Guy Blakeman

Guy Blakeman (1911-1992). Born in Metcalfe County, Kentucky, and learned to play the fiddle at a young age. In 1927, he came to Cincinnati to work in a factory. When the Depression hit in 1929, he lost his job but was able to get a job playing fiddle on WCKY with a group called the Bluegrass Serenaders (the name referred to the state of Kentucky, as bluegrass music had not yet been invented). In the 1930s, with Roland Gaines and Jerry Behrens, he was a member of the Range Riders, a group that moved back and forth between WCKY and KMOX in St. Louis, eventually landing at Renfro Valley, Kentucky in 1940. There, John Lair changed their name to the Mountain Rangers. Blakeman was in various groups over the years, including the Prairie Ramblers at WLW on the Midwestern Hayride in 1950. He participated in at least one of Larry Sunbrock’s infamous fiddle contests, this one at the Carthage Fairgrounds in Cincinnati in 1945, where he competed against Clayton McMichen, Natchee the Indian, and Fiddling Red Herron. He was the National Fiddling Champion in 1952, which he capitalized upon by recording two 78 rpm records on Cincinnati’s Gateway label in that year and one on the unlikely Chess label using the old Bluegrass Serenaders name. In 1979, he participated on an LP which honored Cincinnati area traditional musicians. In 1982, he put out an EP of fiddle tunes on the Musique label in Loveland. He was around the Cincinnati area for many years and had an influence on country and bluegrass fiddlers who came after him.