Earl Thomas Conley dead at 77

Earl Thomas Conley dead at 77, remembered by close friend Blake Shelton: 'My heart is absolutely destroyed'

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/earl-thomas-conley-dead-blake-shelton-absolutely-destroyed

How sad. It's always so unfortunate when someone passes.

Some of the bands I was in covered a number of his tunes..... great country singer.

Bob,

I just learned that Dr. John Starling of Seldom Scene fame has also recently died. I don't have the details but the article said that John was the son of the banjo player, Ben Eldridge of the Scene.

I know that you love Bluegrass and will appreciate this heads up.

IIRC, Ben is the only one left from the original group and his health is waning too.

Tony Rice' wife emailed me asking for positive thoughts for Tony. I saw the video of Tony being inducted into The Bluegrass Hall Of Fame and he was as mute as me.

Mac Wiseman, the Bluegrass tenor, died in February at the age of 93.

I'm depressing myself.

Donny

Don,

Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't heard.

We've lost a lot of the pioneers of bluegrass and roots music the last couple of years.

I guess we can take solace in the fact that more young people are taking up where the legends left off and are not only keeping the music alive but growing the genre.

Originally Posted By: Don Gaynor

Bob,

I just learned that Dr. John Starling of Seldom Scene fame has also recently died. I don't have the details but the article said that John was the son of the banjo player, Ben Eldridge of the Scene.

I know that you love Bluegrass and will appreciate this heads up.

IIRC, Ben is the only one left from the original group and his health is waning too.

Tony Rice' wife emailed me asking for positive thoughts for Tony. I saw the video of Tony being inducted into The Bluegrass Hall Of Fame and he was as mute as me.

Mac Wiseman, the Bluegrass tenor, died in February at the age of 93.

I'm depressing myself.

Donny

John was 79. Ben is 77. They were both founding members in 1971. I spent a lot of time off and on with them. All of them and, in particular, Mike Auldridge, were great guys.

Bud

B&J, I was a very close friend of Mike Auldridge for over 60 years. We were co-developing the ultimate resonating guitar. He was a prince of a man. When I told him that a member of these forums and devoted fan had terminal cancer, he sent a couple of previously unreleased tracks that were loved and treasured right up to his death. I'm having difficulty remembering the PGer's name but he was a great PSG player and added some fabulous PSG to mine and many other's songs.

Hopefully, someone will remind us.

Originally Posted By: bobcflatpicker

Don,

Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't heard.

We've lost a lot of the pioneers of bluegrass and roots music the last couple of years.

I guess we can take solace in the fact that more young people are taking up where the legends left off and are not only keeping the music alive but growing the genre.

Bluegrass Flatpicking champion, Molly Tuttle (who you turned me on to) has agreed to contribute to my memorial album project due to be released soon.