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The Jed Shed Pickers Share Song and Story on The Midnight Ramble

Bruce Williams, Floyd Alexander, Ken Wortman, and Doug Smith of the Jed Shed Pickers came to WYSO to play some songs for us. The Jed Shed Pickers don’t play shows or for money, they just meet every Tuesday night to play music for their own enjoyment. But on this episode of the Midnight Ramble they are playing just for your enjoyment. 

In addition to the wonderful music played by The Jed Shed Pickers, they share some fantastic stories. Ken Wortman tells the story of how he started to play mandolin. He says that when he was in high school his father wanted him to play the mandolin, instead he started to play bass guitar in a rock & roll band with his friends. After the bass he moved on to the guitar, and now he says, fifty years later, he finally started to play the mandolin just like his father always wanted him to. He says once he became proficient with the mandolin, he went out to the cemetery where his father is buried to play his favorite song for him.

Bruce Williams talks about his beautiful 1962 Gibson Dove acoustic guitar, given to him by his father when he passed away. Bruce says that he plans on playing it until he passes away too. Bruce also talks about how the instrument helps him to write songs. He says that he works at Navistar, building trucks, and that he comes up with many songs on the job while listening to the different sounds and keys of the machinery.

Tom Duffee has been playing and listening to traditional and country sounds all his life. He started playing the banjo when he was twelve. In his later teens, he started playing in public, sharing in the rich old-time and bluegrass heritage that exists in the Miami Valley. For the past 35 years, he has played in the old-time string band, the Corndrinkers. In 1971, he started programming traditional music on WYSO. With his brothers Dan and Jim, the Duffee brothers initiated a Saturday night bluegrass show as well as a morning offering, Rise When the Rooster Crows, both of which remain on WYSO to this day. Tom's wife, Linda, with whom he shares his life and his music, is a renowned fiddler in the Miami Valley area.