Bands & Balladeers/In Memoriam: Charlie Waller

10 p.m. to Midnight Host: Steve Winters

This was to be a joyous night of mixing jam bands with balladeers, especially with the final concert from Phish having just taken place. However, with the sudden death of second-generation bluegrass pioneer Charlie Waller on Aug. 18 at his Virginia home, the show obviously took on a more somber tone. The show featured about 40 non-stop minutes of Waller’s early work with the Country Gentlemen, closing with three pieces from one of his more recent albums.

Waller, 69, was the heart, soul and lead vocalist for 47 years of the many, many configurations of the Country Gentlemen, the progressive bluegrass band he helped found in 1957. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it was the Country Gentlemen who were leaders of the “newgrass” movement that incorporated folk, jazz, blues, gospel and country into traditional bluegrass along with a repertoire borrowed from pop and rock songs of the day. The Gents became the most influential bluegrass group since the original Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass boys and one of the first bluegrass bands to attract a broad audience.

The program closed with Chuck Brodsky’s newly recorded “The Ballad of Stan Rogers and Leo Kennedy” followed by a trio of songs from Rogers, who died an untimely death in 1983 in a plane fire.

  • Artist, "Title", Album, Label

  • Jamgrass Slammers, “Farmhouse”, “46 Days”, Jamgrass: A Phish Tribute, Compendia

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  • David Mallett, “Artist In Me”, “Livin’ On The Edge”, “So Far So Good”, Artist In Me, North Road

    In Memoriam: Charlie Waller

  • Country Gentlemen, “(Legend Of The) Brown Mountain Light”, Classic Bluegrass, Smithsonian Folkways

  • Country Gentlemen, “The Long Black Veil”, “Little Glass Of Wine”, “The Fields Have Turned Brown” ,On The Road (And More), Smithsonian Folkways

  • Country Gentlemen, “Bringing Mary Home”, “Walkin’ Down The Line”, “Fox On The Run”, The Early Rebel Recordings 1962-1971, Rebel

  • Country Gentlemen, “House Of the Rising Sun”, “The City Of New Orleans”, “One Morning In May”, 45 Years Of Memories, Pinecastle

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  • Chuck Brodsky, “The 9:30 Pint”, “Claire & Johnny”, “Dangerous Times”, Color Came One Day,Waterbug

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  • Carnivaleros, “Barrio Viejo Waltz”, Step Right Up!, Roota Vega Records

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  • Chuck Brodsky, “The Ballad Of Stan Rogers & Leo Kennedy”, Color Came One Day, Waterbug

  • Stan Rogers, “Forty Five Years”, “Barrett’s Privateers”, Fogarty’s Cove, Fogarty’s Cove Music

  • Stan Rogers, “Free In The Harbour”, Northwest Passage, Fogarty’s Cove Music