Hall of Honor Inductee

Eight-time emcee of the Rockygrass Festival and longtime host of the 'Old Grass, Gnu Grass' radio show on KGNU in Boulder, Buck Buckner was the grandfather of the Front-Range bluegrass scene. The following is an excerpt from the Colorado Bluegrass Society's profile on him:

"I started open mics downtown in the mid 70's. I was one of the founders of the Millsite jam. It's been up there for seventeen years. I've adopted that one. I'm the one that shows up every time ready to go at 8:00. That's been my role for the last ten years. I think I'm a good teacher, a good encourager. It's a role I take to naturally and I really enjoy it." Buck doesn't worry that evolution of the music will make the traditional stuff disappear. He describes how we can always peel back the layers and find the traditional source. "Change is inevitable. I don't mind the change at all. String Cheese, Yonder Mountain, and my buds Leftover Salmon, Single Malt Band. All these guys are deviants from the 'true path.' You bet they are, and I salute them for it. There are plenty of people like Open Road who will keep to the true path. You don't ever have to worry about that true path ever being lost. But I'm delighted at what the spin-offs have been." In spite of all the musical evolution, "There is no danger of bluegrass evaporating in the wind. Variations aren't threatening the core. The pump is primed for all these young people to get into music, but the old folds are saying, 'but that ain't bluegrass.' Well, so what? And you can count on it that some of those young people are being drawn to it because of the old-timey sound, and they'll keep going back down through the layers until they find (the traditional sound) and isolate it."