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BenE
Feb-17-2004, 1:34pm
I have been listening to a bunch of old taped Seldom Scene shows and for my money I have to say that.....

John Duffey was the best entertainer bluegrass has ever seen.
He was a very inventive mandolin player....
He could put a heckler in their place ...no problem...
He had great stage patter....
What a tenor voice!....does not get much better than Duffey's voice!
He was a great friend....Sam Bush told me than when he had cancer and was in the hospital Duffey would call him everyday to talk about baseball....

Duffey is my man...Who’s yours

GVD
Feb-17-2004, 1:58pm
Count me in as a big Duffy fan.

GVD

Moose
Feb-17-2004, 2:23pm
Yep!! RIP JOHN..., and thanks for the great music - and memories. There surely is a big "session" going on somewhere... up there.. someplace. I'd love to just "lurk", listen.., and watch. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

John Rosett
Feb-17-2004, 2:31pm
do you think duffey and bill are still fighting over who gets to sing tenor?
john

BenE
Feb-17-2004, 2:50pm
I think Duffey would pull Bill's Stetson off his head and cover Bill's mouth with it in order to get those high parts all to himself! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Moose
Feb-17-2004, 2:52pm
That(!) picture of John and Monroe - on stage - w. John putting his hand over Bill's mouth(if you've seen THAT pic.!!) - is " a CLASSIC!! - I believe Tom Ewing or someone said that "...only John Duffy could have EVER gotten away with THAT.."!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

BenE
Feb-17-2004, 3:04pm
Yes Moose! Great photo....
I love the discription of Duffey in the Bill Monroe bio....Something to the effect that Duffey was a larger than life mandolin player with a ego to match....in a genre of music that already had one player that fit that discription! It also went on to talk about the time Bill was hanging out backstage and hid just before the Seldom Scene came off stage and he jumped out and grabbed Duffey in a bear hug and picked him off the ground...and Duffey was yelling "someone get this madman off of me"! Priceless!

mandomood
Feb-18-2004, 12:00am
my dad took me to many seldom scene shows at a local high school auditorium as a kid . Every year he'd remember me and how I'd grown. Just a really cool guy to a kid who didn't know much about bluegrass.

My memories will always be filled with that voice and the goofball he could be on stage...

he's missed for sure and what a great chop he had.....

Moose
Feb-18-2004, 10:39am
Mandomood : Thanks for sharing that.. ; when folks remember you with that "affection".., you've "left your mark" and accomplished something of what you came here...to do. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

levin4now
Feb-18-2004, 11:59am
BenE,

Not familiar with John Duffey yet. Who had cancer - John or Sam Bush?

BenE
Feb-18-2004, 12:13pm
Sam had cancer...
John was the mandolin player/singer for the Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene.

Km1000seth
Feb-18-2004, 7:57pm
Im sorry but I have to disagree with all of you guys. I think The best is Wayne Benson.
Although my favorites are Compton and Mccoury. but if you ever hear "thanks a lot" by IIIrd tyme out, you'll know what I mean

troika
Feb-18-2004, 9:42pm
Adam Steffey and Shawn Lane are right up there. No matter how fast (or Slowly) they play, every note just blooms like a jewel. There's none of that "pick on a chain link fence" sound that some people(including me) get when they kick it up. How do they do that?

Feb-18-2004, 9:44pm
Monroe for me..

Scotti Adams
Feb-18-2004, 9:54pm
..ok..if I was stranded on a deserted island and I found out it had another inhabitant on it and he played mandolin I would hope it would be Sammy and Hoss....after pondering this question for a couple of days thats the name I keep coming back to.....just face it...the man can flat out get it done....any style...any tune.....and that tone...gawd....thats to die for....that kick off to "I Hope You Have Learned" T. Rices Manzanita Lp should be required learning..Im gettin goose bumps right now just thinking about it......besides that...when we wasnt playing our mandos we could grab a coconut and a bamboo shoot and play some baseball.... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

pathfinder
Feb-19-2004, 2:01am
Gotta go with John Duffey. #He was the complete entertainment package (vocals, MC, comedian and mandolin instrumentals).

