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Robert Harley (Red) Roberts
posted December 13, 2000
My story,,Well,,I got a lot of them,,right now I'm just an old cantankerious,opinionated,hardcore "REAL BLUEGRASS" know it all..But It wasn't allways so,,there was a time when I was young and innocent,,and my mom and dad would take me to round and square dances in west TEX. and north ARK. where my dad would play and sing old "hillbilly" songs,,and also play backup for the fiddle player,,,then when we moved north around 1950,,we would go to "country music parks in the southeastern PA. area,,Sleepy Hollow Ranch,,Circle A Ranch,,Ollies Dude Ranch,,New River Ranch,,and the one I liked best,Sunset Park,near Oxford, PA. Well,, I loved to hear that old country music,,and my dad pickin on his old Martin guitar that his parents gave him for Christmas back in 1938,,and it was 2 years old then,,but they said it was the only Martin guitar they could find in San Angelo,TX. in 1936,,and we all loved that old guitar,,,I use to pick on it a little,,but I knew that was dads guitar !!
I guess it was around 1955,,that I first heard of the term "Bluegrass",,it was just country,,or hillbilly music,,,but when I first started hearin Monroe,,Reno&Smiley,,Flatt&Scruggs,,Stanley Bros.,,then later Jimmy Martin,,and the Osborne Bros.,,,WELL,,that was it,,Love at first sound !!!! the sound just "TORE ME UP",,the singin,,the pickin,,the words to the songs,,every thing about it was me !!!Now,,I dont remember who the first banjo picker was I ever saw up close,,It might have been Howard Powers,at Sunset Park,,but I do remember that that banjo was the most beautifull thing I had ever seen or heard in my life !!!And I knew that I had to have one,,,I didn't know if I would ever play one.
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