Don Stover

Recording Artist · Active 1972–1996 · Ameagle · Also a musician
Classic Bluegrass

Don Stover was a West Virginia-born banjoist whose move to Boston in 1952 with Bea and Everett Lilly — the band that became the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover — introduced bluegrass to New England audiences and made Stover an enduring figure in the music's geographic spread.

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  • Born March 6, 1928 in Ameagle, Raleigh County, West Virginia; learned banjo from his mother.
  • Worked as a coal miner while playing part-time with the Coal River Valley Boys alongside fiddler Tex Logan in the late 1940s.
  • Joined Bea and Everett Lilly in 1952, moving to Boston where the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover introduced bluegrass to New England audiences.
  • Recorded with Bill Monroe in 1957, contributing to roughly 11 sides including a remake of "Molly and Tenbrooks."
  • Toured with the Lilly Brothers to the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics festival.
  • Led his own band, the White Oak Mountain Boys, drawn largely from the New England bluegrass scene.
  • Inducted into the Massachusetts Country Music Hall of Fame (1987), the IBMA Hall of Fame (2002), and the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame (2008).
  • Died November 11, 1996 in Brandywine, Maryland.

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