The IBA is happy to present our 7th podcast on bluegrass musicians with deep roots and connections to Idaho. Imagine living in a quiet neighborhood, early 1980s, in Boise, Idaho, and seeing in front of your neighbor’s house a big bus with “Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys” painted on the side. Well, the “Father of Bluegrass” was touring the West and stopped in at the home Donna and Mike Bond—also bluegrass musicians—for Donna’s famous lasagna! This is just one of the many stories that Donna and Mike tell Gary Eller in this podcast. Donna and Mike were part of several Idaho based bluegrass bands including Ragged But Right and the nationally touring group Buckhorn Mountain Boys, which included Rue Frisbee (see our 6th podcast featuring Rue). The Bond’s reminiscing about their touring days includes a story of “the ranch visit” near Battle Mountain, Nevada, that will have you laughing. Mike and Donna have a long involvement with the “Weiser Experience” and provide their perspective both of changes over time at the Oldtime Fiddler’s Festival and of today’s bluegrass. So please, take some time out of your day and listen to this podcast. Then pick up that instrument and play! Thanks to Gary Eller and Bob Pori for pulling together another great podcast that truly captures bluegrass in Idaho. Click on the link below and listen to the Bonds.
Donna and Mike BondInterview
This interview was produced for the IDAHO BLUEGRASS ASSOCIATION in collaboration with THE IDAHO SONGS PROJECT and the NATIONAL OLDTIME FIDDLERS'CONTEST AND FESTIVAL Interview conducted by Gary Eller
Credits for the Mike and Donna Bond Interview "Midnight Rider" by Paul Craft - Performed by "Ragged But Right" Steve Brown - mandolin and lead vocal Donna Bond - bass and harmony vocal Mike Bond - banjo and harmony vocal Randy Glenn - guitar Doug Jenkins - fiddle
"Pick Away" by Gladys Flatt and Victor Jordan - Performed by "Ragged But Right" Donna Bond - bass Mike Bond - banjo Steve Brown - mandolin Randy Glenn - guitar Doug Jenkins - fiddle
"Midnight On The Highway" by Tim O'Brien - Performed by "The Buckhorn Mountain Boys" From the 2003 CD "Take The Backroad Home" BMB Records, Inc. Marv Quinton - bass Mike Bond - banjo Rue Frisbee - fiddle Al Jackson - guitar
"1952 Vincent Black Lightning" by Richard Thompson - Performed by The Buckhorn Mountain Boys From the 2004 CD "Live - Warts and All" BMB Records, Inc. Donna Bond - bass Mike Bond - banjo Rue Frisbee - fiddle Al Jackson - guitar
Thanks to Sandy and Dennis Cooper of the Bee Tree Folk School for digitalizing the 1981 live recordings of the "Ragged but Right" band at the Lock Stock and Barrel and providing photographs of the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest.