John Duffey (1934 to 1996) was a mandolin player and tenor singer from Washington, D.C. He co-founded two of the most influential bands in bluegrass: the Country Gentlemen in 1957 and the Seldom Scene in 1971. Both bands are in the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. His soaring tenor and his rock-tinged mandolin helped make the D.C. area a center of progressive bluegrass.
Why Duffey matters
Duffey proved bluegrass could take songs from anywhere. He pulled material from folk song books, hymnals, Bob Dylan, and country radio, and he played mandolin with a rock and jazz edge. The Country Gentlemen brought that approach to the folk revival. The Seldom Scene made it a weekly club ritual for 25 years. Most modern bluegrass bands that mix old songs with new ones are following a road Duffey paved.
Life and career
Duffey was born on March 4, 1934, in Washington, D.C., and spent nearly his whole life in the area. His father sang at the Metropolitan Opera. John started on guitar at 17 when a neighbor talked him into it, and he went on to play mandolin, dobro, and guitar.
On July 4, 1957, Buzz Busby’s band was hurt in a car wreck. Guitarist Charlie Waller called Duffey and banjo player Bill Emerson to cover the dates, and that pickup band became the Country Gentlemen. From 1960 to 1964 the classic lineup of Waller, Duffey, Eddie Adcock, and Tom Gray toured the bluegrass and folk circuits. Duffey also worked as a session musician. In 1969, just before the band’s first tour of Japan, he quit, citing his fear of flying.
He went to work repairing instruments. In 1971 he joined a group of friends jamming in Ben Eldridge’s basement: John Starling, Mike Auldridge, Tom Gray, and Eldridge. They became the Seldom Scene, a name Waller gave them as a joke. Each member kept a day job and the band played one night a week. They held Friday nights at the Red Fox Inn in Bethesda from January 1972 to September 1977, then moved to the Birchmere in Alexandria. They released Act I in 1972 and both Act II and Act III in 1973.
Duffey stayed with the Seldom Scene through lineup changes, singing tenor above lead singers like Phil Rosenthal and, at the end, Dudley Connell. The Country Gentlemen entered the Hall of Fame in 1996. Two months later, on December 10, 1996, Duffey died of a heart attack in Arlington, Virginia.
Playing style
Duffey played mandolin with a punch. His breaks have bluesy bends, quick runs, and a rhythmic snap that came as much from rock and jazz as from Monroe. That rock and jazz flavor was rare in bluegrass in the 1960s, and it gave the Country Gentlemen an edge with folk revival crowds.
His voice was his biggest weapon. He sang tenor that climbed into falsetto, high above Waller’s baritone in the Gentlemen and above Starling’s lead in the Scene. The Duffey, Starling, and Auldridge vocal blend defined the early Seldom Scene.
Influences and legacy
Duffey came up in the D.C. scene that Buzz Busby built. He played beside Charlie Waller, Bill Emerson, Eddie Adcock, Tom Gray, John Starling, Mike Auldridge, and Ben Eldridge.
When he left the Country Gentlemen, Jimmy Gaudreau and then Doyle Lawson took over his chair. Dudley Connell joined him in the Seldom Scene for its 1996 album Dream Scene.
Signature tunes and songs
Rider Wait a Minute Muddy Water.
Essential recordings
Act I, with the Seldom Scene (Rebel, 1972) Act II, with the Seldom Scene (Rebel, 1973) Act III, with the Seldom Scene (Rebel, 1973) Dream Scene, with the Seldom Scene (1996)
Awards and honors
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, with the classic Country Gentlemen (1996) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, with the original Seldom Scene (2014)
Watch and listen
The Seldom Scene play Rider in 1979. Watch Duffey take the mandolin break and sing the high part.
What to learn from Duffey
Pick a song from outside bluegrass that you love, a folk, rock, or country tune, and arrange it for a jam. Keep the bluegrass rhythm, then write a mandolin break that borrows one lick from the original record. That is how Duffey built a repertoire. On the singing side, practice a tenor part a third above the lead, then try a falsetto note at the peak of the chorus.
Sources
John Duffey, Wikipedia The Country Gentlemen, Wikipedia The Seldom Scene, Wikipedia Recipients and inductees by year, IBMA
Related players
See the mandolin players hub and the mandolin guide. Duffey’s first band grew out of Buzz Busby’s. Jimmy Gaudreau and Doyle Lawson followed him in the Country Gentlemen.