LONG” (1920-)      
Born in Detroit and married to Smokey Ward at the time he was at WPFB in Middletown, Ellen Mayhew was a 6’4” tall comedienne who wore braids and little girl dresses to make her look even taller.  She came to Middletown from Renfro Valley, Kentucky, where she had performed with Shorty Hobbs.

McCALL, DWIGHT     
Dwight McCall was born in Maryland but grew up in Cincinnati where his Dad, Jim McCall, was lead singer and guitar player for the Appalachian Grass.  He learned to play the mandolin and eventually began performing with Vernon “Junior” McIntyre.  He moved on to help found Union Springs, then played mandolin and sang tenor with the Country Gentlemen and later with J.D. Crowe and the New South.  In 2003 he issued his first solo CD on Lavenir Records, titled “Kentucky Peace of Mind.”

McCALL, JIM (1930-)
Jim has been a prominent bluegrass lead singer and guitar player since the 1950s.  He worked and recorded extensively with Earl Taylor in Baltimore and in Cincinnati, where the Stoney Mountain Boys were regulars at the Ken-Mill and Aunt Maudie’s.  At one time, he was part of the house band at the Ken-Mill with Paul Mullins, Bennie Birchfield, and Harley Gabbard.  That band cut several singles on Rem Records under various combinations of the members’ names.  He was part of the early Appalachian Grass, with Vernon “Junior” McIntyre and Katie Laur, which worked around Cincinnati and cut two LPs on Vetco.  Jim also cut a solo  album on Vetco and later recorded with his own band, the Walker Mountain Boys.  Jim’s son Dwight continues the family legacy with his own professional bluegrass career/

McDIVITT, RUSSELL “MAC”  (1935-)
Mac was born in Preble County, Ohio, and has been around southwestern Ohio all of his life.  His love of country and bluegrass music began with listening to the Boone County Jamboree on WLW in Cincinnati in the early 1940s.  Listening to the music gradually expanded into wanting to learn the history of the music and the people who performed it.  His knowledge of bluegrass history in the southwestern Ohio area is reflected in his work as the principal author of these Bgrass, Inc. profiles of Dayton-Cincinnati area musicians and organizations.  Mac was a DJ at WCTM and WCTM-FM in Eaton for about ten years in the 1970s and 1980s playing traditional country and bluegrass music.  In cooperation with the OKI Bluegrass Association, he featured a full half hour each week of local bluegrass records and live interviews with local bluegrass musicians. 

McINTYRE, VERNON “BOATWHISTLE”      
Boatwhistle McIntyre came to Cincinnati from Baltimore with Earl Taylor and his Stoney Mountain Boys.  He played bass and did comedy with Taylor’s bands for 35 years.  He was with Earl when the Stoney Mountain Boys became the first bluegrass outfit to play Carnegie Hall in 1959.  Wearing baggy pants, a sailor hat, and a big bow tie when he did his act, he was one of the last of the old-time bluegrass comedians.  He recorded one single on Vetco, probably in the late 1960s.

McINTYRE, VERNON JR. “JUNIOR”  (c.1945-)    
Born in Maryland, Junior McIntyre ended up in Cincinnati after playing banjo on the streets of New York City, and playing around the Middletown-Hamilton, Ohio, area with Charley Fugate and the Virginia Playboys and with the Jackson Brothers.  He played some of the bars on Vine Street in Cincinnati before getting a chance to play banjo with Earl Taylor at the Ken-Mill when Walter Hensley left to return to Baltimore.  He played there with Earl, Jim McCall, and his father, Boatwhistle McIntyre, for more than six years.  He also played with a Dayton-based group called the Easterners for a while.  He and Jim McCall eventually formed the Appalachian Grass, which became one of the best bluegrass bands to call Cincinnati home.  After he and Jim split, he kept the Appalachian Grass name and is still fronting a band with that name in 2006, playing guitar and singing lead.  In 1984, he, his wife, Kitty, and her brother purchased the Famous Old Time Music Company in Cincinnati which specializes in new, used, and collectible acoustic instruments, lessons, and repairs.  The Cincinnati location is at 6019 Vine Street.  In 2003, they opened a second location at 20322 U.S. 33 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, where they present shows and hold a bluegrass festival, in addition to their instrument business.

McKEE, JOHNNIE      
Johnnie McKee was a fiddle player who played the Dayton bars in the early 1950s along with the Brock Brothers, Red Allen, Noah Crase, and Frank Wakefield.  He was one of Red Allen’s Blue Mountain Boys, who toured Kentucky and Chicago in 1952 or 1953.  He must have liked Chicago, because he left Dayton soon after to go there, and apparently never came back. 

