Ernie Sykes
Ernie Sykes Jr. (November 13, 1960 – March 5, 2025) was an American bassist and singer from Patchogue, New York, who started out in his father's band, the Sykes Boys. He went on to play with the Bluegrass Cardinals, the Osborne Brothers, Jimmy Martin, the Reno Brothers, Eddie & Martha Adcock, Livewire, and Rhonda Vincent, and was the last bass player Bill Monroe hired into the Blue Grass Boys. A popular Nashville personality with a crooning baritone, he was a mainstay of the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. After a stroke in 2017 he largely gave up the bass.
In the newsletter
- No. 14 Winter 1998