On the frosty New Year’s Eve ending 1968, an old wooden house at the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County caught fire. All of the family members inside survived. The two older girls helped their brother and sister, while the eldest boy had a special mission: to gather all of the family’s musical instruments. The house burned to the ground, with clothes, furniture and memorabilia inside, but the McLain family had everything they needed—each other and the instruments that were, increasingly, becoming the focus of their lives.
In Hindman, a banjo was a mainstream instrument, and one of the hubs of community life was the weekly Friday night dance. Some of Raymond W. McLain’s earliest memories are riding on his father’s shoulders while he was dancing and falling asleep to the strains of live music pulsing from the living room. Steeped in the Appalachian music and dance culture of Hindman and surrounded by a family that loved music, the five children of Raymond K. and Betty McLain all developed a talent for singing, dancing and playing. “It was in our bones as we grew up,” says oldest daughter Alice.
As members of the family began to develop their musical talents, Raymond K. decided to start a family band in 1968 with the three oldest children: Raymond W., 14; Alice, 12; and Ruth, 10. Their first steady gig was a weekly television show in Hazard, two weeks after the station went on the air. “To be in a traditional music band just seemed natural,” Raymond W. says.
This year, the McLain Family Band celebrates 50 years of making music together. The story of those 50 years is one of meaningful connections, groundbreaking performances, international friendships and masterful music. Along the way, the family members have become living legends in the world of bluegrass music. How have they continued to play together as a family for so long, through so many changes in their lives? “Music is what we do together,” Nancy Ann says. “The shared experiences bind us together,” Michael adds. It was, and still is, one of the foundations of their family life.
A Diverse Span of Work
In the early years, the band performed for dances and weekly shows, and at music festivals. While simultaneously mingling with and learning from bluegrass luminaries and friends such as Bill Monroe and Jean Ritchie, they also were venturing farther from their Appalachian region and sharing that music with the world.
Partnerships with state and regional arts councils led to performances in all 50 states. The councils would book concerts in large cities as well as small, isolated villages. Alaska was a frequent destination, always in the wintertime, when people really needed music. The McLains traveled to many shows by floatplane or snowmachine. For these remote villages off the road system, the band’s performances were a real highlight. “Often, in the small isolated towns, there were more people in the audience than the population of the town,” Alice says.
In 1972, the McLains received an invitation to play in Italy, their first international concert. In total, the young band traveled to 62 countries over the course of 14 overseas tours, including an around-the-world odyssey in 1975. The 1975 trip was organized by a teenage Alice, who surprised her parents by writing to embassies around the world seeking hosts for a trip. Providentially, those letters also established a relationship with the U.S. State Department, which partnered with the band for years for cultural exchange visits. As ambassadors for bluegrass music and Appalachia, the McLain Family Band introduced thousands of people to the joys of old-time music.
One State Department cable from Romania, after a tour, sings the band’s praises, saying, “Sincere people and talented musicians, they represent the best in American character traits of friendliness, informality, and a sincere respect for and curiosity about other cultures … The McLain style is deceptively professional without being slick or overtly commercial.”
Musically, the McLain family is part of a unique collaboration between disciplines. When Raymond K. began working at Berea College in 1970, he developed a working relationship with the composer-in-residence, Philip Rhodes. Together, they made real a vision of combining bluegrass and classical music with Concerto for Bluegrass Band and Orchestra. This recording led to more than 200 concerts with the McLain Family Band and orchestras across the country.
Signature Songs
“Sharing music is sharing stories,” Nancy Ann says. The story of one of the band’s most requested songs, “Kentucky Wind,” begins in South America. On a tour, the band members were feeling a touch of homesickness, missing their mother, who had stayed home managing the band, and friends back home. The two Raymonds wrote “Kentucky Wind” as a love song to home and as a reminder that the same wind travels the globe, connecting us all wherever we are.
“Troublesome Creek,” written by Raymond W., commemorates a creek that runs through Hindman. Sometimes, it is a placid stream, a place to catch tadpoles and crayfish. But other times, it is troublesome, a rising torrent threatening to flood houses. The music, with a banjo duet, “ripples along like water,” Alice says.
An Immeasurable Influence
When asking the five siblings about the family band, it is not long before someone speaks of Raymond K., who passed away in 2003; Betty died in 2011. They may share one of their father’s aphorisms, a story or a reflection on how he shaped their thinking. His strong work ethic, passion for the world around him, desire to educate, and deep love for his family all were passed along to the next generation.
“Our parents showed such confidence in us. We believed, with some work, we could do anything,” Ruth says. A prime example: When a representative from the White House Conference on Youth phoned Raymond K. before the event and asked if he knew a child who played mountain dulcimer, he said yes. While Ruth played some instruments, she had not played that one … yet. With perfect aplomb, she performed three songs on national television after only two weeks of practice.
The band stopped touring full time in 1990, enabling members time to expand their musical work in other arenas. Sharon White, a lifelong friend of the McLains, says, “It is impossible to measure the influence this family band has had on the bluegrass music world. They continue to inspire and mentor future bluegrass musicians through their work in schools and universities.”
They have been influential in elevating traditional music academically. While teaching at Berea College as an ethnomusicologist, Raymond K. developed the first-anywhere college-level course in bluegrass music. Raymond W. created the country’s first university major in traditional music at East Tennessee State University.
Raymond W. is now the director of the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University, where Ruth also teaches and leads a traditional music ensemble. Michael taught bluegrass music lessons and directed the Belmont Bluegrass Ensemble at Belmont University for more than a decade. Al White, the husband of Alice McLain White and member of the band for many years, teaches music and leads the Bluegrass Ensemble at Berea College.
Golden Anniversary
In 2016, members of the family decided to take the McLain Family Band back on the road. Current touring band members are Raymond W., Alice and husband Al White, Ruth McLain Smith and Daxson Lewis. While Daxson technically is not a McLain, he was welcomed into the band and the family after playing with Raymond W. and Ruth while he was a traditional music student at Morehead State University.
This special 50th anniversary year kicked off with a WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour appearance; a new album, Celebrate Life; and a McLain Family Band pictorial history. Upcoming performances are listed on the band’s website and Facebook page. After tours this summer to Denmark and Ireland, the group has performances with the Symphony of the Mountains from Tennessee this fall and at festivals throughout the region.
The McLain Family Band has been invited to perform at prestigious music venues around the country, including the Grand Ole Opry and Carnegie Hall. But to them, no audience is too small. Raymond W. defines success this way: “Playing music from your heart and having someone feel it—it is a very satisfying thing.”