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Joe Meadows
Ralph Joe Meadows was born on the last day of 1934 in the small coal town of Basin in southern West Virginia. As a child growing up listening to WSM's Grand Ole Opry and WCYB's “Farm and Fun Time” radio programs, Joe's ear became attuned to the sounds of the fiddlers who performed with Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, and others. At the age of sixteen, Joe began performing with Melvin and Ray, the Goins Brothers, around Bluefield, West Virginia, where he worked until the fall of 1952, when he joined the Stanley Brothers. He stayed until the spring of 1955 and recorded some thirty songs with Carter and Ralph, including “Orange Blossom Special.”  
 

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Photo-Annie Tubiolo

After leaving the Stanley Brothers, Joe
 performed briefly with the Lilly Brothers,
and then joined Jim and Jesse at the
WWVA Wheeling Jamboree, moving
with them to Live Oak, Florida. Then in
1956 Bill Monroe asked Joe to become
a Blue Grass Boy; “of course that just
thrilled me to death,” Joe remembers.
He toured with Bill Monroe for about a
year until returning home to West Virginia
in 1957. Joe continued to perform closer
to home first with Bill and Mary Reed, and
then with Buddy Starcher.

In 1974 Joe began touring and recording with the Goins
Brothers. It wasn't long before Jim and
Jesse hired Joe for a second stint, this one lasting from 1974 to1980. After 1983, Joe lived in the Washington, DC area, where he continued to perform until his passing in 2003. Joe was joined by his grandson, Brandon Farley, on mandolin on the album, "Cotton Eyed Joe.".      -Jack Leiderman


  Cotton Eyed Joe *  Sally Gardens *  Indian Springs *  Chinkypin
  South Wind *  Battle of Bull Run *  Turkey Knob *  Citico *  Herman's Rag *
  Paddy on the Turnpike(.ra) *  Southern Aristocracy *  Trot Along My Honey
  Runnin' Bear *  Kansas City Railroad Blues *  Cruel Willie

Joe Meadows - Fiddle
Dick Bowden - Banjo
Brandon Farley - Mandolin
Jack Leiderman - Guitar
Victoria McMullen - Bass

  Howdy in Hickman County *  Done Gone *  Uptown Blues *  Memory Waltz *
  Chuck in the Bush (.ra)  * Whip the Devil *  Sandy River *  Strictly Forrester *
  Grey Eagle *  Whoa Mule *  Amelia's Waltz *   New Money

Joe Meadows - Fiddle
Mike Munford - Banjo
Jimmy Gaudreau - Mandolin
Jack Leiderman - Guitar
Victoria McMullen - Bass