The original research and idea for Lexingtunes was started in the mid 1990s with the goal of publishing a short book about the many Lexington and Bluegrass-area artists and labels that shaped the music scene from roughly the 1950s to the early 1980s. This time period represented not just a great era for music, but a time when Lexington and nearby towns boasted numerous recording studios and several highly productive labels. The primary focus will be on artists in and around the Lexington / Central KY area that recorded on Kentucky labels with less attention paid to those regional artists that garnered national fame on major labels (although a few of those will probably creep into the mix as well).
As I tumbled deeper and deeper down the research rabbit-hole, I realized that a book really wasn’t the answer. There are too many pictures, too many songs, and too many stories for a simple printed page. Also, the emergence of the Internet as a truly wonderful resource made me question if this would even be a worthwhile venture. Surely, the information on everyone would surface eventually, right?*
Fast forward to too many years later and I realize that many of these artists I have researched and interviewed still do not have a decent profile on the web. Also, what if I get hit by a bus and never shared these photos and interviews with the world. Seems a bit of a waste, right?**
So, as time allows I will be adding entries and hoping that readers will offer up their own memories and fill in missing information, etc. I hope you find this a worthwhile project.
The years I’ve spent gathering things would have been made much more difficult if not downright impossible if not for the following collectors and friends and I thank them all:
Big Thanks to Dan Shorr and the crew at POPS
Kelly Chambers, Lee Bryant, Kenton Lake, Art Tabor (RIP, pal), Steve Baron, Butch Williams, John Montague, Jesse Saxon, Dwight…
and I’m sure I’ll be adding other names I’ve forgotten…
Shawn Chambers
lexingtunesky@gmail.com
* Looking for a ‘No’ answer here – I would also accept ‘Wrong’
** An emphatic ‘Yes” would do nicely in response to this one