Buzz Busby born 6 September 1933

Bernarr Graham Busbice (September 6, 1933 – January 5, 2003), known professionally as Buzz Busby, was an American bluegrass musician, known for his mandolin style and high tenor voice. He was nicknamed the "Father of Washington, D.C. Bluegrass". 

Busby was born near Eros, Louisiana, the eighth born of the nine children of Oates Oliver (1893-1943) and Talitha Fay (1894-1956) Busbice. In addition to running the family cotton farm, Oates was involved in local politics and Talithe (Fay) was a school teacher. Busbice and his siblings, some of whom were also musicians (notably Wayne Busbice), spent their Saturday nights listening to WSM's Grand Ole Opry and playing for dances with other area musicians. It was likely Busby's first experience with the mandolin came when his neighbor, Allen Crowell, would bring his mandolin over to play during his early childhood. 

Buzz picked up the guitar first, learning chords and simple runs from his brothers, Wayne and Lemoyne, who were playing guitar-fiddle duets and singing Monroe Brothers harmonies around their community. Buzz would eventually settle on the mandolin, and his complex style was born. In the late 1940s, Busby started a band with high school friend and guitarist Rot Fuller. Busby honed his mandolin and vocal skills by performing the music of Bill Monroe around the West Monroe, Louisiana area. 

Busby graduated from Eros High School in 1951. Because he was valedictorian of his class, Busby was recruited by the FBI, which was seeking gifted young people at that time. In June 1951 Busby moved to the Washington DC area to begin his career with the FBI. Shortly after his arrival in Washington while still working his day job at the FBI, Busby met Scotty Stoneman. It was through Stoneman that Busby met Jack Clement, who was then in the military and stationed in the Washington area, and they formed the Tennessee Troupers, named for Clement's home state. Roy Clark joined the group for a while on banjo. The group had no trouble finding jobs in 1951 and 1952, Buzz recalled playing four to five nights a week during this time. 

Busby, Clement and Scotty Stoneman played locally at first, then did stints at WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia and WCOP in Boston. Clement returned home to Tennessee after their shows in Boston ended. Busby was part of a novelty duo called Buzz and Jack with the talented songwriter and performer Jack Clement in 1953 and in the following years was featured with regularity on the television show Hayloft Hoedown on WRC-TV out of Washington, D.C. He was a regular from 1955 through 1956 with his group the Bayou Boys on the aforementioned Louisiana Hayride, a popular show which broadcast on Shreveport's KWKH. 

                                    

Busby leased out one of his early recordings for the indie Jiffy label to bluegrass enthusiast Bill Carrol during this period. This turned out to be a bit of bluegrass history as it was the acorn from which a grand tree known as the Rebel label grew. In the '60s, this label would make bluegrass history and help establish an entire new generation of artists. Busby seems to have his foot in bluegrass legend even when not intending to, in fact even when things happen that nobody would ever plan such as a car accident. In 1957, he and banjo hotshot Eddie Adcock got into a pile-up in the D.C. area and were hospitalized. A pickup band was thrown together to play a gig the pair had booked the next day, and that band worked out so well it turned into the Country Gentlemen, one of the biggest bluegrass groups ever.

Busby continued selling his original songs and wound up producing a series of hits through the '50s and '60s. If country music thrives on melodrama and tragedy, Busby seems to be hitting the main vein with titles such as "Lost" and "This World's No Place to Live, But It's Home," while some of his other subjects suggest he might be writing music for a weatherman friend: "Cold and Windy Night," "Lonesome Wind," "Blue Vietnam Skies." 

There was also the playful side to Busby, which made him a natural for the kind of rockabilly material that many country and bluegrass artists of his generation toyed with. "Zzztt" was an off-the-wall regional single with Busby and partner Wink Lewis, and he also liked to produce entertaining instrumentals such as "Mandolin Twist" and "Talking Banjo." The hit songs, combined with a strong mandolin style, kept Busby working steadily on the country and bluegrass scenes, on his own and in the groups of artists such as Jim Eanes and Bill Emerson. Of special interest was a duo with wonderful banjo wizard Don Stover.

Following a long battle with Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and major heart surgery in the early '90s, he was moved to a nursing facility in Catonsville, Maryland, where he died of heart failure on January 5, 2003.  (Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)