Melvin Goins

Melvin Goins

Turning 80 in a couple of weeks, Melvin Goins has been a professional bluegrass musician for 62 of those years. For Melvin, like many of that era, his interest in music was kindled around the family's radio.

"We didn't have electricity," he recalls of his childhood. "But we had an old battery radio and we had to listen to that old battery radio on Saturday night to hear the Grand Ole Opry. We would gather around the old fireplace ... the old oil lamps a-burning. Mommy would make some gingerbread and pop some popcorn."

One wonders if he dared imagine that he would one day appear on that very same Opry -- many times, in fact. Well, he has, making Nashville almost like a second home. And when he's not appearing there, he can still be seen fronting Windy Mountain at various bluegrass festivals.