Click for Old Joe Clark Obituary

Bluegrass Now magazine recently hosted the 1st Annual Bluegrass Now Fan’s Choice Awards in Nashville. These awards were presented solely on the basis of a fan mail-in vote conducted in stages over the past several months. Ballots were made available to Bluegrass Now subscribers and to the public at large.

It seems that the event received very little “industry” support in Nashville, was largely ignored by the local and music press and was somewhat sparsely attended (400 people or so). There are rumours that Bluegrass Now is hoping to push the IBMA to move their awards show to Nashville.

The Winners were:

• Baritone Vocal: Sonny Osborne
• Tenor Vocal: Russell Moore
• Bass Vocal: Ray Deaton
• Male Vocalist - Russell Moore
• Female Vocalist - Lynn Morris
• Song: I'm Working On the Road to Gloryland
• Banjo: Scott Vestal Dobro: Gene Wooten
• Guitar: Doc Watson Bass: Marshall Wilborn
• Fiddle: Rickie Simpkins Mandolin: Wayne Benson
• Recorded Event of the Year:- Drawing From the Well - (Reno Bros & guests)
• Album: Living on the Other Side (IIIrd Time Out)
• Gospel Recording: Kept & Protected (Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver)
• Emerging Artist:- Blue Highway
• Vocal Group: IIIrd Time Out
• Instrumental Group: IIIrd Time Outt
• Entertainer of the Year: Rarely Herd

YOU’VE HEARD THE SONG - but what about the man?

A Nashville paper reported recently that, in February ,Manuel Dewey Clark, Jr. (Old Joe Clark) died at the age of 75 in Richmond, KY. The article called him a “hillbilly humorist and spirited banjo player who performed at the Renfro Valley Barn Dance for the past 50 years.” In recent years, he had a banjo and comedy act there with his son Terry, and helped host a yearly Old Joe Clark Blue Grass Festival. He usually wore a vest covered with badges and pins given to him by fans.

The article goes on to say that Clark was one of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys for a time. He also played on the Grand Ole Opry and appeared in several movies.

Clark was born Aug. 6, 1922, in Erwin, TN. In the sixth grade he and friends formed a band called Speedy Clark and the Prairie Cowboys. They won an amateur music contest and an appearance on Cliff Carlisle’s radio program on WWNC in Ashville, NC. Later, the band traded a banjo for a radio transmitter and began its own broadcasts from an old chicken house in Erwin.

Old Joe Clark sounds like he was quite a character.

Bill Watson, Springfield, Nashville, TN.  (watson@cms.net-serv.com)

The Celtic Definition of Perfect Pitch:

When you toss the tenor banjo into the dustbin and it hits it, gets deflected, bounces off the bodhran, strikes the accordion and comes to rest against the ulieann (Irish) pipes!

Updated 23rd Jan 1999