Joe Val
I was delighted to get the news that the IBMA will be inducting Joe Val into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame on October 18, 2018 as part of the opening ceremonies for the new Bluegrass Museum in Owensboro, KY.
Fritz Richmond, Jim Rooney , Joe Val, Herb Applin, Bill Keith @ Club 47, 1962
I first saw Joe when he was in a band called the Radio Rangers on the WCOP Hayloft Jamboree in Boston in the early ‘50’s. However it wasn’t until early 1962 that Bill Keith and I met Joe. He and his musical partner Herb Applin came in to hear Bill and me play a concert at a small church in Boston. At the time we were playing one night a week with Fritz Richmond backing us up on washtub bass at the Club 47 coffeehouse in Cambridge. After chatting with Joe and Herb I suggested that they come by our apartment in Cambridge to jam. They took us up on my suggestion and it took us no time at all to realize that we suddenly had the makings of a full bluegrass band. In the Radio Rangers Joe had been playing electric guitar and singing country songs, but now he was playing mandolin and really into Bill Monroe’s style of singing. Herb played fiddle and guitar and also sang tenor. We immediately asked Joe and Herb to play with us at the Club 47, and we were off and running. Bill Keith was working on developing his chromatic approach to the banjo; we now were able to work up trios and gospel quartets; Joe’s high vocals stopped the show every time we played. All of us were on fire with the music we were making. By October we were ready to record under the direction of budding producer Paul Rothchild. The result, “Living On The Mountain” (Prestige/Folklore) was the first time the world got to hear Joe Val.
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Joe had been playing in the honkytonks of Boston for years, and it was a totally different experience for him to play for young people who were really listening. It really recharged his batteries. We all appreciated that Joe had really paid his dues and still stayed totally dedicated to his music.
But there was more than music to Joe. His modesty and quiet sense of humor made it a pleasure to be around him. Slowly but surely he worked his way into our hearts and at Christmas time in 1962 a group of us all got together and gave Joe a Gibson F model mandolin, a big step up with his Gibson A “Tater Bug”. We all understood that a good instrument would make a world of difference to Joe, and it did. When Bill Keith went off to join Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and I went to Greece on a Fulbright Fellowship, Joe joined the Charles River Valley Boys and recorded the legendary album “Beatle Country.” Joe’s high tenor vocals on the Beatles songs were electrifying. In the course of time Joe’s confidence steadily grew and he finally got to the place where he wanted to start his own band which he called “The New England Bluegrass Boys.” Joe had the blessing of Bill Monroe to use the “Bluegrass Boys” name. He was very proud of who he was and where he came from. He wanted people to know that Bluegrass now knew no geographical bounds.
In his wildest dreams Joe Val, modest and unassuming as he was, would never have imagined that more than 30 years after his death there would be one of the most successful Bluegrass Festivals held in his honor and that he would be joining his hero Bill Monroe and former musical bandmate Bill Keith in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. It’s hard for me to believe that our little band that played at the Club 47 back in 1962 would produce two members of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. As Joe might have observed, “Jamie, who would have thunk it!!!!