Mike Compton (born February 29, 1956 in Meridian, Mississippi) is an American bluegrass mandolin player and former protege of the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. He is considered a modern master of bluegrass mandolin.
Compton learned music from an early age as his great-grandfather was an old-time fiddler. Initially, Compton began playing the trombone but switched to guitar instead and later to mandolin playing old-time music with his cousin. H...
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Mike Compton (born February 29, 1956 in Meridian, Mississippi) is an American bluegrass mandolin player and former protege of the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. He is considered a modern master of bluegrass mandolin.
Compton learned music from an early age as his great-grandfather was an old-time fiddler. Initially, Compton began playing the trombone but switched to guitar instead and later to mandolin playing old-time music with his cousin. He became interested in bluegrass music and eventually learned to play like Bill Monroe. At the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in 1975, he finally met Monroe. After Compton had finished his education at the Meridian Junior College he moved to Nashville and joined Hubert Davis and the Season Travelers in 1977. Four year later, in 1981, he left Davis' band. He spent the early 1980s, working as a cook and a printer and only occasionally as a musician. In the mid-1980s, he joined the Nashville Bluegrass Band but left the band in 1988 due to a road...
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