The Goins Brothers TV show

Channel 57 Hazard Kentucky....

at the time it was NBC's worlds smallest affiliate.
After working with Bill Monroe in 1971 I got to know Melvin and Ray Goins.
They were true "Old School Entertainers"

This week's show Tony Testerman who I had worked with for years with was in the area and he played bass which allowed me to play mandolin....Tommy Boyd was on the Dobro, Ray Goins the banjo, Doug Hutchens on the Mandolin and Melvin Goins the guitar.

Sometime in the fall of 1978 after I moved to Knott County Kentucky, Melvin called and asked if I could help them with their TV shows over on WKYH TV in Hazard, Kentucky. Their regular bass player lived up in Ohio and it wasn't monetarily worth it for him to drive down just for the TV shows. They taped two shows every other Tuesday afternoon and the shows were played back on Friday nights.

Ray Goins on banjo, Doug Hutchens on Mandolin

Glen Duncan Fiddle, Doug Hutchens Bass

For the next several years,I would find some excuse to leave work every other Tuesday afternoon and run to town for "something". We would tape two shows and then I would head back to work to be sure to be back about quitting time. It only took an hour to do two 30 minute shows.
No stopping once we started the theme. Melvin did his commercials live. These guys were a pleasure to work with. They had been in the business since before it was a business and they knew how to make things happen.

Curly Lambert mandolin, Doug Hutchens bass, Buddy Griffith banjo

I usually played bass, but over the period of 10 years that I lived in Eastern Kentucky I played bass, banjo, guitar and mandolin....It just depended on who was with Melvin that week.

Glen Duncan Fiddle, Doug Hutchens bass, Tommy Boyd banjo, Melvin Goins Guitar

Melvin Goins shares a "funny" and Doug Hutchens chuckles

It was usually Melvin and Ray accompanied by various entertainers. Sometimes Kentucky Slim, Curly Lambert, Buddy Griffith, Glen Duncan, Dan Jones, Tommy Boyd or Art Stamper.....

Doug Hutchens mandolin, Ray Goins Banjo

We would drive up this treacherous mountain lane called Gorman Ridge WAY UP above Hazard Kentucky...It was literally a dangerous place to go if the weather was wet or especially if there was any ice. I remember one time we had to walk the last segment of the lane to the TV station and on the way down Curly Lambert slipped and fell with his mandolin case going one way and he going the other. Luckily he wasn't hurt just a bruise or two and his feelings hurt from us laughing so hard...it wasn't funny...... until we found that he wasn't hurt, but it was seeing him sliding down the roadway in the snow, we couldn't help laughing.


Tommy Boyd who was playing with Larry Sparks at the time on the dobro,,,Tony Testerman hidden on bass and Doug Hutchens on Mandolin

I will have to say again my admiration of the "First Generation of Blue Grass Entertainers". Melvin and Ray treated me as an equal...They had been at it for years, here I was a total new comer yet, they treated me as if I had played with them for decades.....Joe Stuart and Kenny Baker treated me the same way during the time that I worked with Bill Monroe.... I don't know if I would have welcomed new faces as they did.
I also worked many schools with Melvin and Ray....They probably introduced more school kids to Blue Grass Music than any other group, Eastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Southern West Virginia..The Goins Brothers worked many a school and I've seen countless individuals that have told me that thier introduction to Blue Grass Music was the school shows that Melvin and Ray did. During the time I worked with them, once we worked 5 elementary and high schools in one day.....More on that later.....

Glen Duncan fiddle, Doug Hutchens bass, Tommy Boyd banjo, Melvin Goins guitar