Many thanks to our friend Wayne Rice for sharing this interview he did in 1976 with a pre-teen Stuart Duncan.
A number of southern California bluegrass legends turn up on this recording Wayne made of one of his first editions of The Bluegrass Special, which went on to be among the longest-running bluegrass radio programs in the US, airing on San Diego’s powerhouse station, KSON.
Even at 11 years of age, Stuart was already a fiddle sensation, performing with a number of bands in the area. Geoff Stelling of Stelling Banjos fame, brought young Stuart to the studio, where he spoke with Wayne and played a few tunes. Geoff was on banjo, Ken Shea on mandolin, Mike Craig on bass, and Wayne on guitar.
Duncan, of course, is now the dean of bluegrass fiddlers, currently on tour with Alison Krauss & Union Station. It is precious to hear him on tape, surely repeating what his parents had told him, that you can’t earn a living playing fiddle, before launching into a very solid version of Soldier’s Joy.
Wayne tells us that he stumbled across this tape while preparing to dispose of some boxes of old stuff he had accumulated over the years. What good fortune that he found this before doing so!
Take a few minutes and savor this gem.
