Noah Crase Born:  December 10, 1934 Died:  April 13, 2010 Brown County Jamboree

About The Artist Noah Crase was an Appalachian-born Kentuckian whose family migrated to Ohio during his childhood He became one of the earliest bluegrass banjo pickers after Earl Scruggs to develop his own style. A mail man in Springboro, Ohio by occupation, Crase was seldom a full-time musician, working evenings and weekends in clubs and at festivals. He won wide praise for his original tune "Noah's Breakdown." Ironically, Crase recorded little if anything under his own name. The earliest recordings-including his signature tune-were made with Dave Woolum's band. Although recording with Woolum, he was never a part of his band. He also recorded with Red Allen, Frank Wakefield, and perhaps other southwest Ohio musicians. In the mid-1950s, Noah spent two brief stints with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, but made no recordings with him. By the seventies when long play albums became more common, Crase played longer stints with the Nu Grass Pickers and was the first banjo picker with the Aubrey Holt-led Boys from Indiana. Unlike many bluegrass pickers who played clubs only from necessity, Crase possibly like Red Allen, seemed to prefer working in the hillbilly bars that provided work for aspiring pickers. Noah eventually retired from the postal service and died at the age of 75. Credits & Sources Hillbilly-Music.com would like to express its thanks to Ivan M. Tribe, author of Mountaineer Jamboree — Country Music in West Virginia and other books that can be found on Amazon.com and numerous articles in other publications for providing us with information about this artist.

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