[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 2 (Thursday, January 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E93-E95]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page E93]]



          TRIBUTE TO JOHN DUFFEY, AN AMERICAN MUSICAL PIONEER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DAVID R. OBEY

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 9, 1997

  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, it is a tradition of the House to take note of 
milestones and passages in our Nation. Mid-last year the world of music 
lost Bill Monroe, who was widely regarded as the founder of bluegrass. 
I take this occasion to call attention to the fact that sadly on 
December 10 we lost another giant in that musical tradition with the 
passing of John Duffey.
  He was a remarkable singer of bluegrass, possessed of a powerful 
vocal instrument, one that could soar to impossibly high notes or 
become the soul of harmony and touch the heart. He was a good performer 
with mandolin and guitar, and he was the prince of wit and laughter.
  He was a founding member of two bands that influenced string band 
musicians and singers across the Nation and around the world--the 
Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene. For more than 20 years, John 
Duffey and the Seldom Scene could be heard Thursday nights at the 
Birchmere in Alexandria. I had the pleasure of hearing them perform 
there often. When my constituents would come to town and asked me if 
there was something different they could see, I would always tell them 
if they wanted to see the people's music at its finest they should head 
down to the Birchmere and see John Duffey and his friends perform.
  John Duffey did not like being boss and he liked being bossed even 
less, so these bands were composed of partners. A John Duffey comment 
about band structure can be applied to other aspects of life. He said, 
``Democracy doesn't work all that well, but it keeps a group happy 
longer than any other way of doing business.'' He knew that from 
spending almost 40 years in just two bands.
  A flamboyant performer famed for spoofs of whatever needed spoofing 
and a general irreverence on stage, John was modest, genial, and almost 
shy off stage.
  Like all great artists, John Duffey was aware of the beauty around 
him. He grew up in a family with a father who was a professional 
singer, performing at one point for the Metropolitan Opera. John seems 
to have never rejected any music that was in tune, and he had a good 
ear.
  He heard and was attracted to the music of Appalachian migrants to 
the Washington area from the upland South. Music is judged as often for 
its social connection as its sound, and this music had no status. But 
Duffey was not concerned about such things and he gave this music a new 
milieu. Here was a tall man with a crew cut and rapier wit performing 
brilliant bluegrass and able to put any heckler in North America in his 
seat.
  Duffey loved the Appalachian sound, but he was not from the area and 
did not care to pretend that he was. So he helped enlarge the reach of 
the music. He chose songs from modern and ancient sources; he worked on 
vocal harmonies new to the genre. Thousands of younger players were 
impressed.
  In an interview on Washington's great WAMU radio station, host Jerry 
Gray recently asked Duffey how he wished to be remembered. The answer 
was Duffeyesque: ``Well, I hope no one will think I was a klutz.''
  When the passage of time allows a broader perspective, I believe John 
Duffey will be considered one of the most important creators of this 
music. Through his wit, laughter, extraordinary musical gifts and 
passionate performance, he said, ``this is a great American working 
class music.''
  I extend condolences to his family, his fellow members of the Seldom 
Scene, and the thousands who will miss him as I will.
  Mr. Speaker, I am inserting in the Record at this point four 
articles. The first, the obituary for John Duffey, written by Bart 
Barnes, which appeared in the Washington Post. Second, the accompanying 
newspaper article, written by Richard Harrington, which appeared in the 
Post that same day. Third, an article written for Bluegrass Unlimited 
by Dick Spottswood. And fourth, a tribute to John Duffey written by 
Dudley Connell for Sing Out! magazine. Mr. Connell is lead singer in 
The Seldom Scene, which was cofounded by Mr. Duffey.

               [From the Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1996]

         Musician John Duffey Dies; Led the Group Seldom Scene

                            (By Bart Barnes)

