Vernon McIntyre
Vernon McIntyre, also known as Junior McIntyre, is a banjo player, rhythm guitarist, singer, and bandleader from Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was Vernon "Boatwhistle" McIntyre, a bassist and comedian with Earl Taylor and the Stoney Mountain Boys. At 15, Vernon began playing banjo professionally in the same band, alongside his father. He also played with Walt Hensley, Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys, Mac Wiseman, James Monroe, and Scott Stoneman. He was a founding member of the Bluegrass Pardners on the Wheeling Jamboree and played banjo with the Easterners. In the late 1960s he and singer Jim McCall founded the Cincinnati band Appalachian Grass, which later became Vernon McIntyre's Appalachian Grass. In the 1970s he was a staff musician at Jewel Recording Studio in Cincinnati, playing banjo and rhythm guitar on sessions for Mac Wiseman, Lonnie Mack, and Hylo Brown. The band has played concerts, festivals, and broadcasts across the United States and Canada. Its members have included his wife, fiddler Kitty McIntyre, and Trina Emig, who studied banjo with him from 1988 and toured with the band by 1990. In 1998 the band won the CAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Band in the Cincinnati area.
In the newsletter
- No. 11 Spring 1997