Glenn E. Roberts, Jr. Collection, 1968-1981 | Archives of Appalachia

Title: Glenn E. Roberts, Jr. Collection, 1968-1981

ID: 500/AppMs 379

Created by: Roberts, Glenn E., Jr. (ca. 1938-)

Glenn E. Roberts, Jr. was born in Norton, Virginia, ca. 1938, but as a child his family moved to Akron, Ohio. Roberts grew up in Akron, and there first listened to the bluegrass jmusic of Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, the country musis of Hank Williams, Sr., and Hank Snow. After graduating from Akron University in 1960, Roberts moved back to Norton to start a successful tire business. In the late 1960s, Roberts and his wife, Patti, began singing at local civic functions. Shortly thereafter in the early 1970s, he founded the Rolling Firestone, a bluegrass group which subsequently won several rpizes at musical competitions in southwest Virginia and adjacent regions.

In the fall of 1972, Roberts programmed and hosted a pre-recorded half-hour radio show on five radio stations in southwest Virginia and eastrn Kentucky. The show featured live and recorded bluegrass music. Roberts' group, the Rolling Firestones, performed live, as did other guests, among them Ralph Stanley, Jim and Jesse, the Country Gentlemen, Seldom Scene, and the Marshall Family. The radio program ended its run in the spring of 1976.

By the time his program had come to an end, Roberts had become involved in the organization and promotion of an annual bluegrass festival held at the Wise County Fairgrounds in Wise, Virginia, 1975-1979. The festival's sponsor was the Wise County Shrine Club, and the proceeds from the event went to the Shriner's Crippled Children's Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1980 the Shrine Club dropped its sponsorship, but Roberts and Clayton Slagle of Carter County, Tennessee kept the festival alive. Slagle allowed the event to be held at Slagle's Bluegrass Pasture in Elizabethton, Tennessee, in 1980 and 1981. Over the seven years of its existence, the vestival attracted a number of prominent bluegrass performers, among them Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, J. D. Crowe and the New South, Mac Wiseman, the Country Gentlemen, II Generation, Ricky Skaggs and Boone Creek, Red Rector, and Bill Clifton.

Arrangement: The Collection is divided into four series as follows: Series 1, Glenn Roberts Firestone Tire Radio Program Recordings, 1972-1976, and undated; Series 2, Bluegrass Festival Recordings, 1975-1981, and undated; Series 3, Home Jamming REcordings, 1968; and Series 4, Non-performance and Compilation Recordings, 1974-1981, and undated.

Arrangement in each series is chronological, with tapes of questionable dates or with no dates, placed after the dated materials. Printed materials which provided information on the festivals have been placed in the case filewhich is available in the archives' office.

Extent: 6.0 Boxes

Finding Aid/Inventory
Series 1: Glenn Roberts Firestone Tire Radio Program Recordings, 1971-1976, and undated
Series 2: Bluegrass Festival Recordings, 1975-1981, and undated
Series 3: Home Jamming Recordings, 1968
Series 4: Non-performance Recordings and Compilation Tapes, 1974-1981, and undated

Other Note: Click on the URL below for Index to collection.

Other URL: http://www.etsu.edu/cass/Archives/Collections/afindaid/a379.htm

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Scope and Contents: The Glenn E. Roberts, Jr. Collection consists of audiotapes of Roberts' radio program; of bluegrass festival performances; and of home jamming sessions involving Roberts and other Southwest Virginia musicians.

Index to collection available.