       John Duffey, 62, a singer and mandolin player who founded 
     and led the Seldom Scene bluegrass group for 25 years, died 
     Nov. 10 at Arlington Hospital after a heart attack.
       Mr. Duffey, who was known to music lovers for a high, 
     lonesome and lusty tenor voice that was once described as 
     ``one in a million,'' had been a fixture in Washington's 
     musical community since the 1950s. The Seldom Scene was 
     probably the premier bluegrass band in the Washington area, 
     according to Pete Kuykendall, the publisher of Bluegrass 
     Unlimited magazine and a former bandmate of Mr. Duffey's.
       For 22 years, the Seldom Scene has played regularly at the 
     Birchmere in Alexandria. The group also has toured oveseas, 
     played in most of the 50 states and produced dozens of 
     recordings, tapes and compact discs.
       The group's most recent album is ``Dream Scene,'' released 
     this fall. The Seldom Scene played with other bluegrass bands 
     on the Grammy Award-winning ``Bluegrass: The World's Greatest 
     Show.'' Over the last quarter-century, the group has played 
     for the likes of President Jimmy Carter and Vice President 
     Gore, as well as for members of Congress.
       The group was formed in 1971 by Mr. Duffey and four others: 
     Tom Gray, who worked for National Geographic; Ben Eldridge, a 
     mathematician and computer expert; Mike Auldridge, a graphic 
     artist with the Washington Star; and John Starling, a 
     physician and ear, nose and throat specialist.
       The five men initially intended to sing and play together 
     only occasionally, hence the name, Seldom Scene. ``They 
     started as a fun thing, like a Thursday night poker game or a 
     bowling night,'' Kuykendall said.
       But the group soon progressed from occasional basement 
     gettogethers to regular Thursday night appearances at the Red 
     Fox Inn in Bethesda, where they played to standing-room-only 
     crowds, and, from there, to the Birchmere, where they became 
     a weekly fixture.
       The Seldom Scene's 15th-anniversary concert was held at the 
     Kennedy Center, and it included a presidential citation from 
     Ronald Reagan, whose press secretary, James Brady, was a 
     regular at the Birchmere. It featured guest appearances by 
     the likes of Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.
       Mr. Duffey, a resident of Arlington, was born in Washington 
     and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. His 
     father had been a singer with the Metropolitan Opera, and the 
     son inherited an exceptional singing voice with a range said 
     to be three of four octaves.
       As a high school student, the young Mr. Duffey developed a 
     love for the bluegrass music he heard on the radio. His 
     father taught him the voice and breathing techniques of a 
     classical opera singer, despite what was said to have been 
     the elder Duffey's lack of enthusiasm for ``hillbilly 
     music.''
       As a young man, Mr. Duffey worked at a variety of jobs, 
     including that of printer and repairer of stringed 
     instruments. But his avocation was music, and it soon became 
     his vocation as well.
       In 1957, with Bill Emerson and Charlie Waller, Mr. Duffey 
     founded the Country Gentlemen, a bluegrass and folk music 
     group that for about 10 years rode the wave of folk music 
     enthusiasm that surged through the 1960s. The group disbanded 
     in the late 1960s, and Mr. Duffey went to work as an 
     instrument repairman at a music store in the Cherrydale 
     section of Arlington, which was how he was making a living 
     when the Seldom Scene was formed.
       ``When we started the Seldom Scene, we all had jobs and we 
     didn't care if anybody liked what we did or not,'' Auldridge 
     told The Washington Post's Richard Harrington last year. ``We 
     just said, `We're going to do some bluegrass because we love 
     it, and some James Taylor or Grateful Dead, and if people buy 
     it, great. If they don't, what do we care?' ''
       Mr. Duffey was a large and imposing man with a precise and 
     soulfully expressive voice, and his singing was invariably 
     moving. But he also had an engaging, irrepressible and 
     sometimes off-the-wall style of stage chatter and a superb 
     sense of timing that could break up an audience with a one-
     liner.
       ``What people love about him is that you know he's one of 
     these guys stuck in the '50s, but he's so happy with himself, 
     so confident, and he's also nuts,'' Aulridge said in 1989.
       In the quarter-century since its formation, the Seldom 
     Scene built its reputation on flawless harmony, instrumental 
     virtuosity and a repertoire that included traditional 
     bluegrass and modern popular music, rock tunes, swing and 
     country, gospel and jazz.
       Over the years, there would be changes in the group's 
     composition, but until last year, the instrumental core 
     remained the same: Mr. Duffey on mandolin, Eldridge on banjo 
     and Auldridge on dobro. But Auldridge left the group in 
     December, leaving only two original members.
       In September, Mr. Duffey was inducted along with the 
     original Country Gentlemen into the International Bluegrass 
     Music Association's Hall of Fame.
       Survivors include his wife, Nancy L. Duffey of Arlington.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1996]

