Buzz Busby: Father of Washington, DC, Bluegrass (Music in American Life)

Buzz Busby’s move to Washington, D.C., in 1951 helped launch bluegrass in the nation’s capital while the intensity of his mandolin playing drew raves for its unrelenting pace and innovative style. His high lonesome singing rivaled that of Bill Monroe. Kip Lornell and Tom Mindte draw on interviews and some fifty hours of Busby speaking about his life to tell the story of a largely forgotten bluegrass virtuoso. Busby and his band the Bayou Boys stood front and center on a mid-1950s D.C.-area TV show that, though short-lived, catalyzed the formation of the city’s bluegrass community. Time with the Louisiana Hayride and classic if little-heard bluegrass sides like “Lonesome Wind” seemed to promise a bright future. But a devastating car wreck and a host of legal and personal troubles triggered a long decline into drug and alcohol abuse that undermined Busby’s career and led him to sum up, “I started at the top and diligently worked my way to the bottom.” Entertaining and vivid, Buzz Busby tells the story of a musician’s musician and his hardscrabble life in bluegrass. Read more