John Hartford
John Hartford was a fiddle-and-banjo eccentric whose catalog sits at the hinge point between traditional old-time music and progressive newgrass. Trained on the Mississippi River and the streets of St. Louis, he built a commercially successful Nashville songwriting career, then used that income to finance an uncompromisingly traditional late period devoted to steamboats, fiddle tunes, and clawhammer banjo.
- “Gentle on My Mind” (1967) won four Grammys and became one of the most-covered songs in country music history, recorded by Glen Campbell, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Aretha Franklin, and hundreds of others — generating royalties that funded the rest of Hartford's career.
- Early RCA albums Earthwords & Music (1967), The Love Album (1968), and Iron Mountain Depot (1970) mixed country-pop with increasingly idiosyncratic arrangements.
- Aereo-Plain (Warner Bros., 1971) — with Vassar Clements, Norman Blake, and Tut Taylor — is often cited as the album that launched newgrass. Sam Bush called the Aereo-Plain band “the way we heard bluegrass could be played.”
- Morning Bugle (1972) with Dave Holland and Norman Blake continued the progressive acoustic exploration.
- Moved to Flying Fish Records in 1976 and recorded a long string of traditional-leaning albums: Mark Twang (1976, Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording), Nobody Knows What You Do (1976), All in the Name of Love (1977), Headin' Down Into the Mystery Below (1978), and the influential Gum Tree Canoe (1984).
- Licensed Mississippi River steamboat pilot; his river period produced Annual Waltz (1986), Down on the River (1989), and The Walnut Valley Spring Thaw.
- Solo performances featured his signature act: clawhammer banjo, fiddle, and buck-dancing on an amplified plywood sheet, often alone on stage.
- Late-career traditional fiddle focus produced Wild Hog in the Red Brush (1996), Hamilton Ironworks (2001), and the posthumous Memoir of a Saturday Night.
- Won a Grammy for his work on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack (2000); performed in the film as an Appalachian fiddler.
- Self-published Steamboat in a Cornfield (1986) and compiled The Devil's Box, a near-exhaustive fiddle-tune collection. Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the 1980s; kept touring and recording until his death in 2001.
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John HartfordPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Roy Huskey Jr.Played on recordings with John Hartford
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"Cowboy" Jack ClementPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Junior HuskeyPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Mark HowardPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Randy ScruggsPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Norman BlakePlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Robert Arthur "Tut" TaylorPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Vassar ClementsPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Benny MartinPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Mike ComptonPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Ronnie McCouryPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Sam BushPlayed on recordings with John Hartford
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Bob CarlinPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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Jerry McCouryPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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Jimmy ColvardPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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John YudkinPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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Jonathan YudkinPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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Mac WisemanPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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Mark O'ConnorPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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Ruth McGinnisPlayed on recording with John Hartford
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Todd PhillipsPlayed on recording with John Hartford