Event

Joe Newberry and Mike Compton

Joe grew up in Boone County, Missouri in a family that loved to sing -- old Ozark songs, sacred songs, and popular songs of the day. His mother's family loved dancing, singing, and fiddling. He took up the guitar as a teenager and learned fiddle tunes from great Missouri fiddlers like Taylor McBaine, Pete McMahan, and Jake Hockemeyer. Younger musicians Cathy Barton, Lee Ruth, and Dave Para also influenced his music; Para introduced him to clawhammer-style banjo. Mandolinist extraordinaire Mike Compton was born in 1956 in Meridian, Mississippi, hometown of Jimmie Rodgers. He was exposed to music at an early age and received his first mandolin at the age of fifteen. Mike moved to Nashville in 1977 and for the next several years played with legendary North Carolina banjoist Hubert Davis and the Season Travelers. In 1985 he was recruited for the Nashville Bluegrass Band and during his initial stint in the group (1985-1989), he appeared on the four albums that first brought the band to prominence. After a year of working in the Catskill Mountains, Mike returned to Nashville and began playing with John Hartford in the Hartford String Band, a fertile association that continued until John's death in 2001. They love the chance to play together, and you'll be glad of it!