Pete Goble born 24 April 1932

Pete Goble (April 24, 1932 - July 25, 2018) was an American bluegrass musician and prolific songwriter.

Pete Goble was immediately hooked on bluegrass music when he heard the Flatt and Scruggs recording of ‘Down the Road’ from Mercury Records in 1949. His love of Country and Bluegrass music spanned his lifetime while Pete honored the catchy folk songs, the lonesome ballads, and spirited dance tunes by writing and performing some of the most memorable tunes ever recorded in bluegrass music history.

Billy Gill & Pete Goble 1961

John ‘Pete’ Goble was born in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. He grew up in the mountains of the Bluegrass state, then moved to Detroit, Michigan, with his family in 1948 where he worked at Great Lakes Steel until he retired. Pete taught himself to play the guitar in his early 20s and soon began penning song verses and laying them down to music. Some of Pete’s early work in the mid-1950s included You’ll be a Lost Ball, I’ll Drink No More Wine, and I’ll Never Take No For An Answer.

Pete often collaborated with his long-time friend, Leroy Drumm. Over the years, the duo produced classic bluegrass material for renowned artists Alison Krauss, The Bluegrass Cardinals, The Country Gentlemen, Dailey and Vincent, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Martin, Larry Sparks, The Osbourne Brothers, Rhonda Vincent and many more. Pete also collaborated with Doyle Lawson and Bobby Osborne on “For God Sent an Angel.”

                      Here's "Coleen Malone" from above album

                                    

Pete’s repertoire of written material produced classic Bluegrass hits such as, Please Search Your Heart, Son of a Sawmill Man, Morristown, Midnight Angel, and all-time favourites, ‘Circuit Rider,’ ‘I’d Like To Be A Train,’ and ‘Julianne.’ Pete released two singles in 1961/62 on the Happy Hearts label with Billy Gill & the Kentucky Rebels. He later released five albums during his extraordinary music career, including; ‘Tennessee 1949,’ with Bill Emerson in 1987, ‘Dixie In My Eye’ in 1989, ‘Webco Classics Volume 1: Emerson and Goble in 1994, ‘When I’m Knee Deep in Blue Grass’ in 2005, and ‘Back to Jubilee Road,’ with Andy Ball in 2013. Pete wrote, co-wrote, sang, and played the guitar on nearly every song on his album releases. He also was featured in the Complete Vanguard Recordings from The Country Gentlemen with several songs he co-wrote and sang.

Over seven decades of music excellence, Pete created and composed some of bluegrass music’s most influential and admired favourites. His beloved compositions of Tennessee 1949, Blue Virginia Blues, Coleen Malone, Windy City, Big Spike Hammer, Call of the Whippoorwill, Thank God for the Highways, Born to be a Drifter, (Pretty) Roses Remind Me of You, It’s Amazing What Sunshine Can Do, remain Bluegrass standards today. Goble also regularly attended the Milan Bluegrass Festival and also once played at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., the original home for the Grand Ole Opry.

In 1996, when 65 years of age, he survived crashing his ultralight plane on US Rt. 23 near his farm on Summerfield Road in Petersburg, Michigan, although not surprisingly he suffered serious injuries. These led to severe arthritis that got so bad that he could not play guitar in his later years. He had been flying for 28 years.

Pete Goble has been honoured with many awards throughout his celebrated career. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2002. He was awarded the IBMA Song of the Year in 1991 for Colleen Malone, which Hot Rize recorded. In 1997 Pete was honoured as Songwriter of the Year by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America. He later accepted his induction into the Southeast Michigan Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Honour along with Leroy Drumm in 2017. For a brief period in his later years he had his own band, Jubilee Road in which his daughter Martin would sing back up vocals.

Leroy Drumm & Pete Goble

Pete Goble passed away on July 25, 2018. He was suffering from pneumonia and confined to Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, Wyandotte, Michigan, when he died at aged 86.Though he was among the most recorded songwriters in bluegrass, with more than 90 cuts, Goble said before he died that he had written over 700 in total. He was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2022. Pete lived most of his life in Michigan, yet his legacy will always be pure Bluegrass. His massive output of recorded favourites will undoubtedly impact the next wave of Bluegrass singer-songwriters and forever cement Pete Goble’s enormous influence on the direction of Bluegrass Music for generations to come.

(Edited from Kentucky Music Hall of Fame.com, Bluegrass Today & Rocky52)