                John Duffey: A Mandolin for All Seasons

                        (By Richard Harrington)

       The National Observer once dubbed John Duffey ``the father 
     of modern bluegrass,'' a paternity that suited the muscled, 
     buzz-cut mandolinist and high tenor who was co-founder of 
     both the Country Gentlemen in 1957 and the Seldom Scene in 
     1972. Those two seminal acts not only helped popularize 
     bluegrass worldwide but made Washington the bluegrass capital 
     of the nation in the '60s and '70s.
       Already reeling from the recent death of bluegrass 
     patriarch Bill Monroe, the music and its fans may be excused 
     for feeling orphaned right now. Duffey who died yesterday at 
     the age of 62 after suffering a heart attack

[[Page E94]]

     at his home in Arlington, was, like Monroe, a towering 
     figure, physically and historically.
       Duffey was also one of the most riveting and riotous 
     personas in bluegrass, as famous for his (generally 
     politically incorrect) jokes and onstage shenanigans as for 
     ripping off fiery mandolin solos and then flinging his 
     instrument behind his back when he was done--because, well, 
     he was done.
       ``John was one of the half-dozen most important players 
     ever in this industry,'' fellow musician Dudley Connell said 
     yesterday. ``He helped redefine how people looked at 
     bluegrass, made it acceptable to the urban masses by his 
     choice of material and style of performance.''
       Connell, founder of the critically acclaimed Johnson 
     Mountain Boys, joined the Seldom Scene just a year ago when 
     several of that band's longtime members left to devote 
     themselves to a band called Chesapeake. That changeover 
     represented a third act for John Duffey, the Washington-born 
     son of an opera singer whose forceful and unusually 
     expressive voice was once described--quite accurately-- as 
     ``the loudest tenor in bluegrass.''
       ``John Duffey had such a presence onstage you just had to 
     watch him,'' noted bluegrass and country music radio 
     personality Katie Daley. ``It wasn't just that high tenor, 
     either. He had such flair that he made the music a joy to 
     watch . . . at a time when so many bluegrass groups would 
     just stand straight-faced at the mike.''
       In terms of stubbornness and steel will, Duffey was not 
     unlike Bill Monroe, but where Monroe was a tireless 
     proselytizer for bluegrass, Duffey chose a different course 
     that left him far less famous.
       ``He was proud but didn't want to pay any of the prices--
     interviews, travel, rehearsing, recording,'' says Gary Oelze, 
     owner of the Birchmere, the Virginia club put on the world 
     entertainment map by virtue of the Seldom Scene's 20-year 
     residency there on Thursday nights.
       ``He hated to rehearse, and would only pull out his 
     mandolin when it was time to play,'' Oelze recalled 
     yesterday, ``And he hated the studio, where his theory was, 
     `If I can't do it right in one take, then I can't do it right 
     at all.' He's like Monroe in that both were set in their own 
     ways. John was a big dominating character and cantankerous 
     old fart. It's hard to imagine the big guy gone.''
       John Starling, a Virginia surgeon who was for many years 
     the Seldom Scene's lead singer, concedes that Duffey was 
     ``sometimes difficult to deal with from a professional 
     standpoint, but he was also true to himself and he never 
     changed. John was one of a kind.''
       Starling first encountered Duffey while in medical school 
     at the University of Virginia in the mid-'60s; at the time, 
     Duffey was with the Country Gentlemen and Starling would 
     venture to Georgetown to catch them at the Shamrock on M 
     Street. ``I never dreamed one day I'd play in the same 
