Carlton Haney died

Bluegrass impresario Carlton Haney, a promoter and booking agent who helped popularize the music by spearheading the bluegrass festival phenomenon, died Wednesday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C. A member of the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame, Haney was 82 years old.

Haney served as a booking agent for Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys from 1953-55, and as booking agent and manager for Don Reno, Red Smiley & The Tennessee Cut-Ups from 1955-64. As a festival promoter, he worked with practically every big name in bluegrass music beginning in 1965, when he organized what he called the “Blue Grass Festival” on a horse farm in Fincastle, Va.

That “Blue Grass” (Haney preferred the two-word phrase rather than the now-common “bluegrass” because Monroe’s band was called the Blue Grass Boys) festival featured Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Mac Wiseman, Doc Watson, the Stanley Brothers and many more, and it was successful enough to spawn hundreds of other bluegrass festivals. Those festivals were a major shot in the arm for bluegrass, as they provided a means by which fans could hear a bevy of top acts in one weekend and often interact with musicians in informal “pickin’ sessions.”