Home / Biography / Dana Cupp, Jr.

Dana Cupp, Jr.

By the finish of his long career, bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe had had as much banjo players in his make use of as godfather Don Corleone had hired killers. With regards to banjo pickers, you can certainly state Monroe’s glass runneth over, so that it might be regarded inevitable that within the last five years he finished up using the Cupp itself, such as Dana Cupp Jr. This bluegrass musician is certainly most commonly acknowledged as basically Dana Cupp, that’s unless the task also requires his dad, Dana Cupp Sr. Younger Cupp continues to be something of the torch on many instruments, warming up the still-active rings of older bluegrass statesmen such as for example Monroe or the Osborne Brothers with whom Cupp continues to be playing guitar because the past due ’90s, alongside additional veterans such as for example Leon Rhodes. Cupp’s position as Monroe’s last banjo participant was usually a shaky affair because of the fact that this leader’s Bluegrass Males band was centered out of Nashville, normally, while Cupp resided in Michigan. Commuting was the name of the overall game and it wasn’t usually easy for the Cupp to become up for grabs everytime Monroe arranged the table for any gig. Cupp attempted his darndest, actually keeping a Nashville house with another bluegrass young man, guitarist Tom Ewing. non-etheless, Cupp got grief galore from Monroe about his out-of-state residency. “He’d inquire if anybody understood any banjo players which were guy enough to go to Tennessee. Expenses liked for employment to be protected,” Cupp offers recalled in interviews. The banjoist Rob McCoury occasionally do fill-ins, or there have been sometimes strained circumstances like the period youthful banjo whiz Bela Fleck got the decision showing up for a hastily organized television documenting in Nashville that Cupp simply couldn’t become there to put into. Musically there might certainly have already been no issue, since Fleck understands the Monroe repertoire perfectly. But Fleck evidently made a large mistake by not really wearing a match. When Cupp later on asked Monroe about the program, the elder statesman griped “That feller playin’ the banjo — he didn’t understand my numbers as well great. And he wasn’t outfitted correct a’tall!” Cupp continues to be focused on the Michigan bluegrass picture. In the first area of the fresh millenium, he was providing as president from the Huron Valley Eagles, a bluegrass overall performance venue and business. That’s where one is most probably to discover Dana Cupp Sr., who picks acoustic guitar with several regional bluegrass clothes. The youthful Cupp in addition has performed with a number of bluegrass rings like the Wildwood Valley Males, Jimmy Martin as well as the Sunny Mountain Males, and Pinetop.

Check Also

Harold “Hal” Smith

A Nashville program musician, bassist Hal Smith must be considered area of the old safeguard. …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.