Both versions of the collection were produced by Joe Mullins, an IBMA Award-winning musician, bandleader, broadcaster and event producer. The album is a companion piece to “Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy” (University of Illinois Press, 2021), edited by Fred Bartenstein and Curtis W. Ellison.
Bluegrass is mountain music with roots in Appalachia, but an energetic urban version of the music was developed by southern transplants in northern cities like Baltimore and Dayton beginning in the late 1940s. The book includes essays on the Appalachian migration into the urban centers of southwestern Ohio, Dayton’s bluegrass scene, Jalyn Records, the Osborne Brothers, Middletown radio station WPFB and other topics.
Contributors include Bartenstein, Mullins, Phillip J. Obermiller, Lily Isaacs and Rick Good.
Mullins, who leads the Radio Ramblers and owns Real Roots Radio based in Xenia, rebranded his twice-yearly Southern Ohio Indoor Music Festival as the Industrial Strength Bluegrass Festival in 2021. He is a second generation bluegrass musician and broadcaster, the son of musician and longtime WPFB disc jockey Paul “Moon” Mullins.
“My bluegrass journey has been a lifetime labor of love,” Mullins said. “I live six miles from the auditorium where the first bluegrass college concert was held, and where the Stanley Brothers track in the ISB vinyl set was recorded. Adding in classic bluegrass from our neighborhood was so exciting, and these older recordings connect perfectly to the songs we recorded for the 2021 release. The tunes and artists added from the past 60 plus years represent the foundation of Ohio’s bluegrass traditions; industrial strength then and now.”
The original version of the “Industrial Strength Bluegrass” album featured major country and bluegrass musicians covering songs by other roots music acts from this region. Participants included Vince Gill, the Oak Ridge Boys, Rhonda Vincent, Dan Tyminski, Leann Womack, the Grascals, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Sierra Hull and Russell Moore from Third Time Out.
The expanded collection has previously released songs by artists with local ties such as the Traditional Grass, the Hotmud Family, Dave Evans and the Boys From Indiana.
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or donthrasher100@gmail.com.
More details
Online: folkways.si.edu
Listen: “Readin’, Rightin’, Route 23″ by Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers from the album, “Industrial Strength Bluegrass”: youtube.com/watch?v=Rc087XKMGlE&list=OLAK5uy_k0zExKAb835lGZqDW7lb_hOcvvTIwfKRs&index=1
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