John Byrne Cooke
PHOTOGRAPHY
Image No. 65-11-30
On the Banks of the Charles
(Left to right: Joe Val, John Cooke, Everett Alan Lilly, Bob Siggins.)
The Charles River Valley Boys got together at Harvard College to play old-timey music. When banjoist Bob Siggins learned Scruggs-style picking, the band added bluegrass to its repertoire. John Cooke joined the CRVB when the original guitar player indefinitely extended a European sojourn. After the group disbanded in 1968, Joe Val, the great mandolinist and high-lonesome singer, founded his own group, the New England Bluegrass Boys. Joe and his Boys appeared several times on "Prairie Home Companion" in its early years.
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