BLUEGRASS_NEWS_LETTER DECEMBER 2005

This year should be taking us, for the first time in years, to Tennessee. Stay tuned.

The Frank Wakefield Band

--- 2006 ---

** Friday March 3, 2006, 8:00 pm **
The Freight & Salvage Coffee House
Berkeley, California

Help us by posting our Show Poster PDF

** Friday March 4-6 2006 **

3 days for 3 students intensive mando study

> SOLD OUT <
Frank Wakefield's Mandolin Campover
California

** Friday March 10, 2006, 7:30 pm **

The Performing Arts Center
16th & Franklin
Clatsop Community College
also: Saddle Mountain Station

Astoria, Oregon

For show or ticket info call

503-338-2734 or

Click here to email:

Help us by posting our Show Poster PDF

** Saturday March 11, 2006, 10:00 pm **
The Goodfoot

also: Jeff Smith & Co (formerly of Sam Hill)
2845 SE Stark,

Portland, Oregon

503-239-9292

Help us by posting our Show Poster 8.5 x 11 PDF

or the larger Show Poster 11 x 17 PDF

Much More To Come...

It seems that some organizations cannot resist taking photos from my web site and

posting them on their own web sites without asking. I had to start digitally encrypting them.

With Candlewater.com on the photos at least I will get some advertising out of it.

Below are photos of some great Bluegrass Boys which I was able to photograph in 1973.

Joe Stuart who played guitar, fiddle, bass, banjo, and yes even mandolin in the Bluegrass Boys. He played mandolin in the band when Bill Monroe was recovering from the band car crash. Next, Jack Hicks developed the chromatic sound in the Bluegrass Boys in the early 1970s. Jack also plays fiddle, bass (with Lester Flatt in fact) and probably pedal steel and I would doubt that the list stops there. Tex Logan although never a full time Bluegrass Boy, was/is a fiddler who played with the band and in many bands but, he is most famous for writing Christmas Times a Coming. Tex was mostly busy inventing things at Bell Labs. Tex was also famous for having the Thursday Bean Day at Bean Blossom.

Bob Fowler played in the Bluegrass Boys for a short while. Bob and his wife Ingrid had a band in SF and was the first or one of the first bands to play at Paul's Saloon in San Francisco, the hub for Bluegrass in the 70s and 80s. In addition to playing with the Stanley Brothers in the 1950s and the Boys from Indiana after that, Paul Mullins was a famous traditional Bluegrass DJ on WPFB in Middletown Ohio and up until recently the Bluegrass DJ on WBZI in Xenia, OH.

Left to Right: Jack Hicks, Jimmy Giles, Tex Logan, Bob Fowler, Guy Stevens (bass)

Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival (1973)
Photo by Jim Moss

Copyright Jim Moss

Left to Right: Rosebud (bass), Paul Mullins, Jack Hicks, Joe Stuart, ?.

These guys were standing about 50 feet where Jim Peva had his camp. What ended Jack's

part in this jam and allowed for Bob Black to wander into the jam was the Bluegrass Boys

hitting the stage without Jack. I remember clearly Joe Stuart saying to Jack, "There they go!"

"Man, you have probably already been replaced."

"That's the way he is you know?" referring to Bill Monroe.

Joe was not joking either, nor was this taken as a joke by Jack.

Jack, with a very worried look on his face, ran off toward the stage at that point.

Listen to Joe Stuart with Joe Meadows in a 1957 jam.

Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival (1973)
Photo by Jim Moss

Copyright Jim Moss

Left to Right: Rosebud (bass), Paul Mullins, Jack Hicks, Joe Stuart, ?.

Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival (1973)
Photo by Jim Moss

Copyright Jim Moss

Left to Right: Joe Stuart, Rosebud, Jack Hicks, Billy Womack

(Billy Womack was from Chattanooga, TN.. Played with Ed Brown, probably

on "Magnum Banjo" LP. He was a barber. Paul Cox)

Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival (1973)
Photo by Jim Moss

Copyright Jim Moss

Left to Right: Jack Hicks, Joe Stuart, ?, Paul Mullins

Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival (1973)
Photo by Jim Moss

Copyright Jim Moss

Left to Right: Sharon White, Jack Hicks, Frank Beech?, Harold Cox?, ? (HELP?)

Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival (1973)
Photo by Jim Moss

Copyright Jim Moss

Left to Right: ?, ?, Billy Womack, ?, ? (HELP?)

This was the first jam I entered when first arriving at Bean Blossom back in 1973.

I found these guys at the back of the park playing a sort of Hillbilly Russian Roulette.

Here is the scoop on what you are looking at, the fiddle is coming apart at the

tailpiece. The fiddle is going out of tune because of the stretching of the glue that

is holding in the block at the bottom of this fiddle. SO, there are standing around

just out of view fiddlers who are taking turns playing this fiddle of which I was one.

It went like this... Each fiddler knowing that someone would get their face smacked

by an exploding fiddle would take a gulp of whisky and then play a tune on the fiddle.

This went on for a few hours, each fiddler needing to retune the fiddle back up

to pitch before playing a tune. I stuck around for 4 tunes and 4 gulps of whiskey.

I figured I was pushing my luck after that point. I don't know what happened

to the fiddle after this as I left to look around the park.

Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival (1973)
Photo by Jim Moss

Copyright Jim Moss

FWB: Frank Wakefield, Jim Moss, James Lewin

2005 Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

FWB: Frank Wakefield, Jim Moss, James Lewin

(Notice the great DAT mics)

2005 Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

Photos by Derrick Reed

Copyright Jim Moss

Here are some very cool photos. Frank made his private photo collection available

for display at his the web site. We call it Frank Wakefield's Private Photo Collection.