     band,'' Starling says, adding that ``everything I know about 
     the music business--especially to stay as far away from it as 
     possible--I learned from John.
       ``Left to our own devices, the Seldom Scene would have 
     cleared a room in 10 minutes without John,'' Starling says 
     with a chuckle. ``He was the entertainer, the rest of us were 
     players and singers. He did it all.''
       Duffey's career began with a care wreck in 1957 that 
     injured a mandolin player, Buzz Busby, who fronted a 
     bluegrass group. Busby's banjo player, Bill Emerson, quickly 
     sought substitutes so the band could fulfill a major club 
     date.
       Emerson found a young guitar player named Charlie Waller 
     and a young mandolin player named John Duffey. And so on July 
     4 1957, what would soon be the Country Gentlemen played their 
     first date, at the Admiral Grill in Bailey's Crossroads. They 
     liked their sound, and decided to strike out on their own. It 
     was Duffey who came up with the name, noting that a lot of 
     bluegrass bands at the time were calling themselves the so-
     and-so Mountain Boys. ``We're not mountain boys,'' he said. 
     ``We're gentlemen.''
       And scholars. At least Duffey was, spending hours at the 
     Library of Congress's vast Archive of Folk Song, looking for 
     unmined musical treasures. Duffey was a product of the first 
     American folk revival, which had introduced urbanites to 
     rural culture. And he in turn passed it on. ``John was one of 
     those people who brought rural music to the city,'' says Joe 
     Wilson, head of the National Council for the Traditional 
     Arts. ``He was concerned with authenticity even though he 
     didn't share the [rural] background.''
       What came to be known as the ``classic'' Country Gentlemen 
     lineup was settled in 1959 with the addition of guitarist-
     singer Eddie Adcock. Duffey (high tenor), Waller (low tenor) 
     and Adcock (baritone) created one of the finest vocal trios 
     in bluegrass history. The band's repertoire deftly melded 
     bluegrass, fold and country tunes in a way that was both 
     tradition-oriented and forward-looking. And they began 
     adapting popular songs in the bluegrass style.
       Duffey ``gave bluegrass accessibility to lawyers and 
     accountants and people who worked on Capitol Hill,'' says 
     Wilson. ``He was an interpreter in the finest sense of the 
     word, bringing grass-roots culture to an elite.''
       Along with Flatt and Scruggs--a duo introduced to mass 
     television audiences by the ``Beverly Hillbillies'' theme 
     song--the Country Gentlemen probably made more bluegrass 
     converts in the '60s than Bill Monroe himself. They were 
     criticized in traditional bluegrass circles for being too 
     ``progressive''--for playing what was dismissively dubbed 
     ``newgrass.'' But on the emerging bluegrass festival circuit 
     and in venues as un-Shamrock-like as Carnegie Hall, their 
     approach made them the music's most successful ambassadors.
       By 1969, however, John Duffey was frustrated with 
     traveling, terrified of flying, and generally down on the 
     music business. He retired to an instrument-building and 
     repair business in Arlington. In weekly gatherings at 
     Bethesda's tiny Red Fox Inn, he played with other gifted 
     musicians who didn't want to give up their day jobs. These 
     sessions blossomed, in 1972, into a band with a modest name: 
     the Seldom Scene.
       The Country Gentlemen survived Duffey's departure, enduring 
     40 years around Waller, its lone survivor. Perhaps the Seldom 
     Scene will go on, too. But John Duffey was so much the focus, 
     the showman, the entertainer--that huge man with his fingers 
     flying over his tiny mandolin--that it's hard to imagine the 
     band, or bluegrass, without him.
                                  ____


