Mose Rager ― Kentucky's Incomparable Guitar Master

Mose Rager: Kentucky’s Incomparable Guitar Master is the story of this true Kentucky music legend who preferred living the quiet life to the fame he could have earned playing the country music circuit. There are many country guitar legends, Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, and Eddie Pennington, to name a few, who trace the roots of their music to Mose Rager of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky (home of the Everly Brothers). Known for developing a unique thumb-picking style, Mose worked as a barber and a coal miner when he wasn’t playing gigs with Grandpa Jones, Curly Fox and Texas Ruby. Readers will appreciate the skills and easy way of this gifted “box” player, and learn why Highway 176 in Drakesboro, Kentucky is named Mose Rager Boulevard in his honor.

Carlton Jackson (1933–2014) was University Distinguished Professor at Western Kentucky University and the author of numerous books, including Kentucky Maverick: The Life and Adventures of Colonel George M. Chinn, and P. S. I Love You: The Story of the Singing Hilltoppers. His book Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel was listed by the New York Times as one of the fifty most notable books of 1989. Jackson, who died in February 2014, was named WKU’s first University Distinguished Professor in 1996. He was the first in his family to graduate college and went on to enjoy more than a half-century as a professor at Western Kentucky University. He was the first professor at WKU to be selected as the Honorable Mace, was a Western Kentucky University Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History, a Kentucky Colonel and an honorary U.S. Marine. This book represents collaboration with one of his former students Nancy Richey is an Associate Professor and the Visual Resources Librarian for the Department of Library Special Collections at WKU. A native of Mt. Hermon, Kentucky, Richey has been a faculty member at WKU since July 2008. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and WKU where she received degrees in Information Science and Southern History. Richey has served on various historical boards, including Janice Holt Giles Society, Morrison Park Camp Meeting Site Restoration Board and the Daughters of the American Revolution, and has authored/co-authored two local history books in the Images of America series published by Arcadia Press. Growing up in a decidedly non-musical family, nonetheless, she knew that Mose Rager was a subject worthy of book length study because of the worldwide influence and historical significance of his musical legacy. She loves local history and notes that it is not “national history writ small” but that the stories others may have thought “too small” to tell can also be saved in this way. She is pleased to have been able to collaborate on this book with her beloved professor, Dr. Carlton Jackson.