Melvin Goins - 50 Years of Mountain Music and Bluegrass

(Hay Holler HH-V-1004) 1999

---

This VHS tape features a superb performance from 19 July 1997 at the Carter County Shrine Club 7th Annual Bluegrass Festival in Olive Hill, Ky. Interspersed between the performances are short interview segments with Melvin talking about the early days, growing up and the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers.

The performance is one of the tightest bluegrass shows I've seen captured on video. The band's drive is palpable, and the fab interplay between the instruments provides a masterclass on trad bluegrass at it's best. The filming / editing is also impeccable with multiple cameras used to follow whichever musician is spotlighted at that moment.

The show also features a young John Rigsby on fiddle, who was with the CMB's at the time. (The liner mention that John wasn't a regular member of the Melvin's band at the time & in 1997 he was playing mandolin with CMB's.^[1])

The program was originally broadcast as part of a 'Jubilee' series on KET in 1997, and was produced/directed by H. Russell Farmer.

You can find this one on youtube.

• Melvin Goins: guitar, vocals
• Dave Bowling: bass
• John Keith: mandolin, vocals
• John McNeely: guitar, vocals
• John Rigsby: fiddle
• Dale Vanderpool: banjo

Other artwork / related images:

[1] John can be heard on James Alan Shelton's Road To Coeburn in Mar 1997; the Bill Monroe tribute The Legend Lives On: A Tribute To Bill Monroe in Apr, Clinch Mountain Country sessions between May-Dec; Steve Sparkman's Harlan County Five-String in Nov; and Ralph II's Listen To My Hammer Ring in Dec. He's also present on the live recording of a set by Ralph from 19 Sep at the 'Georgia Bluegrass JamFest', Macon, Georgia.