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Exploring The History Of Country and Blugress In the Miami Valley With Russell “Mac” McDivitt

Midnight Ramble host Tom Duffee is joined in the studio by Russell “Mac” McDivitt, "a true historian of country music and bluegrass in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas" for an evening of song and conversation.

McDivett lived in Dayton his whole life, and has always followed and collected country and bluegrass music of the area despite growing up with a mother who disliked the style. His friends introduced him to the Grand Ole Opry and country music, which he now helps preserve as the principle author of Bgrass Inc's Heritage list: www.ham.miamioh.edu/bluegrass
 
Duffee and McDivett discuss the history of the music played on this week's edition of the Midnight Ramble, the artists' personal history, and the journey each artist took to become local and national stars.
 

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Tom Duffee has been playing and listening to traditional and country sounds all his life. He started playing the banjo when he was twelve. In his later teens, he started playing in public, sharing in the rich old-time and bluegrass heritage that exists in the Miami Valley. For the past 35 years, he has played in the old-time string band, the Corndrinkers. In 1971, he started programming traditional music on WYSO. With his brothers Dan and Jim, the Duffee brothers initiated a Saturday night bluegrass show as well as a morning offering, Rise When the Rooster Crows, both of which remain on WYSO to this day. Tom's wife, Linda, with whom he shares his life and his music, is a renowned fiddler in the Miami Valley area.
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