Bluegrass star Melvin Goins rose from hard times to the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame

Melvin Goins figures his first journey to Renfro Valley came in 1954, as a new member of the famed string-music collective known as the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers.

At the time, the young guitarist had been a Kentuckian for only about a year, having followed the sounds of bluegrass music, along with his banjo-playing brother, Ray Goins, from Bluefield, W.Va.

"I was just a homesick young man back then," Goins, 77, said from his home in Catlettsburg. "I tell you, I thought I had left the United States when I left Bluefield to come to Kentucky. But now look where it's leading me."

Goins' return to Renfro Valley this month, in essence, will be permanent. On Thursday, the artist who has been a bluegrass fixture in the Bluegrass State for more than 57 years will become part of the newest class of inductees in the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. He and brother Ray, who died of cancer in 2007, will be inducted as The Goins Brothers.

Their fellow 2011 inductees are country stars John Michael Montgomery, Steve Wariner and Patty Loveless; gospel artist Larnelle Harris, and the late country singers Keith Whitley and Molly O'Day.

"It's kind of the greatest thing that could ever happen to you in this business," Goins said of the honor. "It's one of the greatest honors that you never expect to get."

A veteran of the last lineup of the Stanley Brothers and, eventually, of Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys, Goins made perhaps his greatest inroads in bluegrass by touring with his brother for more than 35 years as The Goins Brothers.

A career as a professional bluegrass artist seemed remote during Goins' childhood. Music surrounded him then. But to play it? For a living? That was the stuff a young West Virginian's dreams were made of.

"I never thought I would end up in show business," Goins said. "Our daddy was a coal miner. I knew I didn't want to go down in no coal mine. For me, that was out. Then I wanted to be a lawyer, but I never finished school. So I went into bluegrass.

"It was hard times for my family when I was growing up. Me and Ray would walk two miles down an old mountain dirt road to see an old-time fiddler cousin of ours. I would carry a guitar in a feed sack. Ray would carry an old banjo wrapped up in a sheepskin coat. And that's how we learned how to play all those old fiddle tunes."

After managing to "hitchhike and hobo" rides to Pikeville to play live bluegrass sets on WLSI radio, a call came in fall 1953 inviting the Goins boys to move to Kentucky for good and travel with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers.

"Curly Ray (Cline), the fiddle player in the band, drove over on a Sunday morning and picked us up at an old train station. Never will forget it. I had $5 in my pocket as we headed out over that 100 miles between Bluefield and Pikeville in Curly Ray's 1947 Plymouth.

"I won't forget that first show car, either, that the Fiddlers drove to shows in: a 1950 Buick. We tied the bass fiddle on top. We played theaters, schools, drive-ins ... wherever we could. There weren't any bluegrass festivals back then."

And so went the life and music of an adopted Kentuckian. In many ways, little has changed. Goins has continued to tour since brother Ray's death with his own band, Windy Mountain. He maintains strong friendships with many of the musicians he has worked with over the years — including Stanley, who was scheduled to share the stage with Goins in Prestonsburg on Saturday night.

Goins also holds faith in the power of radio. Having listened to Bill Monroe over the air on Saturday nights as a child ("We didn't play the radio except on Saturday because we didn't want to run the battery down"), Goins has hosted two regional bluegrass radio programs for several decades. One is broadcast on WSIP-98.9 FM in Paintsville, and the other airs on WSKV-104.9 FM in Stanton.

"When I do my radio shows, I tell jokes and laugh and just do things the way they did on old radio shows by Uncle Dave Macon and Minnie Pearl.

"I guess I just got in deep with show business and couldn't turn back. The longer I stayed in it, the better I liked it. But it's the people who make you what you are, really. The good Lord is first. But without people behind you and helping you, why you're nothing."

This story was originally published April 3, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bluegrass star Melvin Goins rose from hard times to the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame."