Bert Baumbach, Final Member of the Dixie Flyers, Has Died
Bluegrass music is a distinct art form specifically from Kentucky and the southeastern United States. But one group took it upon themselves to import this important form of country music north of the border to Canada, and became very successful doing it. They called themselves the Dixie Flyers, not to be confused with a Nashville minor league hockey team, or a Tennessee studio group of the same name, and now their final founding member has died.
Led by flatpicking guitarist Bert Baumbach and mandolin player Ken Palmer, the group was formed in Toronto in 1974 with harmonica player Willie P. Bennett, bassist Brian Abbey and banjo player Dennis LePage on the banjo. Later based out of London, Ontario, Bert Baumbach and Ken Palmer were the primary singers, as well as the group’s nexus throughout the years as other players came and went.
When performing at the Carlisle Bluegrass Festival in 1975, the group caught the ear of none other than the Father of Bluegrass, Billy Monroe. “The Dixie Flyers play good bluegrass. They play it the right way,” Monroe was quoted saying about the group, and the endorsement made them a foundational and influential outfit for bluegrass in Canada. Monroe also invited them down to perform at his Bean Blossom Festival in Indiana.
Soon the Dixie Flyers were signed to Boot Records, releasing albums, and playing folk and bluegrass festivals throughout North America. They hosted a television show called Bluegrass Express on CFPL out of London in 1985, and also took part in a weekly radio show on CJBX-FM for seven years. These efforts really helped to spread the love for bluegrass throughout Canada.
After experiencing heart problems, mandolin player Ken Palmer retired from the group in 2010, and passed away in 2013, but not before they were indicted into the London, Ontario Music Hall of Fame. Bert Baumbach continued to keep the group going in different iterations throughout the years.
On November 23rd, Bert Baumbach died at University Hospital, London, Ontario, at the age of 76. Dementia had taken away his ability to play guitar some years before, but he sang all the way up to his death. Born Robert John Baumbach in 1945, he was known by family and friends as Robert, not Bert. He attended Central Collegiate where he met his wife Margaret who he married in 1969.
Robert Baumbach is survived by his brother Gary Baumbach, sisters-in-law Alma Hyslop, Judy House, Pat Montague, and several nieces and nephews. He was cremated upon his wishes, and no funeral services are planned.
November 28, 2021 @ 1:26 pm
…And predating them, the Dixie Flyers house band at Miami’s Criteria Studios, beginning in 1969 and really cranking by 1970. Charlie Freeman (guitar), Jim Dickinson (piano,guitar), Tommy McClure (bass), Sammy Creason (drums) and Mike Utley (organ) backed tons of artists as a self contained unit, in various combinations and separately.
November 28, 2021 @ 5:00 pm
Thanks for the history lesson, Trig.
November 28, 2021 @ 8:24 pm
I’m not going to lie. I have to admit that I first read the headline as refering to Burt Bacharach. I then had to go and check: Bacharach is still alive at 93. Not exactly country, but he and his long-time collaborator Hal David did write “The Story of My Life” for Marty Robbins and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” / B.J. Thomas.
I have to admit, too, that I had never heard of Burt Baumbach, but condolences to everyone who did.
November 29, 2021 @ 5:52 am
He was Bert right? not Burt….anyway thanks Trig for the tribute and R.I.P. Baumbach.
December 1, 2021 @ 1:29 pm
I never listened to the Dixie Flyers but I love Willie P Bennet, Blackie and the Rodeo Queen is one of the best ballads around. Still don’t know why it is surprising in any way for Canadians to kick ass at country music, they had the same Celtic folk songs brought in by immigrants and they have a shitload more wilderness and far fewer people, if anything it is more “rural” than the parts of the US that are incorrectly lauded as true home of country music.
April 19, 2023 @ 9:58 pm
It was indeed heartbreaking to lose Bert, just as it was hard to lose Ken a few years earlier—and to lose my own father, Walt Maynard, back in 1999 (Bert was the only man alive who could get away with calling him “Wally”). But I did enjoy a run of six years or so with the Dixie Flyers, so you can imagine my surprise to read that Bert was the “final member” of us to go.
Let me put some folks at ease, if you knew any of us: founding member Brian Abbey is still alive and still making great music: I saw him onstage last November. Founding banjo player Denis Lepage is still very much alive: he just recorded a banjo workshop on YouTube with Duncan Fremlin last year. Willie is gone now, but fiddlers John P. Allen and Peter Robertson (2nd from the right in your picture) are still alive. Bassist David Zdriluk (center, in your picture) lives abroad now (Thailand, I think).
As for me, I’m probably the youngest of the “other players…who came and went,” but I dropped my first solo album, “Desolation Sound,” in 2018, which owes an awful lot to the time I spent with the Flyers, though it definitely steers away from traditional bluegrass.
We all miss Bert a lot. His stage charisma and absolutely rock-steady rhythm guitar were the glue that held a wonderful band together for 40 years. Bill Monroe wasn’t kidding when he called the band, and especially Bert, “bluegrass…the right way.” But a lot of us are still here and still picking, even if the band’s name and identity comes to an end—as it should, I think—now that Bert is gone.