Jim Connor reports that, on March 3, 2018, he became a member of the Alabama Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. I am humbled and a bit stunned by my selection as I’ve always played a wide variety of folk, country and “olde-tyme” ethnic and mountain music, as well as the classic Bluegrass repertoire, but I usually play the “olde-tyme” rapping style on the 5-string banjo and not the well-known Bluegrass 3- finger picking style developed by Earl Scruggs. I may be the first of the “olde-tyme” (pre-Bluegrass) musicians to be elected into a Bluegrass music hall of fame (as well as first from H.C. ’60! Eh?). To be inducted into the Alabama Bluegrass Hall of Fame is an honor I wish to share with all my classmates (and many others at Harvard and Radcliffe, as well as Wellesley and M.I.T. …. Man! didn’t we have fun!!!), for I received much encouragement in my music pursuits while I was a student in Cambridge. Matter of fact, as soon as I finished my college studies – Harvard ’60, West Alabama U. ’61, Birmingham-Southern Coll. ’62 – I hit the road pickin’ & grinnin’ and composing (my hit song “Grandma’s Feather Bed” recorded by friend John Denver) and -- so-far -- never looked back!! Cheers to all of ’60 and blessings to you all!
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