Compton couldn't stay away from his craft and In the mid-1990s, he joined John Hartford in touring, and recording several albums together with him. Compton continued to dabble with music recording albums with various artists, and in 1995, he recorded with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. After a bus accident, which left Mark Hembree injured, Compton reassessed his life, eventually temporarily quitting the business and moved to the Catskills, working as a cottage caretaker. In the mid-1980s, Compton helped found one of the 20th Century's most admired and influential bluegrass groups, the iconic Nashville Bluegrass Band. He spent the early 1980s working as a cook, a printer, and as a part-time musician. Four years later, in 1981, he left Davis' band. At the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in 1975, he finally met Monroe.Īfter Compton had finished his education at the Meridian Junior College he gravitated to Nashville and joined Hubert Davis and the Season Travelers in 1977. He became interested in bluegrass music and eventually learned to play like Bill Monroe. Initially, Compton began playing the trombone but switched to guitar instead and later to mandolin playing old-time music with his cousin. Compton learned music from an early age as his great-grandfather was an old-time fiddler. With more than 120 recordings in his discography, including work with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Patty Loveless, Compton has helped keep mandolin a cool, relevant sound as the modern musical styles ebb and evolve to reach an ever-broadening audience.Ī native of Mississippi, Compton picked up the mandolin in his teens and absorbed the area's native blues, old-time country, and bluegrass sounds. A compelling entertainer either alone or with a group, his skills as a singer, arranger, instrumentalist, composer, and accompanist also make him in-demand as a band member and ensemble player at festivals, clubs and concert halls, recording sessions, music workshops, and as a private instructor. Mike Compton's decades of touring and recording - with musical luminaries ranging from rockstars Sting, Gregg Allman, and Elvis Costello, to straight-from-the-still acoustic legends such as John Hartford, Doc Watson, Peter Rowan, Ralph Stanley, and David Grisman - have established Compton as a true master of the modern American mandolin and a premier interpreter of roots and Americana musical styles.Ĭompton's mastery of mandolin is at once effortless and exceptional. Mandolin students from around the world make the pilgrimage to his annual Monroe Mandolin Camp in Nashville, Tennessee, where Compton and a select handful of other experts teach everything from the basics of bluegrass mandolin (fiddle and banjo) to the most intimate details of Monroe's endlessly inspiring mandolin style. Biography īefriended and mentored by Bill Monroe, the acknowledged Father of Bluegrass Music, Mike Compton is one of today's foremost interpreters of Monroe's genre-creating mandolin style. He is considered a modern master of bluegrass mandolin. Michael Compton (born Februin Meridian, Mississippi) is an American bluegrass mandolin player and former protégé of the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe.
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