It's hard to imagine him turning 70 in a couple of weeks. #He was born March 4, 1934.

mandoJeremy
Feb-19-2004, 3:00am
I've got to go with Scotti on this one too, Sam Bush! Man, what tone and no one will ever have that no matter how many notes they can hit!!! I also agree that the whole Manzanita album should be essential learning. I do also agree (with a 2nd and not 1st) with km1000seth that Wayne is also best. He is a friend of mine and he can rip it, all you have to do is sit up with him late at night and see that he has studied everyone. He can play anything from Monroe, Grisman, to Bush. Bush was his main hero as well as Monroe but if you guys listened to some of the live recordings I have of him from his young days at fiddlers conventions in NC and starting with LiveWire you would see the major Bush influence even though he plays much more traditional now!

Bradley
Feb-19-2004, 3:57am
I'll have to chime in with a vote for Adam "the diamond cutter" Steffey....

Then after that vote there would be names of Compton,McCoury,Harvey and Lawson...

One day soon I feel Leftwich will join that list as well.

AussieRoger
Feb-19-2004, 5:09am
Mr Christopher Thile, of course! He's the greatest player to ever pick up the instrument, as far as I'm concerned. Mike Marshall is a close second, followed by Sam Bush.

8ch(pl)
Feb-19-2004, 5:41am
In posting this I will be showing the complete ignorance of Bluegrass music that I had in my callow youth.

In May of 1973 my wife and her family took a 13 day bus tour from Nova Scotia to Nashville where we attended the Opry at the Ryman Auditorium.

A lot of my favorite country artists were there and there was a Bluegrass group whose name I forgot, as well as Lonzo and Oscar who I remembered from their song "I'm My Own Grandpa". The bluegrass group had a 14 year old kid who played a phenominal mandolin and sang "There's a Bluebird Singing in the Blueridge Mountains" I was not much in to Bluegrass and did not remember the names of the performers.

I started playing mandolin 16 years later when I was 40. I remember telling another fellow about the trip and the Opry . He asked me who was there I said Stonewall Jackson, Wilmalee and Stoney Cooper, an unexpected drop by visit by Roger Miller and some others. I meantioned the Bluegrass group and the young fellow but he did not guess who it was.

A few months ago I found the programm, it was Bill Monroe and the young fellow was....not meantioned of course but could only have been Ricky Scaggs, 14 in 1973.

AlanN
Feb-19-2004, 5:50am
I thought Skaggs was born in 1954.

Too many important stylists out there to, like the Lay's potato chip, pick "just one".

f5joe
Feb-19-2004, 5:51am
I believe Ricky was about 17 in 1973. Anyway, that's what he told me at the James Monroe Festival in Cosby, TN that year. It was my first BG festival. I blame f5journal for this affliction.

I have too many favorites to pick one beyond Big Mon.

straight-a
Feb-19-2004, 8:04am
This is a great topic albeit a difficult one. I would have to call a draw between Duffy and Bush for the following reasons:

Duffy-Entertainer, tenor, personality, emcee, first class.

Bush-Picker, lead singer, showman, personality, first class.

If they were on opposite sides of the street, I would miss both shows trying to decide.

BenE
Feb-19-2004, 11:00am
Thanks for all the replies thus far....

I don't think that Duffey was the best picker to ever pick up a mandolin, but if you consider how well rounded he was as an entertainer as well as a player I think he comes out on top in my book. I love Sam but he sort of has the same stage patter from town to town....How many times have you heard him ask "Who has been here all four days of the festival?" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

I really like Monroe but he certainly didn't have the best stage personality! He seemed sort of gruff on stage....all business....Like "We've been driving all night to get here and the Bluegrass Boy's sure are tired but their ready to pick for you! Yes sir...Yes sir"

Maybe Willie will chime in with a Duffey story http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

f5joe
Feb-19-2004, 11:32am
Here's one: #I sat down with Big John at intermission at the Birchmere in '81. #I asked when he would put out a lesson book or tabs on his tunes. #He told me he wasn't good enough. #He said: #"I try to play like Monroe, but can't, I just do my best". #I'll never forget it. #What a wonderful performer.

Now Monroe, I loved his presence. #He knew his position and behaved accordingly to me. #He had a great sense of humor and loved to tease the guys in the band.

Km1000seth
Feb-20-2004, 5:27pm
jeromy,
you know wayne? you got to let me meet him

bill3354
Feb-20-2004, 6:53pm
I have to go with Mr. Duffey on this one. Saw him many times at the Birchmere. Great all around entertainer.
Over the top on his mandolin breaks and vocals. I guess my signature says it all.

Km1000seth
Feb-20-2004, 10:31pm
i have to apologize, the mandolin player on "thanks A lot" was not wayne benson, it was alan bibey.