I  was born just outside of Boone N.C. just short of the Ashe County line in a little community called Big Hill a virtual hot bed for bluegrass music and musicians.  My early memories of music was my father talking about his father playing claw hammer banjo which is still in the family, most Sunday afternoons on the porch of their house.  I did not get to know my grandfather on my dads side, he passed when I was 10 months old.  When I turned 10 my dad brought a homemade guitar home for me with instruction records to learn how to play, I was excited and so was dad as he never learned to play anything but always wanted.  Later that evening my mom and I heard something weird coming from the living room, and we looked around the corner and dad was listening to the record on 75 speed instead of 33 and a third!!  sounded like two cats fighting in a sack.  But what got me even more interested in music in general mom always had country music on the radio and of course Ed Sullivan  and others.  But watching the Beverly Hillbillies on TV and seeing Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs playing just a banjo and guitar really blew me away.  I started taking a few lessons at Green Valley Elementary with my best friend Mark Krider. But we started staying at each others houses and started listening to every thing we could on record my Flatt and Scruggs.  Mark and I started playing anywhere our parents would take us, spaghetti suppers, the apple festival in Boone etc.  Then my dad introduced me to Boone' s very own Doc Watson, flat pick guitar genius.  Dad would take Doc to Boone sometimes when I was younger in the car and we struck up a friendship that lasted until his death.   He was also a great harmonica and claw hammer banjo player. I learned how to flat pick and finger pick listening to him.  A little later as Mark and I were playing and getting together, just up the road a young man just three years younger b the name of Steve Lewis, had starting playing guitar as his dad Ernest played some and sang and  my dad had taught Ernest in school in Ashe County, so the three of us would get together and play.  This went on for awhile and Steve and I started playing more and met a banjo player named Paul Buchanan. another wonderful musician.  In the summers we would play at Tweetsie Railroad as a threesome, and on the weekends we would play in the summer and fall outside for the line waiting  outside at the Dan' Boone Inn a restaurant in Boone NC.  After the line would die down, we went inside and played from room to room and any private parties that were upstairs.  they also let us eat along with getting paid, but if it got really busy we had to wash up and help put ham biscuits together to help the kitchen keep up, man you talk about fingers hurting from hot biscuits. We did this for about three years while also playing with our own group called Sweetwater. and once again we played everywhere we could, private events, etc.  During this time we were offered to be the traveling band for the World Champion clogger's , the Daniel Boone Clogger's based in Boone NC.   We played events in and around the High Country with the clogger's but they wanted the band name to be the Daniel Boone Bluegrass Express. Was myself, Steve Lewis, Paul Buchanan, Chris Sigmon, Steve McKinney and Morris Hampton, who was the leader of the clogger's and would sometime perform with us. We were very proud to travel to Opryland in Nashville TN and perform for them, and was invited to perform the opening act for Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass at the CF Martin theatre.  We also the same year performed with the clogger's at the NC State Fair in Raleigh NC, and won second place in the state bluegrass band performing  the Smokey and the Bandit movie theme that was so popular.  We entered band competitions anywhere we could and would place in guitar and banjo and dobro.  Once again awhile later the band would have a few changes so myself and Steve Lewis who has become a sought private guitar instructor and banjo player, he has won countless awards at Winfield Kansas, MerleFest and other venues, Gary Trivette from Sugar Grove NC just outside of Boone became our bass player  and now performs with  Nick Chandler and Delivered and national touring act.  Steve Lewis  is now a multi award winning banjo and guitar player and instructor winning  awards in Winnfield  Kansas, MerleFest and more.  Mark Krider is now based in Texas heading a band called Hillbilly Fever. In 1998 I went to the local radio station  WZJS 100.7 fm and WATA 1450 am and said I would like for you to consider you letting me host a radio show featuring local and national artists.  The manager at the time asked if it had been done in the station and after checking, we found out a bluegrass program had never aired there.  They asked me to come in a few days later and record a show as I thought if should air, the managers name was John Guzik he was a partial owner along with some local folks that Im sorry I cant remember   the names.  I came in couple nights later, pouring the snow down, and they showed me how to use the production room and the Denon player.  They listened to it, and said was a go! and a few short weeks later I began on sunday nights from 8 to 9 pm on 10.07 fm the country station at the time.  Andy Glass, who became a very good friend, who has passed away now, did the first 6 months of the show until I could go on my own.  Within the first year the show became very popular and I expanded to 2 hours, and started doing live interviews and live in house performances. About the third year into the show the owners purchased 106.1 fm that was located in ashe county that was a country station, and I moved to that location until they eventuall moved the station to Boone NC into the building I was originall in and changed 100.7 to alternative and talk.  I started working with The Doc and Rosa Lee music festival in Sugar Grove NC and continued that media sponsorship for the duration of the time I was at the station, I also had a parternship with MerleFest in Willsboro NC that Im proud to say I am once again  involved with.  The show continued its success and growth for over 13 years and along the way I started producing music events in and around town, sometime playing music myself. But I had to leave the station because  my parents started having health issues, my ex wife and I and been taking care of them, my mom and a severe stroke and lived a lot longer than expected, they gave her maybe a year, and she made it 23 more years. my dad had some heart problems so we lived with them raising a family and helping them for 13 years. My dad passed in 2006 my mom in 2016.  I still loved the music and kept involved every way I could, kept in contact with artists, labels festivals etc..  I eventually went back to the station with the idea to put show back on the air and met Rick Pursator who was the manager at WATA and WMMY and the other stations that had been added in Boone.  I told him about the show and gave him a cd with one of the shows from some years back, we talked and a few days later we started working out the details,  I started back shortly after, almost 17 years to the day of being off, back in the building it all started, in september of 2024.  The show picked up my original sponsor, Perry Yates with New River Building Supply of Boone, and back on sunday nights from 8 until 10 pm eastern.  The show became popular again, and was doing good, but then Nascar which I am a huge fan!! started taking the time slot or a postponement due to weather.  And then I wanted to expand back out to the Doc And Rosa Lee Watson festival again, but management was not interested,  didnt really get behind the show, wanted to control what was said or couldnt be spoken about such as interviews with artists, but did not want them to mention where they were performing because those places were not paying the station money.  So I kept putting on my show, and looking for a better way to get the show to you folks at home.  So after a year and a half of being back on the station, and grateful for being given the platform to return, I found the right equipment and  the right way to get the show to you each week without  hopefully any interruptions , you can now tune in right here at catgutnjugsbluegrassshow.com streamed on Live365 on youre phone, computer or Alexa device by saying Alexa open live365 play catgut. If you miss me on sunday you can find the link above  or go to bellbuckleradio.com on live365 Tuesday at 12 noon till 2 p.m eastern and fridays at 4pm eastern.  Or thesonicplanet.com saturday and sunday mornings at 10 am.  Yes I am playing music again, and I will continue to bring you the best show I possibly can each week along with interviews and the latest news.  Thank you so much for supporting me all these years.