“Banjo” Bill Cornett Tribute feat. John Haywood, Karly Dawn Milner & Brett Ratliff

Name: “Banjo” Bill Cornett Tribute feat. John Haywood, Karly Dawn Milner & Brett Ratliff
Start: 2024-10-10T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Completely Kentucky

Schedule

Thu Oct 10 2024 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Completely Kentucky | Frankfort, KY

Excited to announce this one! Space is limited. Purchase tickets at catfishalley.org.
Born in 1890, Bill Cornett started playing banjo when he was eight years old. Banjo Bill Cornett was elected to the Kentucky State Legislature in 1956 representing Knott and Magoffin Counties. He was very proud of his composition “Old-Age Pension Blues” which he performed on the floor of the Legislature. In 1960, at age 69, Bill died of a heart attack while playing banjo for customers one evening at Putt’s Restaurant in downtown Frankfort. The following day at the Capitol, his banjo was banked with flowers at his desk in the House chamber.
I’m excited to join with Karly Dawn Milner and John Haywood, two of Kentucky’s most accomplished traditional artists, to celebrate Banjo Bill’s legacy and his music in Frankfort on Oct. 10.
“There was a law in old Kentucky, it was passed in ‘52. It was passed against the aged, some day my friends it might get you. This law was cause of many heartaches among the aged and the poor. Pitch a lien against your homestead, or your pension checks will come no more...
The 1956 General Assembly, knowing that they had nothing to lose. They repealed the old-age lien laws and cured them old-age pension blues.”