               [From Bluegrass Unlimited, Dec. 10, 1996]

                             John H. Duffey

                    March 4, 1934--December 10, 1996

       John Humbird Duffey died today. He was 62.
       I had to write that down and stare at it for a few seconds 
     to clear my mind and force myself to acknowledge that 
     unthinkable and, for now, unacceptable fact of life. His 
     death came from a massive heart attack at 10:20 a.m. at 
     Arlington Hospital, after being taken in early this morning 
     following some breathing problems. Though he had a history of 
     minor heart problems, his health had otherwise been good--
     good enough for a successful Seldom Scene performance in the 
     New York City area this past weekend.
       Those are the simple, immediate facts, the ones we 
     enumerate when grief makes it difficult to think beyond them. 
     John was a commanding presence in the Washington, D.C. area, 
     where he was born, raised and hardly ever left. His sheer 
     size and bulk would have made him stand out in any crowd. On 
     stage, when he went to work on that comparatively tiny 
     mandolin, it never looked like a fair match, especially since 
     John always made music look so deceptively easy.
       John also played resonator guitar on a number of early 
     Starday singles, including his notable ``Traveling Dobro 
     Blues.'' He was good at it too, but one can manage just so 
     much, and John abandoned the instrument early. Not so his 
     finger-style guitar, which has replaced or supplemented the 
     mandolin in John's arrangements many times over the years.
       John Duffey's voice was his other superb instrument. His 
     father had been a professional singer, serving for a time in 
     the Metropolitan Opera chorus. John learned a few vocal 
     secrets from him, especially the arts of breathing and 
     singing from the diaphragm. They served John well. His vocal 
     agility, remarkable range, distinctive vocal harmonies, and 
     lovely intonation remained with him right up to the end, and 
     his voice was as instantly recognizable as any on the planet.
       Many will remember John's incredible gift for comedy, which 
     grew out of the bad boy persona he cultivated on stage. He 
     was a child of the suburbs and his wit was hip and urbane 
     rather than country. John's irreverence never served to 
     diminish his music, but he could and did ad-lib as skillfully 
     as a professional comic. It was an attitude which had been 
     foreign to bluegrass. Before the Country Gentlemen appeared 
     in 1957, hillbilly comedy had been the provenance of bass-
     players who specialized in rube routines, blackened teeth, 
     and ill-fitting costumes. Their comedy at its best was crude 
     and wonderful but it was no match for John Duffey, whose 
     unrepentantly loud, tasteless clothes and flat-top haircut 
     made him look like a comic relic in the '90s, much as Cousin 
     Mort, Chick Stripling and Kentucky Slim appeared to be rural 
     leftovers in the '50s.
       The Country Gentlemen formed as a result of a 1957 auto 
     accident involving the band of another bluegrass veteran, 
     singer/mandolinist Buzz Busby. Buzz's band had contracted a 
     July 4th engagement; to fill it, banjo player Bill Emerson 
     engaged Charlie Waller, John Duffey and a temporary bass 
     player. The result pleased everyone so much that they gave 
     themselves a new name and kept right on working, even after 
     Bill bequeathed the banjo chair to Pete Kuykendall, who 
     subsequently turned it over to Eddie Adcock in 1959. Pete and 
     John became fast friends, and Pete continued to work behind 
     the scenes for the Gentlemen, composing new songs for them, 
     introducing them to old ones, and producing their records for 
     several years. Bass player Tom Gray joined the group later 
     creating the Classic Country Gentlemen.
       This unique combination of skills transformed the band 
     virtually overnight. Charlie Waller had always been at home 
     with mainstream country music as well as bluegrass. John and 
     Bill Emerson's knowledge extended to country, pop, jazz, 
     blues and classical music. The Country Gentlemen's first 
     Starday release in 1958 clearly showed the way: ``It's The 
     Blues,'' neither blues nor bluegrass, was an experimental 
     song which would have then seemed challenging even to 
     Nashville professionals. Its reverse. ``Backwoods Blues,'' 
     was a jazzy reprise of the 1920s pop standard ``Bye Bye 
     Blues'' (which wasn't blues either).
       Marshall McLuhan once defined art as ``anything you can get 
     away with,'' which

[[Page E95]]

