It was an exciting night for Alan Munde when he stood in front of a packed crowd in the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was being celebrated for his induction into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, along with fellow inductees Katy Daley and Jerry Douglass, during the 35th annual music awards at the 2024 IBMA World of Bluegrass.
Friends and fans surrounded Munde as he thanked “my people, my people” during his acceptance speech. “It’s an honor to be a part of such a distinguished group of all my heroes.”
Munde was born in 1946 in Norman, Oklahoma, not exactly a hotbed of bluegrass music. “Our family had a record player, and my parents had some 78 records, probably my mother’s doing,” said Munde. “My dad was a fan of the accordion and encouraged my oldest brother, Mike, and my younger sister, Gail, to play. They both took lessons, and afterward, she’d show me what she learned, and I’d try my hand at it. I’m not sure my parents ever noticed she took the lessons, but I also learned to play. So, the accordion was actually my first instrument. Sorry.”
Munde’s brother Mike came home from the navy and brought Munde a guitar and a record on how to play it. “It was Pete Seeger’s Folk Singers Guitar Guide. Mike went off to college, and I took up the guitar.”
Munde sought out a music store near his home within walking distance of his house. Mike Richie’s Guitar Center became the center of Munde’s life for the rest of his teen years and throughout college. “I wanted to play the banjo, and my neighborhood playmate, Gary McNabb, gave me for Christmas the Flatt and Scruggs Foggy Mountain banjo record. That was it for me, as I’m sure it was for a lot of folks.”
Munde met Byron Burline at the record store, who had already recorded with the Dillards. “His dad, Lou Berline, had been to the Newport Folk Festival, where he met and played with Bill Monroe, Bill Keith, Tex Logan, and others. The Berlines became a big part of my life in many ways musical.” Byron Berline and Munde played together while they both attended the University of Oklahoma. “We went to fiddle contests together, listened to the Kentucky Colonels tapes, the Bill Monroe tapes with Bill Keith on banjo, and eventually, we played together in Country Gazette and the Burrito Brothers. He introduced me to my banjo mentor, Eddie Shelton.”
Munde also met Ralph Thomas at the record store. “I went to my first and second Bill Monroe bluegrass festivals in Beanblossom, Indiana, with Ralph and his family.” It was at those festivals that Munde met banjo pickers Butch Robbins, Dick Smith, Larr Marshall, Rick Ryman, Al Osteen, and others. While still in college, Munde attended the Arkansas Folk Festival in Mountain View, Arkansas, where he met Courtney Johnson and a group of bluegrass pickers from Kentucky.
Courtney returned to Bowling Green and told his picking buddies Wayne Stuart and Sam Bush that he had run into a banjo player from Oklahoma who played in a newfangled melodic style. “I was probably trying to play “Durang’s Hornpipe” or was inspired by Byron’s playing in all the fiddle contests.”
Stuart drove to Oklahoma from Kentucky to visit with Munde, who was in his last year of college. “He had big plans and a passion about a group with himself, me, and Sam Bush to be called Poor Richard’s Almanac. That excited me, and we eventually made plans to meet up at a fiddle contest in Salisbury, Missouri, near Kansas City. I rode to the fiddle contest with Byron’s dad.” Munde spent the weekend with Wayne and Sam. As soon as I graduated in 1969, I headed to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, to connect with Wayne and Sam, who were still in high school.”
Munde recalled visiting Lexington with Wayne Stewart to see JD Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys. “The band was JD, Doyle Lawson, Red Allen, and Bobby Sloan. What an evening. I even got up and picked a couple of tunes with the band. Munde jokes, “I sometimes wonder whatever happened to those guys.”
He wasn’t in Kentucky long before he got a draft notice and had to return home. Before leaving, Munde recorded “a bunch of tunes” with Stewart and Bush, officially released on the American Heritage label as Poor Richard’s Almanac. The Army turned Munde down, and he spent the summer in Norman working and saving his money. While there, he recorded with a local guitar artist, Harley Wilcox, and his group, The Oakies, which included Carl and Bob Warren, who owned the other local music store. “Harley had a hit record with a tune called ‘Groovy Gloworm,’” said Munde. “You can find it on YouTube. It won a BMI award for the best instrumental in 1969. When it came out as a single, I was on the B side with a song called ‘Moose Trot.’”
Munde joined the Warrens and Wilcox on a trip to the DJ convention in Nashville. “I contacted Wayne and Sam, and we planned to meet at the Noel Hotel, where there was a weekend-long jam on the third floor arranged by Tut Taylor. We picked all weekend with Vassar Clements, which was pretty cool for a kid.” While there, Munde ran into Al Osteen, who was playing banjo with Jim and Jesse. “He told me that Chris Warner was leaving Jim and Jesse and said if I would be interested in the job, he would introduce me to Jim, who was coming the next night.” Doyle Lawson was in the band at the time, and he remembered Munde sitting with JD’s band in Lexington. “He put in a good word for me, and I got the job.”
That was the start of Munde’s long and illustrious career, one he credits to the people he has met. “The bluegrass community is a village of connections. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful village.”
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