McLAUGHLIN, JAN   
For 25 years ending in June, 2006, Jan McLaughlin hosted the bluegrass program “Oak Street Ramble” on Miami University’s WMUB-FM in Oxford, Ohio.

McMICHEN, CLAYTON “PAPPY”  (1900-1970)   
Born in Georgia, Clayton McMichen first became famous as one of the legendary Skillet Lickers, playing old-time style fiddle. Later, with his own band, The Georgia Wildcats, he played a more modern swing-type fiddle.  McMichen recorded with the legendary Jimmie Rodgers and wrote Rodgers’ well-known “Peach Pickin’ Time In Georgia.” for Jimmie.  He was at WLW in Cincinnati in the 1930s and was an influence on the generation of fiddlers that followed him.

McREYNOLDS, JESSE  (1929-)
McREYNOLDS, JIM  (1927-2002)          
Natives of Coeburn, Virginia, Jim and Jesse McReynolds cut their teeth on the old radio circuit, playing at various stations in the south and Midwest, including WPFB in Middletown, Ohio.  At WPFB, they were billed as Jesse and James, the McReynolds Brothers.  They backed Smokey Ward on his Barrelhead Gang record and also cut ten sides for Kentucky Records in Cincinnati with Larry Roll as the Virginia Trio.  They went on to a long career recording for major record labels, becoming Grand Ole Opry members, and were inducted into the IBMA Hall of Honor.

MILHON, DANNY  (1938-    )       
Danny Milhon played resonator guitar in the Columbus and Central Ohio area from the early 1960s into the early 1990s.  An excellent musician who was in demand for recording sessions and as a band member, his membership in traveling bands was limited because he kept the same factory day job for 34 years.  He did travel for a short time with fiddler Benny Martin and singer Gene Christian.  Danny played with Sid Campbell’s Country Cutups, an early and excellent bluegrass band in the Columbus area that included Sid, Danny, Ross Branham, Bill Moore, and Chuck Cordle and sometimes John Hickman.  In the early 1960s they held forth at a bar known as Irv-Nells on North High Street in Columbus.  They were involved in recording the soundtrack for an experimental film “Football As It Is Played Today”. His name is well known around the country from his recording activities with various artists on Rural Rhythm Records.  He and Columbus musicians Jack Casey, Ross Branham, and Sid Campbell worked in various combinations backing old-time and bluegrass musicians on the label owned by Uncle Jim O’Neal in California.  The sessions were probably recorded at Jack Casey’s Rome Studios in Columbus or at Rusty York’s Jewel Studios in Cincinnati.  Some of the artists he backed in this endeavor included Hylo Brown, J.E. Mainer, Raymond Fairchild, Curly Fox, and Lee Moore.  His connection to the Dayton, Ohio area comes from his work with Red Allen and with the Allen Brothers both on record and on stage.  In 2007 he was playing with groups in Florida and with “Hayseed” in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

MILLER, WENDY         
Along with Mike Lilly, mandolin player Wendy Miller was part of one of Larry Sparks’ finest bands.  They backed Larry during the early years and later recorded four LPs on their own for Old Homestead.  Wendy was the composer of “Kentucky Chimes,” a  popular banjo and mandolin instrumental they recorded while with Larry.  Wendy also became known as a fine craftsman of hand-made mandolins.

MONTGOMERY, CHRIS      
Chris Montgomery was basically a folk singer but he got into bluegrass around Dayton after he met Neal Allen.  He played some with the Allen Brothers, Wheatstraw, and Earl Taylor.  He cut a single on Kanawha, “The Delta Queen” and “No More Honky Tonkin’” in 1976. In 1977 he worked with the Dry Branch Fire Squad and appeared on their first LP.  Later on, he went back to his first love, folk music, and cut a couple of self-produced albums in the 1980s.

MOONEY, BOB
Bob Mooney cut one single for Kentucky Records and participated with Estel Lee in the operation of the Excellent and Arvis recording labels.  His greatest contribution to local bluegrass came after he moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and founded Rem Records.  He recorded numerous bluegrass bands from the Southwestern Ohio area.

MOORE, CHARLIE (1935-1979) 
South Carolinian Charlie Moore is probably best known for his recording of  “Truck Driver’s Queen” with Bill Napier.  They cut nine albums for King in Cincinnati.  He also cut two albums on his own  for Vetco in Cincinnati and had a popular regional hit with the old folk song “Barbara Allen.”  Charlie Moore and the Dixie Partners were popular in the 1970s festival scene and made a number of albums for Old Homestead and Leather.

