Listen to the Lion

A very Grammy Sunday

Read about how I spent my Sunday night here.

Me on WNYC

I was a guest on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC on Friday, discussing the new CD from Alison Krauss and bluegrass in general. Go here and scroll down to listen to the half-hour clip.

A bluegrass radio legend retires

I’ve had the pleasure of being friends with Moon Mullins’ son Joe for the last few years and of occasionally hosting bluegrass programming at WBZI, a truly great radio station. Moon is a true original. Here’s a story about Moon’s retirement.

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New ‘Moon’ rising

By Bob Batz

Dayton Daily News

XENIA | After 45 years of lighting up local radio and the national bluegrass music scene, the man called “Moon” is getting ready to take life a little bit easier.

On March 4, Paul “Moon” Mullins will step down as host of the weekday noon to 2 p.m. bluegrass music show on classic-country radio station WBZI-AM (1500). The 68-year-old Kentucky native, who last year was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and suffers from arthritis in his hands and neck, also will cut back on his playing of the music that has been earning him accolades since the mid-1950s.

To no one’s surprise, Mullins is winding down his career in much the same way he cranked it up — with heaping doses of homespun humor and lots and lots of bluegrass music.

Noon. A Thursday. Moon Mullins begins one of the last of his more than 2,300 WBZI radio shows by playing Rest My Weary Feet by Third Time Out, then bangs out an ad-lib commercial for Red Wing shoes before seguing smoothly into a weather update.

“Myyy goodness, that sunshine looks warm as biscuits,” he says, peering out of the studio window. “Weatherman says it’s gonna be partly cloudy today, but, y’know what, the weather fella’s been wrong before.”

Mullins was born Sept. 24, 1936, in Menifee County, Ky. Though he grew up on a hillside farm listening to bluegrass on the family radio, he didn’t get serious about the music until he taught himself to play the fiddle while serving a two-year hitch in the U.S. Army.

After leaving the service in 1958, he worked briefly as a fiddler with the Stanley Brothers, then landed a job as an on-air personality at a radio station in Ashland, Ky. Four years later he departed that station and headed north to host morning and afternoon music shows at WPFB Radio in Middletown. About that same time, he hung the “Moon” nickname on himself, borrowing the moniker from a popular newspaper comic strip.

Except for a brief time in 1981 when he had a dispute with WPFB’s management and left Middletown to manage a country station in Jellico, Tenn., his association with the Middletown station lasted nearly 25 years. During much of that time his show was one of the station’s most popular programs.

12:22 p.m. “Y’all remember this one, don’t ya?” Mullins says, introducing a song by the Foggy Mountain Boys.

When the music ends, he smiles over the WBZI “gimme” pen protruding from the breast pocket of his neatly-pressed white shirt and serves up another ad-lib commercial — this one promoting the friendliness of a certain local car dealership.

Then he adds, “This is the Moon Show from noon to 2 ? and it’s currently 28 degrees on the front porch here in Xenia.”

Over the years, Mullins has made music – and friends – with some of America’s most successful country musicians, including Tom T. Hall, the Osmond Brothers, Bill Monroe and Red Allen. In 1962, Mullins – who also plays guitar, mandolin and bass – wrote and recorded Katy Daly, which became a bluegrass standard. For several years he served as master of ceremonies at the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in Brown County, Ind. He also helped establish the Boys From Indiana, a popular 1970s festival band.

His record albums include the 1969 release Paul ‘Moon’ Mullins on the Vectro label, The Traditional Grass: A Touch of the Fifties (1987), Lonesome Road to Travel (1990) and I Believe in the Old Time Way (1993).

In 2004, he was named “Broadcaster of the Year” by the International Bluegrass Music Association, a worldwide trade organization for the bluegrass industry.

12:37 p.m. Mullins’ daughter Chris Jones slips into the studio and kneels beside his chair.

“There’s a couple outside, and they’d like to meet you and shake your hand,” she tells him.

Two minutes later Mullins is face-to-face with Willard Smith, 62, and his 60-year-old wife, Barbara.

“We drove up here from Martinsville, and we decided that while we were in town it would be nice to say hello to Moon,” Barbara Smith says.

Her husband takes Mullins’ hand. “This is great, just great,” he says. “We go back real far with you. I’m from Kentucky, and we’ve been to lots of your bluegrass shows. Ever though we never met, we feel like we’ve known you all our lives.”

Mullins has been working at WBZI for nine years. The station and its sister stations WKFI-AM (1090) in Wilmington and WEDI-AM (1130) in Eaton are owned by Joe Mullins, Moon’s son, who’s also a musician and hosts the 2 to 5 p.m. weekday show on WBZI.

Joe Mullins said his father won’t disappear from the airwaves.

“I host the 2 to 5 p.m. show on WBZI and I’m away a lot, so Dad will be subbing for me quite often,” he added.

Moon Mullins said he has plenty to keep him busy when he isn’t working.

“My wife, Prudence, and me – we’ve been married since 1962 – have two or three acres in the country, and we grow about 65 to 70 percent of what we eat,” he said. “I like the outdoors a whole bunch. I feed the birds, too.”

Mullins said he has always been honest with his listeners.

“I don’t put on no fronts ? and I don’t try to be something I’m not,” he said. “I respect my listeners and my advertisers. Bluegrass is popular as all get out right now. Even young folks like it. It sure has been a good 45 years. I can’t play the music any more, but I’ve had me a lot of fun along the way. If anybody ever got to live his dreams, well, by golly, it’s me.”

Contact Bob Batz at 225-2396.