Tradition!

l. to r.: Evan McGregor, Adam McIntosh, Joe Mullins, Tim Kidd,
Mike Terry

As a member of the Traditional Grass, Joe Mullins performed on the same stage with the likes of Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. Now, with the Radio Ramblers, he carries the torch originally lit by those luminaries.

The Traditional Grass broke up shortly before my passion for this music was kindled in the mid-1990s, so I never got the chance to see the band live (though I have practically worn out its fine recordings, especially the flat-out awesome 10th Anniversary Collection).

But I intend (Lord willing and the creek don't rise) to make up for that lack in my bluegrass experience by seeing Joe and the Ramblers twice this summer -- at Bean Blossom in June and at Rockome Gardens in August.

May

Who are these traditional pickers?

This group, led by the banjo man in the middle, toured extensively last year -- 35,000 miles in 20 states. And it plans to do the same this year, including stops at Bean Blossom and Rockome Gardens (both of which I plan to attend).

This banjoist is well known in bluegrass circles, having gotten his start in Nashville back in the 1980s with the Traditional Grass, a band that also included his father and the late Gerald Evans Jr. With his new mates, he has released two CDs on Rebel Records, continuing in the same traditional vein, the way, says one Nashville DJ, "God and Bill Monroe intended bluegrass to be played."

The boys are pictured here in front of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, where the music got its start in the 1940s.

Significant May dates in bluegrass history

• 2nd: Roy Lee Centers, lead singer with the Clinch Mountain Boys, died (1974)
• 9th: Keith Whitley, former lead singer with the Clinch Mountain Boys, died (1989)
• 10th: "Mother Maybelle" Carter was born (1909)
• 11th: Lester Flatt died (1979)
• 14th: Jimmy Martin died (2005)
• 17th: Red Smiley, half of the popular duo Reno & Smiley, was born (1925)
• 26th: Rob Ickes, dobro player for Blue Highway, was born (1967)
• 28th: Jerry Douglas, dobro player for the rest of the planet, was born (1956)