     precisely matched John Duffey's attitude towards bluegrass. 
     John's respect for the classic Monroe model was exceeded by 
     no one's but the Monroe musical constraints which defined 
     classic bluegrass were only one option for him. The Country 
     Gentlemen's eclectic LP collections proceeded to span the gap 
     from ancient hymns and tragic songs to Ian and Sylvia, Tom 
     Rush, Lefty Frizzel, and Bob Dylan pieces, woven into a broad 
     and usually scamless fabric by a versatile and inspired group 
     of musicians.
       It turned out to be a perfect formula for those times. Mike 
     Seeger pitched the Gents to Moe Asch, whose Folkways label 
     published four LPs by them. Those recordings quickly wound up 
     in the hands of urban folk music buffs, becoming bluegrass 
     primers for many in northern cities and on college 
     campuses. This new audience in turn was receptive to 
     John's adventurous music, and it helped pave the way for 
     the Gentlemen's growing international following in the 
     1960s.
       As their career heated up, John grew tired of the necessary 
     travel and retired from music in 1969. But the hiatus proved 
     brief; in 1971 he joined Tom Gray, Mike Auldridge, and Ben 
     Eldridge to form the Seldom Scene, whose name indicated that 
     it was a group whose ambitions were limited. But lightning 
     struck again. With John Starling, a singer whose abilities 
     matched John's, the group quickly achieved the status and 
     respect previously accorded the Country Gentlemen.
       By then, the Duffey approach had been labeled ``progressive 
     bluegrass,'' a label which encouraged others to follow John's 
     example and even exceed it, with pop tunes and rock 
     arrangements which often became tangential to the classic 
     models. John's selections and arrangements sought to take 
     alien material and bring it towards bluegrass rather than 
     force bluegrass to conform to other popular musics. It was 
     the right approach; the ``newgrass'' bands have come and gone 
     while the Seldom Scene has prospered and endured.
       John Duffey wasn't a sentimental person, and he'd probably 
     be embarrassed by an outpouring of emotion. But it's hard to 
     envision bluegrass without him, hard for those of us of his 
     generation and beyond not to remember many evenings at the 
     Crossroads, the Shamrock, the Cellar Door, the Red Fox and 
     the Birchmere, local joints which may not have been up to the 
     standard of the downtown cocktail lounges, but where John, 
     the Gents and the Scene enjoyed extended engagements over the 
     past 40 years. That's not to say that John wasn't influential 
     beyond his home environs. He traveled when he had to, to many 
     parts of the globe, sharing the stage with everyone from 
     Linda Ronstadt to Bill Monroe--who uncharacteristically, 
     rarely failed to crack a smile in John's presence. John 
     Duffey offstage was a modest and unassuming person, who 
     nevertheless was a loyal friend to many, professionals and 
     fans alike. Even those of us who weren't close to him can 
     attest to the way his art touched our lives and made them 
     better. His death will be hard for the many music 
     professionals whom he inspired, informed and befriended. 
     There hasn't been much that's taken place in bluegrass since 
     the 1950s that he hasn't influenced one way or another.
       Survivors include John's wife Nancy who, among other 
     things, has been a loyal, appreciative spouse, a daughter, 
     Ginger Allred and three stepchildren: Donald Mitchell, 
     Richard Mitchell and Darci Holt.
       Goodbye, John, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 
     Like the ads say, your gifts will keep on giving.
                                  ____


                            [From Sing Out!]