MOORE, THURSTON           
In the late 1940s when it was difficult to find printed information on country and bluegrass entertainers, Thurston Moore began publishing the “Hillbilly and Western Scrapbook” in Cincinnati.  It had pictures and short biographies of hillbilly stars from the local area and around the country, and was sold through radio DJs for $1.00 each.  A new scrapbook was published almost every year and eventually went through 21 editions.  He also published the “Country Music Who’s Who,” a large size hardback book which was a trade and fan publication combined.  He made two attempts at publishing “Hoedown” magazine, but it never really caught on.  He also put out stars’ birthday calendars and picture books which were sold at country music shows. For several years in the 1950s, he and his wife Georgianna owned and operated Verona Lake Ranch, a hillbilly music park near Walton, Kentucky.

MULLINS, PAUL “MOON”  (1936-)      
Born and reared in Menifee County, Kentucky, Paul Mullins came to Ohio in 1964 to take a DJ job at WPFB in Middletown.  His approach to that job has made him a bluegrass broadcasting legend.  Playing strictly bluegrass and hard country records, and using a friendly, folksy, down-home, ad-lib style of presenting his commercials endeared him not only to the transplanted southerners in the southwestern Ohio area, but also to Buckeyes who were tired of announcers who all sounded the same.  In 1995 Paul went to work for his son at Joe’s radio station, WBZI in Xenia, Ohio, and continued there until his retirement.  Being a working musician also worked to his advantage in producing concerts and staying visible within the bluegrass industry.  Primarily a fiddle player, he is also capable on guitar and mandolin.  Mullins worked off and on with the Stanley Brothers in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  In 1961 and 1962 he was a member of the Bluegrass Playboys in Kentucky where he first recorded his signature song “Katie Daley.”  He worked in the Log Cabin Boys with guitarist/singer Sid Campbell, who would later work with Paul in the Nu-Grass Pickers.  After moving to Ohio, Paul worked in the house band at the Ken-Mill in Cincinnati with Jim McCall, Bennie Birchfield, and Harley Gabbard, and they cut some singles on Rem Records.  He worked with the Valley Ramblers, the Nu-Grass Pickers, the Boys From Indiana, the Traditional Grass, and the WBZI Bluegrass Band, and also cut LPs  under his own name: one on Vetco, one on Jalyn, and a CD on Classic Country Productions.

MULLINS, WILLIAM JOSEPH “JOE”  (1965-)            
Joe Mullins is a Buckeye with a strong Kentucky heritage.  He was born in Middletown, Ohio, shortly after his dad Paul took a job as a DJ on WPFB.  Joe grew up having personal contact with most of the best of the first and second generation of bluegrass musicians.  He sings tenor and plays guitar and fiddle but his great passion is the five-string banjo.  He became one of the top banjo players in bluegrass by studying all of the masters and then putting together his own style.  With his dad, Mark Rader, and Bill Adams, he helped organize the Traditional Grass in 1983.  After they disbanded, Joe bought radio station WBZI in Xenia, Ohio, and changed its format to bluegrass and classic country.  Subsequently, he expanded coverage by leasing WKFI in Wilmington and buying WCTM in Eaton, whose call letters he changed to WEDI, and simulcasting on all three as well as streaming to the World Wide Web.  Joe was also part of the original super group, Longview, which also included Dudley Connell, Don Rigsby, Glen Duncan, Marshall Wilborn, and James King.  In 1998, Joe promoted their first public appearance at Fairborn High School and their version of “Lonesome Old Home” was the 1998 bluegrass song of the year.  He has also been involved with local groups: the Beacons, WBZI Bluegrass Band, and Joe Mullins’ Radio Ramblers.  Joe has been an active and successful promoter putting on shows at the American Legion and Conover Hall in Franklin, Fairborn High School, Xenia High School, Memorial Hall in Dayton, the Roberts Center near Wilmington, Shawnee Park and the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Island Park in Dayton, and cooperating with Cityfolk in their annual folk festival in downtown Dayton.  He is on the board of Bgrass, Inc. and has also been active as an officer in the International Bluegrass Music Association.

MURPHY, LORA          
Married to Ron Murphy, Lora Murphy was an integral part of the Muddy River Band, playing rhythm guitar and singing tenor as well as some lead.  Her part on “Body and Soul” was eerie enough to give you a chill.

MURPHY, RON (1947-)        
In the 1970s, Ron Murphy played bass in the Hagan Brothers Band and then organized his own Muddy River Band which was a little more jazzy and progressive than most of the bluegrass bands around Dayton at the time.