This Weekend's Guest on Knee-Deep In Bluegrass, MIKE COMPTON

Tune in to this week's Knee-Deep In Bluegrass on an affiliate near you to hear an interview with mandolin player, Mike Compton. Mike is busy touring and recording with Elvis Costello & The Sugarcanes and The Nashville Bluegrass Band. Join us for lively conversation and Compton mandolin music on this week's Knee-Deep In Bluegrass. And, as always, THANKS for listening!~CB

More About Mike Compton


Mandolinist extraordinaire Mike Compton was born in 1956 in Meridian, Mississippi, hometown of Jimmie Rodgers. He was exposed to music at an early age and received his first mandolin at the age of fifteen. Mike moved to Nashville in 1977 and for the next several years played with legendary North Carolina banjoist Hubert Davis and the Season Travelers.

In 1985 he was recruited for the Nashville Bluegrass Band and during his initial stint in the group (1985-1989), he appeared on the four albums that first brought the band to prominence. After a year of working in the Catskill Mountains, Mike returned to Nashville and began playing with John Hartford in the Hartford String Band, a fertile association that continued until John's death in 2001.

In the fall of 2000, after a tour of the Southwest with David Grier, Mike was offered his mandolin slot with Nashville Bluegrass Band and he didn't hesitate to rejoin. The band has won two Grammy Awards, two "Entertainer of the Year" honors from the International Bluegrass Music Association, and four IBMA Vocal Group of the Year titles. A perennial MerleFest favorite; their Sunday morning gospel set with Doc Watson is not to be missed.

A prolific composer, Mike has made a powerful mark in the old-time and bluegrass music worlds. His resume includes more than 75 recordings with a virtual "Who's Who" of old-time and bluegrass musicians. Among his credits are the O, Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, the Songcatcher soundtrack, and the Down From the Mountain CD that followed O, Brother. This year has seen Mike Compton touring with Elvis Costello in support of the rock legend's Secret, Profane, and Sugar Cane CD, produced by T-Bone Burnett and featuring performances by Compton, Stuart Duncan, and Jerry Douglas.

The multiple Grammy Award-winner treasures his memories of a friendship with his mentor, Bill Monroe. John Hartford once said that Mike Compton knows more about Bill Monroe-style mandolin than the "Father of Bluegrass" himself.