       The following tribute to John Duffey written by Dudley 
     Connell for Sing Out! magazine. Mr. Connell is lead singer in 
     the Seldom Scene, co-founded by Mr. Duffey.
       When John Duffey died on December 10, 1996, he left an 
     imposing and very important forty year musical legacy.
       John was a big guy with commanding stage presence. With his 
     1950s style flattop hair cut, multicolored body builder 
     paints and unmatching bowling shirt, he left an indelible 
     impression. When he arrived at the stage with his trademark 
     mandolin and home made cup holder, complete with a special 
     clip ready to attach to an unattended microphone stand, you 
     knew John was ready to go to work.
       His huge hands flew expertly across the neck of his tiny 
     mandolin at a speed that seemed impossible. He made it look 
     so easy. John would occasionally invite other players in the 
     audience to sit and play his mandolin. They invariably found 
     its high and tight action intimidating. Akira Otsuka, a long 
     time Washington area player and John Duffey disciple, once 
     looked at me after attempting a break on John's mandolin and 
     asked, ``How does he play this thing?''
       John's most remarkable instrument, however, was his 
     powerhouse tenor voice. There has never been any voice in 
     bluegrass more unmistakable or capable of such range as that 
     of John Duffey's. It seemed to ignore human bounds. His voice 
     could range from the soft and delicate, ``Walk Through This 
     World With Me'', to the aggressive and powerful, ``Little 
     Georgia Rose''. Even at age 62, his voice was both 
     challenging and inspiring to accompany.
       John Duffey was as well known for his entertaining stage 
     swagger as for his incomparable musical abilities. He was 
     like a loose cannon on stage. Unlike many performers who have 
     been entertaining for a long period of time, John did not 
     work from scripted stage patter. Anything and anybody was 
     fair game. There were many times John would hook onto a 
     unsuspecting heckler in the audience and send the rest of the 
     band members scurrying for cover. But with that unpredictable 
     tension came a certain excitement and unpredictability that 
     was fuel for the fire of all Seldom Scene stage shows.
       In his forty years in the bluegrass music, John was unique 
     and fortunate to have been the catalyst in forming two 
     landmark bands. The first came by accident, literally.
       On July 4th, 1957, Buzz Busby, a legendary Washington area 
     mandolin player and tenor singer, was contracted to play a 
     gig at a local night spot. When he was involved in an 
     automobile accident and was unable to make the show, the 
     group's banjo player, Bill Emerson, started making phone 
     calls and arranged for Charlie Waller and John to fill in. 
     The resulting sound was pleasing to everyone that they 
     decided to give themselves a new name and continue playing 
     together.
       Never one to follow trends, John felt that a band from 
     Washington DC should choose a name that reflected its own 
     heritage and not use a ``So and So and the Mountain Boys'' or 
     some other name that suggested they were from somewhere they 
     were not. The name John chose was The Country Gentlemen, then 
     a very urbane name for a bluegrass band. His former colleague 
     in that group, Charlie Waller, continues to tour and perform 
     with that band.
       Due to the interest of Bill Emerson and John, tunes that 
     were country, pop, blues, jazz, and classical became fair 
     game for the Country Gentlemen who became noted for pushing 
     the envelope of the existing bluegrass repertoire. John said, 
     ``There were enough versions of `Blue Ridge Cabin Home' and 
     `Cabin in Caroline' to go around.'' He was looking for 
     something different. Hence the Country Gentlemen's song bag 
     included John's jazzy mandolin interpretation of ``Sunrise'', 
     Bob Dylan's ``Its All Over Now Baby Blue'', and a mandolin 
     version of the theme from the movie ``Exodus''.
       John also recognized the importance of the Folk Revival in 
     the early 1960s and spent a considerable amount of time at 
     the Library of Congress, researching material and achieving 
     considerable success in composed melodies for old poems he 
     found during his research. Songs entering the Country 
     Gentlemen's repertoire in this manner include the classic, 
     ``Bringing Mary Home'' and ``A Letter to Tom''. In addition 
     to collecting and arranging old songs and poems, John 
     composed and dedicated to his wife Nancy, ``The Traveler'', 
     and the haunting ``Victim to the Tomb'', along with many 
     others.
       But by the late 1960s John had tired of all the traveling 
     necessary to sustain a bluegrass band. ``I just got tired of 
     saving up to go on tour,'' he said. In 1969 Duffey left the 
     Country Gentlemen with no intentions of performing again. 
     During the 1969 to 1971, John operated a musical instrument 
     repair shop.
       But in 1971 John again found himself involved with music 
     business, and again, by accident. He was joined in a informal 
     group by former Country Gentlemen bassist Tom Gray, and by 
     Ben Eldridge, Mike Aldridge and John Starling. This band 
     would go on to be known as the Seldom Scene.
       As the name implies, this group of musicians did not form 
     with the intention of touring and playing music for a living. 
     All the members had day jobs and simply wanted an outlet for 
     their music. John said it was, ``Sort of a boy's night out, 
     like a weekly card game.'' The group started out in a 
     member's basement, playing for fun, and then moved to the 
     small Red Fox Inn outside Washington, DC. The group would 
     later move across the Potomac River to a weekly Thursday 
     night time slot at the Birchmere, in Northern Virginia.
       Not being driven by the financial contraints to adhere to 
     any of the rules normally associated with a professional 
     touring group, the Seldom Scene did the music they wanted to 
     do the way they wanted to do it. John's feeling was that ``If 
     people enjoy what we do, fine. If they don't, that's okay, 
     too.'' With this freewheeling attitude, the group continued 
     to stretch their musical reach by recording tunes from the 
     Eric Clapton catalog, ``Lay Down Sally'' and ``After 
     Midnight'', to long improvisational numbers with extended 
     jams like ``Rider''.
       This continuing tendancy to incorporate influences from 
     outside of the traditional sources made it easier for the 
     urban audiences around Washington to identify with bluegrass. 
     It also expanded the group's popularity to far beyond the 
     doors of the local DC club scene. And the experimentation 
     continued. In the weeks before his death, the current band 
     was in rehearsals for their next recording project and were 
     working on an arrangement to the Muddy Waters classic, 
     ``Rollin' and Tumblin''. John Duffey and the Seldom Scene 
     continued to be active up to the end, playing in Englewood, 
     New Jersey, just days before John's death.
       John Duffey's influence on generations of musicians cannot 
     be overstated. Noted music historian, Dick Spottswood, said, 
     ``There hasn't been much that's taken place in bluegrass 
     since the 1950s that he hasn't influenced one way or 
     another.''
       John Duffey is survivied by his wife Nancy and daughter, 
     Ginger Allred. He also has three stepchildren; Donald 
     Mitchell, Richard Mitchell, and Darci Holt.