Monday, July 15, 2013

84 Years Young

Jesse McReynolds
Jesse McReynolds turned 84 last week, but he's still a-pickin' and a-grinnin', as evidenced by the mandolin workshop he gave at Bean Blossom last month -- attended by yours truly.

His older brother, Jim, with whom he performed for half a century, died in 2002 at age 75. After their brief foray into country music, they recorded such bluegrass standards as "Sweet Little Miss Blue Eyes," "I Wish You Knew," "Hard Hearted," and "Pardon Me."

In the mid-1990s, the duo was a regular at Terry Lease's midwestern festivals, where I saw them perform many times (the first being at Quincy, Illinois, in 1996).

These days, Jesse doesn't travel near as much and tends to stay pretty close to his home base in Nashville. He is pictured above at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Music Valley Drive in the Music City.

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