I spoke with Allen this morning. He was recently diagonosed with leucemia.

He was getting ready for a fishing trip and had felt tired, run down and just bad. He went to the doctor and was admitted immediately. I won't add details because I'll get them incorrect, but he is recieving treatment at this point.

I see his brother in law each week at our local flea market and ask him this morning how Allen was doing.... he said not too good. We talked a good while about different music related things when I asked him when he talked to Allen again ask him about a thing or two for me when he spoke with him again. He said, well just wait a minute and ask him your self. He pulled out his cell phone and in a few minutes I was talking to Allen.
He said right now its "day by day". The leucemia that he has in not cureable but the hope is that its controllable. I was given way too much information to digest and diseminate here correctly so I'll not do that.
But if you'd like to make Allen feel alot better get a card or write him a letter and I'll have an address hopefully tomorrow that it can be sent to. I remember a few years ago when we did a similar thing for Carlton Haney for his birthday on the bluegrassL nd he got 3 large mail sacks of cards and letters.

If you've ever been laid up you know how a warm message makes you feel, so get them ready and lets fill Allen's mail bag's full. If there is a banjo player who enjoyed performing for all of us it has been Allen Shelton. So it'll only cost a few cents and a few minutes, but the healing force it will carry will show soon.

I'll be back soon with an address.

Doug-

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  18:23:41          

Sorry to hear this, I love his playing and reading about him in the master of 5-string banjo, I felt like he was a nice guy. I wish him well.

www.myspace.com/pepperlaingt...nestarkillers

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  18:42:29      

Yeah , he's much admired and talked about ALOT on a regular basis around here. Yeah, great idea sendin cards!!! Im IN!

http://www.myspace.com/johnkuhnbluegrass

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  18:45:51        

I had the good fortune of meeting him at Bobby Thompson's benefit in 2004 and a get-together at Jesse McReynolds' place a couple of years ago. I am so sorry to hear of his illness!!

www.bobbythompsonbanjo.com

Edited by - Ronnie on 10/11/2009 18:47:28

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  18:48:34    

That is sad news indeed. Hopefully he will have a good quality of life with treatment. He is absolutely one of my favorite banjo players from those golden years. I loved his style of playing. I wish him the best. I will be looking for his address. Thanks for posting this.

bulland

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  18:49:27        

He is my banjo hero. A true non-conformist and inovator. I'll gladly send him a get well card if you post an address.


PD
There's so little time and so much room to experiment, why choose to play like someone else? If I were Earl, I wouldn't play it like me either.

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  19:11:25    

Doug,

Thak you for the update.

I'm so sorry to hear the news is not good.

Please relay my prayers to Allen and his family.

I've been putting together my story of a weekend in 1969 when I met Allen. A few months ago I spoke to his son and relayed some information and music to Allen.

You can hear my recordings at http://frobbi.org/walker.html and http://frobbi.org/BatonRouge1969.html

You can see my very treasured photos at http://frobbi.org/slides/La1969/

Here's an example...

Baton Rouge 1969

Edited by - robbif on 10/12/2009 12:36:02

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  19:15:45          

I still have his Shelton Special album (yes album)..lots of good picking on that one for sure..best wishes for a speedy treatment and recovery Mr Shelton

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  19:21:50        

Jim and Jessie and the Virginia Boys was the first nationally-known bluegrass band I saw in person--in 1962. Allen Shelton, of course, was playing banjo with them, and I was awed by his work. After the show backstage, he played a student's RB-100, making it sound like a Mastertone. That was when I first understood that the player is far more important than the banjo in getting that proper "bluegrass sound." My best wishes to Allen in his fight.

Bill

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  19:23:29      

Great banjo player and person!

"Blue Country Bluegrass"

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  20:05:07        

Thanks, Doug. . . I will definitely get something in the mail as soon as you post the address. I grew up on Allen Shelton and had the pleasure of visiting with him a couple of times when he was back with Jim and Jesse in the 1980s. One of my all-time heros. . .

