John Lair

b. 1 July 1894, on the plantation near Livingston, Kentucky, USA, d. 13 November 1985, Lexington, Kentucky, USA. Lair created a childhood curiosity to become respected expert on and a collector of old-time music. After armed service service in Globe Battle I, he went the family plantation until, concerned from the threatened over-development of Renfro Valley, he relocated to fight Creek, Michigan. Right here, he worked like a instructor and an insurance professional, before learning to be a program movie director at WLS Chicago in 1927. He instantly started to organize the train station’s Country wide Barn Dance program and created a music group of music artists and performers that he known as the Cumberland Ridge Athletes. He occasionally performed harmonica and jug, but, getting no great musician himself, he generally restricted himself to narrations, composing materials and announcing responsibilities. In 1937, Lair still left WLS for WLW Cincinnati, where he helped create theBoone State Jamboree and shortly soon after theRenfro Valley Barn Dance, which, through his business acumen plus some help from others, including Crimson Foley and Slim Miller, Lair transferred to his own house in Renfro Valley, Kentucky, in 1939. The program, which occurred within a barn, was shortly transported by WHAS Louisville, whose transmissions subsequently were transported by other channels, even, eventually, with the NBC Network. The program helped to start the careers of several artists like the Coon Creek Young ladies and on its 25th anniversary in 1962, their state Governor proudly announced Lair’s display ‘a Kentucky organization’. The Barn Dance was only 1 of the numerous folk music actions that Lair structured and his precious Valley ultimately became a mentioned tourist attraction using its celebrations, museum and shops.