| National Thumbpicker’s
Hall of Fame
A few of us OFGC (and, other club members) spent the weekend of Sept
23 – 25 down in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky – the birthplace of
thumb pickin’ guitar music. Friday afternoon and evening were
performances, and presentations of awards into the National Thumbpicker’s
Hall of Fame. The following is the list of inductions:
Living Thumb Picker: Tommy Flint
Supporting Musician: Joe Maphis
Deceased Thumb Picker: Lenny Breau, John Melvin Travis, Charles
Chickenhawk Murphy, and Alice DeArmond Jones.
Supporting, Non Musician: John and Marlyn Kirtley, and Dave Stewart.
Thumbpicking Album of the Year: Tommy Flint
Thumbpicker of the Year: Paul Moseley.
Horizon Award: Tim Bowers.
Presidents Award: Mr and Mrs Whiffle Durall, and, Mr and Mrs Paul
Jarvis.
Special Recognition: Sen. Ted Stevens, Alaska.
Saturday was the Pickin’ Contest that a brilliant Roger Hardin from
Murfreesboro, Tenn won, and our own Dave Duncan came in 4th place
(should have been higher because he and Roger were the only two true
thumbpickers in the thang.) Our good friend, Scott Taylor from
Lexington, KY came in 2nd - again, and Kyle Reader came in 3rd.
(We're going to have to get Scott to come back up here and play for us
again real soon. He knows a bunch of Tommy Emmanuel tunes and he's
really entertaining to watch play.)
Saturday night was a concert held in the middle
of "downtown" Central City, KY
and the contest presentations. Lot’s of talent played on stage
including one of my favorites, Paul Moseley – finishing up with a fabulous
father/son team of Eddie and Alonzo Pennington - on twin fiddles no
less. (What a nice kid that Alonzo is. Cannonball can be
real proud of what he's raised, and us older thumb pickers can rest
assured that our sport is going to last at least another generation.)
Then, Sunday we all drove "awhile" south of Muhlenberg County to Eddie
Pennington’s rural hideaway for his annual Goat Ropin’ festival. He’s
built a little stage out in the middle of nowhere – and, all day and
evening one act after another gets up on it and entertains – including
Eddie himself and Billy Grammer. Opening for everybody was our own Chris
Vickers and Dave Duncan… Me? Oh, I know when to and when NOT to play….
(A couple nice folks came up to me and said, "Hey, Parmer – you
haven’t played for us at all this weekend. What’s up?" I retorted,
"Oh, I’ve played – you just weren’t where I waz a playin’.")
(It was pretty easy to find.... He must know
the gov...8^)
The highlight for me of every visit to Muhlenberg County is the late night
jams back at the Convention Center Inn after all the official hoopla is
over. The staff at the motel is very gracious in allowing us to use one
of their conference rooms. And, the likes of Paul Moseley, Eddie
Pennington, Maurice Jones, Tommy Owens show up to jam with us until the
wee hours of the morning.
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