The Prewar Gibson Banjo website
http://www.earnestbanjo.com

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  20:08:56            

What a great banjo player

Banjo Wes
All things excellent are difficult as they are rare.

Spinoza

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  20:16:18        

...wow, I hate to hear about the health problem....Allen is one of the greats on the banjo.......I remember when Al Wood used to run a Music Barn satelite store in Statesville NC in the early 1980's ......... he'd have a jam session on Tueday nights....well, one night, in walked Allen..........eveyone wanted to hear him play so he picked up a " bottle cap" banjo off the wall and started to play "When you're Smilin' and "Has anybody Seen My Gal"...I was playing the fiddle a little and got to stand across from him and watch him play...........the guy has the perfect hands for playing the banjo.........and did he ever play!!!..........I wish him all the best...............peace

......ad fontes..........

Posted - 10/11/2009 :  22:21:34        

One of the Best of the Best.

Don

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  04:37:28    

"Shelton Special" is available on CD and if you don't have it, get it and enjoy it and learn it. It's great stuff.

Squirrels - nature's little speedbumps. Joe Z

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  05:52:36  

Doug,
I'm sorry to hear about Allen. As soon as you post an address, I'll get him a card in the mail. He's a great player and a very nice guy.
Eric Ellis

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  06:24:44        

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoeZ

"Shelton Special" is available on CD and if you don't have it, get it and enjoy it and learn it. It's great stuff.

Squirrels - nature's little speedbumps. Joe Z

---

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  07:52:09      

Somewhere in my possessions I have a picture of Allen with Mac Wiseman, I think it was taken in 1953 while I was serving in Korea. He's always been one of my very favorite pickers. He even looks like a banjo player, long & tall with those great fingers !

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  08:39:24        

Allen was probably my biggest bluegrass banjo influence. I'll definetely send him a card/letter when you post the address.

http://www.jodyhughesmusic.com
Visit My Music Blog for monthly articles on basic musicianship, theory, etc
http://jodyhughesmusic.blogspot.com/

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  10:48:40      

Just got the information

Allen Shelton
c/o Centennial Medical Center
Room 3306
2410 Patterson St.
Nashville, Tn. 37023

Cards and letters are fine, but due to flu, visitation is restricted to immediate family. Non family phone calls are discouraged for now.

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  11:02:26          

Prayers and thoughts for Allen are being sent up from our house. Allen has one of the best and most distinctive right hands in banjodom.

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  11:43:42  

Thank's Doug for the post on Allen. Its been years since i have talked with you. We met at Cecil Halls place and i do not remember the year. We talked your playing banjo and gibson banjos. James Bailey was showing Stelling banjos out of his car. I met Allen early 1952 in Raleigh N C. He was filling in for Hubert Davis with Hack Johnson on the farm hour on radio station WPTF.

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  11:45:45        

Ditto what Jody said. My instructor is a Jim and Jesse alumnus, and he encouraged me to learn as much from Allen Shelton as I could. I'm still learning from him. Allen Shelton is truly one of the all-time greats on the banjo. He can do it all.

Thanks for keeping us updated on his status. Prayers and a get-well card will be forthcoming.

JW

"Old soldiers and old sailors have a place to go,
but no one helps a railroad bum like poor old Hobo Joe".

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  11:55:01    

Doug,

Thanks for the address. Letter goes out in tomorrow's mail.

Here's another photo from that 1969 weekend...

Old South Jamboree, Walker, Louisiana
(Byron Berline, Allen, Mitchell Land, Tootie Williams-hidden, Lonnie Craft)


See the rest at http://frobbi.org/slides/La1969

Edited by - robbif on 10/12/2009 12:32:13

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  13:35:29  

Doug, thanks for the information on Allen (awfully sorry to hear of the diagnosis) and updating with the address.

Posted - 10/12/2009 :  14:09:11      

He is on the prayer list.