Cybergrass Bluegrass Music News: Melvin Goins Bluegrass Pure and Traditional at the Carter Fold

BMNN wrote: on Oct. 22, 2009:

Saturday, October 24th, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, will present a concert by Melvin Goins and Windy Mountain. Admission to the concert is $7 for adults, $1 for children 6 to 11, under age 6 free. Melvin Goins has been playing mountain string music for more than 50 years. The music he does became known as bluegrass about the time Melvin and his brother, Ray, started playing professionally. Melvin & Ray, the Goins Brothers, performed together until Ray retired from touring due to health problems in 1994. They started out with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, recording some of their more memorable RCA Victor sides and all of their Starday material. From early 1966 until the spring of 1969, Melvin worked with the Stanley Brothers through the last months of Carter’s life and the formative period of Ralph’s solo career. Melvin also worked with Hylo Brown, Bill Monroe, and Cecil Surratt’s country group at WHIS TV in Bluefield, West Virginia. In 1969, Melvin and Ray reformed the Goins Brothers. They picked and sang for a quarter century. After Ray’s retirement, Melvin chose to continue performing with his group, Windy Mountain. His music retains elements of the Lonesome Pine Fiddler sound as well as that of other pioneer figures.

Melvin continues to perform at festivals and music venues throughout the U.S. He calls Cattlesburg, Kentucky home. Goins and his band also appear (free of charge) at elementary schools across east Kentucky, West Virginia, and southwest Virginia. In 2001, he was awarded the Appalachian Treasure Award by Morehead State University in recognition of his dedication in promoting and preserving Appalachia’s cultural heritage. Melvin has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and was a featured performer in Grass Roots to Bluegrass, a documentary on bluegrass music. A member of the Board of Directors of Morehead State University’s Kentucky Center for Traditional Music, he works tirelessly to promote the music he grew up with and loves. Hay Holler has released three Goins Brothers CDs and one CD by Melvin & Windy Mountain. Melvin’s latest release, A Light in the Window Again, (on Rooster Records) was recorded at Tom T. Hall’s studio in Franklin, Tennessee.

If you like your bluegrass traditional, you won’t want to miss Melvin Goins and Windy Mountain at the Carter Fold! They’ve been performing at the Fold for over twenty years, and you won’t hear bluegrass played any finer than they play it. Melvin’s a Kentucky gentleman, and there isn’t a nicer or more experienced person in bluegrass music today. For information, go to www.MySpace.com/MelvinGoins on the web.

Carter Family Memorial Music Center, Incorporated, is a nonprofit, rural arts organization established to preserve traditional, acoustic, mountain music. For further information on the center, go to www.carterfamilyfold.org. Shows from the Carter Family Fold can be accessed on the internet at www.carterfoldshow.com. Carter Music Center is part of the Crooked Road: Virginia's Heritage Music Trail. You can visit the Crooked Road Music Trail site at TheCrookedRoad.org. Partial funding for programs at the center is provided by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information on Saturday's concert, contact the Mountain Music Museum at 276-645-0035. For recorded information on shows coming up at the Fold, call 276-386-6054.

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