Biographical Note
Neil V. Rosenberg
Neil V. Rosenberg (born 1939, in Seattle, Washington), grew up in Olympia, Washington, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Berkeley, California. From age seven he studied violin, and later studied guitar and voice. His studies at Oberlin College (where he earned a B.A. in history) overlapped with his time as co-founder of the Redwood Canyon Ramblers. After graduation from Oberlin he attended Indiana University (where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in folklore). Throughout this time he remained active as a musician and, with the banjo as his primary musical instrument, he played at the Brown County Jamboree in the early 1960s. His writing career from the mid-1960s has focused on bluegrass music history, and he has written critically acclaimed books including Bluegrass: A History (1985; revised 2005), Bluegrass Odyssey: A Documentary in Pictures and Words, 1966-86 (2001), and Bluegrass Generation: A Memoir (2018), as well as album liner notes and scholarly articles. His teaching career includes work at Indiana University (1966-1968) and Memorial University of Newfoundland (1968-2004). In Canada, as in the U.S., Rosenberg developed, founded, and mentored various musical endeavors: co-founder of the bluegrass band Crooked Stovepipe; host of a weekly bluegrass music show (broadcast on radio station CKIX-FM (St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada); and numerous other achievements that served to draw and maintain a lively interest in the genre and history of bluegrass music. In 2014, he was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.
Mayne Smith
Mayne Smith is a bluegrass musician, original member of the Redwood Canyon Ramblers, and author of the essay "An Introduction to Bluegrass" (1965).
Brian Miksis
Brian Miksis, a sound mixer with over 15 years of experience, digitized the recordings in this collection, and provided detailed metadata on the process and result. He has co-researched and produced an early history of Jerry Garcia's bluegrass roots, entitled Before the Dead (2018), and authored "An introduction to the Redwood Canyon Ramblers Archive".