Happy Birthday Duffey

[re simmers]

77 years. It would be hard to imagine John Duffey at 77. He left us when he still had the teenager enthusiasm on stage. He was the bluegrass version of Johnny Carson, quick, funny, and current.

I'll have to listen to some Duffey. Didn't he record "Some Ol Day" w/the Gents? That's running through my mind. I'll search through my cd's & wax. I don't have any 8 tracks. ***Found it on the Rebel Box Set.

Does anyone know if Duffey ever recorded anything w/John Cowan?

Bob

[jim simpson]

Yes, Happy Birthday John!
I didn't realize what a big guy John was till I had my photo taken with him. This was taken at the Catskills "In The Pines" indoor winter bluegrass series that used to occur in the 90's.

[Willie Poole]

Bob, I don`t know if John recorded with J. Cowen or not, don`t recall him ever mentioning it and I have never heard anything with the two of them...I`m like you, I idn`t realize he was as old as that...I knew John for many years and its funny I never knew his age, I just assumed he was younger than me, and I`m not 77 yet...

Willie

[Rick Albertson]

I've posted this before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdBpBehEAJ0

A birthday present from John to us...

[Willie Poole]

I`ve heard it said that when Duffey asked Dudley Connell to join the Seldom Scene that Dudley said he would love to if John would get real serious about his playing, it was something different for John because he wasn`t serious about too many things, one thing he was serious about was his duckpin bowling, he was pretty good at it too....

Willie

[RB250]

John was the greatest!!!! Remeber when I saw the Scene at the Old Town School in Chicago. A drunk heckler was giving John hell and he just smiled, joked and kept on playing. And yes, he was a big guy. I wanted to slug the Heckler but I kept my cool. After all, it was Chicago!
RB250

[re simmers]

Jim,

That's a great picture. Duffey looks like a hit man for the Tony Soprano.

Bob

[Willie Poole]

Looks like he is still in his pajama pants.....

[Mandolin Cafe]

Happy birthday, John Duffey.

[fscotte]

Haunting voice, immediately recognizable.

[Timbofood]

I'll be playing "The Rebel Years" this weekend, I think!

[Gary Hedrick]

There is a thread about double stops.....one of the masters of using doubles and triples was John .....I can still remember the first time I saw him at Wittenburg Auditorium at Indiana University in the early 60's......man what a paradigm shift from my diet of Bill's mandolin playing!!!!!

As one listens to his playing....the breaks....the kickoffs a lot of genius in that playing.....not always serious but always entertaining.

He never let off on the "Acid Grass" comments about the Great God Mandolinus".......sacrilege for the time in the 60's

[Timbofood]

Good post Gary!

[Mandoplumb]

Don't know what y'all mean by serious about his playing. If you mean always slick precise smooth noting thank God he wasn't serious. I don't know many mandolin players that can get what HD could out of a mandolin. One of my favorites and he seemed to always be having fun playing.

[Timbofood]

I wish I had a millionth the grasp of "style" Mr. Duffey had... well, maybe not fashion sense though.
Listen to how his style "shifted" over time, the guy was a man unto himself. I was lucky enough to meet him a couple of times, always nice enough to me but, I understand that was not always the case.
What a guy!