“Top” Ten Music Losses of 2024: Ben Eldridge (#8)

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Good morning, or afternoon, or evening, or whenever! It’s time to soldier on through the cold (which I’m sure is affecting the internet ) and give you another person from the world of music that we lost last year. While I do a monthly list, the people I’ve highlighted this month meant a little more to me personally. Here’s today’s performer. #8: Ben Eldridge A mathematician by trade, Ben Eldridge didn’t think he’d be obscure enough working at Johns Hopkins University in that capacity, so he decided to play banjo and form a bluegrass band to be really obscure! The problem is, the band he was a part of, the Seldom Scene, got very popular. Seldom Scene might hold the record for the most intelligent bluegrass band in history: in addition to Eldridge, John Starling was a physician and Tom Gray worked at National Geographic as a cartographer. Those are some heavy accolades, like the bluegrass version of Queen’s Brian May. Through the years other members retired or passed away, leaving only Eldridge as an original member in the band. (Tom Gray, the original bassist, is still living; however, he retired 40 years ago.) When Eldridge retired in 2016, that closed the book on the original band members. Now, with his passing, only Gray (who’s 83) remains alive from the original lineup. The Seldom Scene’s hybrid traditional/progressive bluegrass style influenced generations of musicians in and out of bluegrass music. Ben Eldridge Born Benjamin Rolfe Eldridge, August 15, 1938, Richmond, Virginia Died April 14, 2024, Spotsylvania County, Virginia (natural causes) (age 85) HALL OF FAME: Bluegrass (with the Seldom Scene) Seldom Scene performing Gram Parson’s classic “Hickory Wind”: