Herb ApplinHerb Applin grew up in the Boston suburbs of Watertown/Arlington MA, and summered in Waterford Maine. As a young fellow in school, he was taking violin lessons, but also listening to country music on radio and records. Country music was very popular in Boston in years past, with a local radio "Barn Dance", the Hayloft Jamboree. The violin took a decided second place to bluegrass fiddle after young Herb heard the Flatt & Scruggs' 78 recording of "Dear Old Dixie" in about 1953. Benny Martin's hot fiddling pretty much ruined the career of the up and coming orchestra player.
As Herb gravitated more and more toward country and early bluegrass music in the 1950's he also took up mandolin and guitar. By 1960 he was a fairly well-rounded bluegrass musician, even sitting in with the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover in their Boston area gigs as their fiddler. After Army service and earning an accounting degree at the University of Maine, Herb got ever more seriously into various bluegrass bands. One early group of friends included Joe Val and Phil Fletcher, calling themselves The Berkshire Mountain Boys. In these early days Joe Val was a banjo player, and Herb played the mandolin.
Joe of course learned mandolin and in the early 1960's also filled in with the Lilly Brothers on either banjo or mandolin (if Everett was mad at Bea and not playing the gig that day). Through the early 1960s Joe and Herb were deeply immersed in the Boston folk music scene, holding their own as the local bluegrass representatives. Herb played a super strong rhythm guitar to Joe's new mandolin skills. Old friend Phil Fletcher helped Herb take possession of a powerful old Martin herringbone D-28. They developed a fine guitar/mandolin duet style honoring the Louvin Brothers. In 1966 they sang some Louvin duets on the seminal LP "Livin' On the Mountain" with Jim Rooney and Bill Keith, for United Artists.
Joe also adventured off into the Charles River Valley Boys, recording such historic things as "Beatle Country". But Joe and Herb always returned together to the homeground of the old duet tunes. They appeared in their duet as "Val & Applin", and by the late 1960's they had brought banjoist Bob French and bass fiddle player Bobby Tidwell together as "The Old Time Bluegrass Singers".
About this time old friend and Berkshire Mountain Boy Phil Fletcher helped Joe Val obtain his wonderful Lloyd Loar F-5 Gibson mandolin, too.
The Old Time Bluegrass Singers made a very well-received guest appearance at Cartton Haney's Berryville Festival in Virginia in 1970 and Rounder Records signed them up to do Rounder's very first bluegrass LP, Rounder 003. Fred Bartenstein who was working with Rounder at the time suggested a new band name that would "sell" better than the "limiting" Old Time Bluegrass Singers -- Joe Val & the New England Bluegrass Boys. That was fine with the fellers, and it stuck.
Herb cut two LPs as Joe's guitar man and duet singer in the early 1970s. After a while, and some long road trips with litle financial reward, Herb decided to stick a little closer to home and play guitar for Don Stover and his White Oak Mountain Boys, after the Lilly Brothers broek up. Basically, Herb swapped music jobs with guitarist Dave Dillon, who left Stover to go with Joe Val. Herb helped Stover with some of his later albums, and even came back several years later to assist Don in his final recording before his untimely death.
Joe Val ALWAYS said his favorite singing partner was Herb Applin, and that he preferred Herb's tenor singing to his own. Few know that Joe secretly preferred Ira Louvin's LEAD singing voice to all other parts.
About 1982, Herb decided to leave Stover, as Stover wanted to move south to Maryland and play further away. Herb dusted off the old Berkshire Mountain Boys name and recruited none other than Bea Lilly to play guitar to Herb's mandolin and fiddle. In these years Herb was really getting the old Everett Lilly sound out of a classic Gibson F-4 round hole mandolin, and of course he knew all the Lilly Brothers material. He and Bea had a GREAT classic bluegrass duet sound. Rhode Islander Butch DeForge joined in on bass fiddle, and in 1982 after doing a Canadian tour with Joe Val as fill-in bass player, Dick Bowden was recruited to play banjo with Herb and Bea. Joe Val was nice enough to give good references for Dick as a "trouper".
Herb and his family summered in Maine near Dick's home, and they had visited and picked informally here and there a bit over the years. They used to sing one or two old Monroe numbers like "The First Whippoorwill". But this was the first time they had really worked together seriously.
This version of the Berkshire Mountain Boys played scores of appearances all over New England and New York for a glorious 5 years. Sometimes New Hampshire bass king Howie Dearborn filled in for Butch, especially after Butch moved his family up into central Maine. The group recorded an album, but sadly it was never released due to technical issues. Their saddest appearance was at the big Harvard University benefit show given to raise money for Joe Val as he was suffering terminal cancer.
The end of this aggregation started to come when Bea became unable to travel much due to age and health. He missed a much anticipated appearance with the band at the Gettysburg festival. Don Stover jumped in at the last minute to play banjo and Dick slid over to play guitar.
After Joe Val passed away, Dave Dillon and Paul Silvius stepped into the Berkshire Mountain Boys. Dick's work took him away to New York state. The Berkshire Mountain Boys finally got a cassette tape released in the late 1980s called "Just For Tonite", showing the hard core traditional music that Herb had always favored.
Through the 1990s as Paul Silvius gave up music and Dave Dillon's job kept him from traveling to play music, Herb cut back more and more, to just the occasional "reunion" apperance with ex-Joe Val pickers or local gigs. He would sometimes join up with Mac MacHale's Old Time Radio Gang to play fiddle or mandolin. For instance, Herb pulled together a group with Dick Bowden and Dave Dillon to play music for the wedding reception of Ron and Allison McCoury in Uxbridge Mass.
After Herb retired from his career with a major defense contractor in the Boston area, he started to get the itch to play more. He started buying different mandolins and fiddles, and even bought a banjo to learn on, and was more ready to "go" for a gig. In the early 2000s he contacted Dick Bowen about a potential gig at a W. Virginia festival. While that fell through, the two made an agreement to explore duet appearances in the guitar/mandolin style. This soon evolved into the re-formed Old Time Bluegrass Singers.
With the new band, Herb has been eagerly learning new material, but also trotting out some his old favorites like "Tragic Romance" and the old Kitty Wells number "Jealous Heart" sped up to bluegrass time. His mandolin playing remains the leading example in the northeast of the "old" style of tremolo-driven style like early Bill Monroe and Everett Lilly. Herb's favorite instrument now is a Buckeye F5 style mandolin, made in Ohio.
Recently while in the studio, Herb did a particularly great job turning the Carter Family song "Where Shall I Be" into a Monroe Brothers/Lilly Brothers style tune with that great old machine-gun mandolin sound. When the tape was shut off, Herb smiled and said "I want a copy of that to mail to Everett Lilly!"
Herb Applin remains, "The Old Time Bluegrass Singer, Himself".
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