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LISTEN: Bluegrass musician Katie Laur on her new memoir, Red Dirt Girl

Katie Laur's new memoir, Red Dirt Girl: Essays and Stories
Orange Frazier Press
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https://www.orangefrazer.com/store/red-dirt-girl-essays-and-stories
Katie Laur's new memoir, Red Dirt Girl: Essays and Stories

On A Country Ramble, host Tom Duffee spoke with Katie Laur about her new collection of essays, Red Dirt Girl: Essays and Stories. The book reflects on Laur’s childhood in Paris, Tennessee, and her life as a bluegrass musician. It also highlights many of the family members, friends, and unusual characters she has known over the years. In the interview, Laur talks with Tom Duffee about how the book was written, and recounts stories from her from her youth and time as a performing musician. Also on the show is guest Oakly Scott, with whom Laur hosted the show Music From The Hills of Home on WNKU.

Katie Laur’s new book, Red Dirt Girl: Essays and Stories, is available in softcover from Orange Frazer Press.

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.
Peter Day writes and produces stories for WYSO’s music department. His works include a feature about Dayton's premiere Silent Disco and a profile of British rapper Little Simz. He also assists with station operations and serves as fill-in host for Behind the Groove. Peter began interning at WYSO in 2019 and, in his spare time while earning his anthropology degree, he served as program director for Yale University’s student radio station, WYBC.