We'll Miss You, Buddy Griffin

#443 / News Extra

Sad news. A dear friend — the legendary Buddy Griffin — died this morning at age 76.

A Sutton, WV, native, Buddy was a multi-instrumentalist (fiddle, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, guitar, bass). Buddy performed with Bobby Osborne, Jim and Jesse and countless other bluegrass and country legends, including Bill Monroe, Maybelle Carter, Mac Wiseman, the Goins Brothers and many others.

He was a part of the Wheeling Jamboree in the staff band, starting in the early 1970s and had a 16-year stint fiddling in Branson, Missouri.

Buddy was especially proud of being the founder of the first nationally accredited bluegrass program at Glenville, WV, State College, where he taught strings. In 2019, he received a honorary Doctor Of Fine Arts at Glenville.

A Half a Century of Friendship

Buddy Griffin was in The Flood’s orbit for 50 years. We first met him in the 1970s when Dave Peyton and Charlie Bowen used to trek with Roger Samples to Glenville for the good ol’ West Virginia Folk Song Festival.

Buddy also became a regular in the early 1980s at the final editions of the Bowen Bashes. As you’ll see in the above video, he was widely featured in Episode 7 of our “Bowen Bashes” legacy film series.

Several decades after that, Buddy was back in our lives as producer and engineer of The Flood’s very first studio album in 2001 as well as Joe Dobbs’ Fiddle and The Flood, recorded at the same marathon session.

Joe and Buddy

The late Joe Dobbs and Buddy Griffin had a very special friendship, full of stories and jokes, tunes and memories. We still fondly remember Joe’s last jam with his old friend.

It was a dozen years ago on a rainy January Wednesday evening at the Bowen House. It was a night of wonderful tunes sandwiched in with Buddy’s famous humor (including his spot-on imitations of the great violin-murdering comedian Jack Benny). Click the button below for a three-minute sample from the fun:

In addition, Flood manager Pamela Bowen captured this video of Joe and Buddy’s take on “Flowers of Edinburgh”:

Being with Rog

That get-together occurred because Buddy was on the road from his home in Glenville to Mount Sterling, KY, where he intended to visit Roger. By 2013 Samples was two years into what would be a five-year battle with cancer.

In fact, the evening also marked almost exactly two years since another memorable jam session. In January 2011, Buddy and The Flood had joined Roger and his brothers Mack and Ted, along with John Preston and others at the Samples’ Kentucky house for a good old-fashioned music party a few days before Rog started his demanding chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Hall of Fame

Recently, we were thrilled when Buddy was inducted into the 2023 class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

It was a long-overdue recognition of an extraordinarily influential Mountain State treasure.

Tonight, while we mourn our old friend’s passing, we are pleased that future generations will learn about the remarkable Buddy Griffin.