John Hartford: An American Treasure

By Grady Kirkpatrick

Published January 4, 2018 at 4:54 PM MST

In celebration of the 80th birth anniversary of John Hartford on December 30, 2017, Wyoming Public Radio rebroadcast John Hartford: An American Treasure produced by Grady Kirkpatrick at WNKU Highland Heights, KY in June of 2001 shortly after John passed away from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

The two-hour special features remembrances from Sam Bush, Mike Compton, Doug Dillard, Tommy Smothers, Carnival Bob, Eddie Pennington, Katie Laur and Nikki Dakota along with the words and music of fiddler, banjo player, singer, songwriter, dancer, calligrapher and steamboat pilot...John Hartford. Thanks to John Hartford’s family and friends, NPR News, Smithsonian Productions and Dirty Linen Magazine.

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Grady Kirkpatrick

Grady has taken a circuitous route from his hometown of Kansas City to Wyoming. Sometime after the London Bridge had fallen down, he moved to Arizona and attended Arizona State University and actually graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. ("He's a Lumberjack and he's OK……..!") He began his radio career in Prescott in 1982 and eventually returned to Kansas City where he continued in radio through the summer of 1991. Public Radio and the Commonwealth of Kentucky beckoned him to the bluegrass state where he worked as Operations/Program Manager at WKMS in Murray and WNKU in Highland Heights just across the Ohio from Cincinnati.

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