Les Butler and Friends:
Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers
By Les Butler I first met Joe Mullins 10 years ago or so. Since then, I’ve been blessed to promote a No.1 song on several charts (including the SGNScoops Bluegrass Top 20), for his group, Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers. I also was blessed to play the piano on a couple of songs on their International Bluegrass Music Associationaward-winning album titled, “Sacred Memories.” I even brought them to my church to play for a homecoming service. And, who was the opening band the night I played the piano for Daily and Vincent at Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman? None other than Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers.
to Middletown, Ohio, in 1964, just a year before I was born. I heard him playing Bluegrass, gospel and traditional country music on radio, always. He was also in demand as a solid bluegrass fiddler, assisting many great bands on stage and in the recording studios.
They are one of the hottest bands in bluegrass music today.
JM: I can still get by for a few tunes on guitar or upright bass, but I have been a banjo player 99 percent of the time the past 40 years.
I am a big supporter of the uber-talented Joe Mullins and his group, Radio Ramblers. Les Butler: What is your earliest musical memory? Joe Mullins: Hearing my dad on the radio and seeing him play the fiddle. My dad was Paul “Moon” Mullins. “Moon” was just a radio nickname. He was (related to) Paul Mullins, the fiddle player, a proud Kentuckian, who worked for the Stanley Brothers a little while in 1958, then became a renowned broadcaster. He came
LB: What’s the first instrument you tried to play? JM: I learned rhythm guitar at a very early age so I could accompany dad on fiddle tunes. By the time I was about 13 years old, the banjo hooked me deep. LB: State the instruments you play.
LB: Who are your favorite musicians on each of the instruments you play? JM: Like most bluegrass banjo players, I have spent a lifetime studying Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, Ralph Stanley, Sonny Osborne, J.D. Crowe, Bill Emerson, (and) few other founding fathers of the five-string. LB: Growing up in a musical family, did you ever have a desire to do something else? If so, what?
