Rich Kirby
Visiting Master
Rich Kirby has been soaked in mountain music for longer than he cares to mention, beginning in the lap of his Kentucky ballad-singing grandmother Addie Graham of Wolfe County, Ky. That began a lifelong involvement with the music—learning, performing, collecting, recording and teaching. Besides solo work he performed in Wry Straw with John McCutcheon and Tom Bledsoe and later with Bledsoe as a duet; more recently he led the Kentucky-based band Rich and the Po’ Folk. He was one of the founders of Appalshop’s June Appal Recordings in 1974, recording several albums for the label and producing many more. He retired in 2013 after 24 years at Appalshop’s community radio station WMMT. He teaches at the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School in Letcher County, and produces a weekly old-time music radio show on Appalshop’s WMMT. He lives in Dungannon, Virginia, across the hill from the homeplace of Fiddlin’ Cowan Powers.