by Loyal Jones

Raymond Kane McLain, leader of the world-renowned McLain Family Band, educator and librarian, was born in Alliance, Ohio, on April 18, 1928.  He is the son of the late Raymond Francis McLain (President of Transylvania University, the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Alabama) and Beatrice Kane McLain (folklorist and dance leader).  Raymond K. graduated from Denison University with a degree in music theory, did graduate work at Harvard University in music composition, and after two years of army service, he studied folklore at the University of North Carolina.  In 1952, he married Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Winslow from Madison, Wisconsin.

McLain's study and collection of Appalachian music took him to eastern Kentucky and a job at the Hindman Settlement School as recreation director in 1954.  Two years later, he became Executive Director of the School where he served for 14 more years.  As director of the Hindman Settlement School, among other things he designed, replaced, and modernized buildings for the settlement's students and regional programs and raised funds, making it possible for the rural Knott County students to go to high school.  With his interests in folklore, he promoted Appalachian Mountain culture, music and dancing of the region, and took Settlement School students to perform across the US at events such as the World's Fair in New York City.  As Music Director for the Berea College Country Dancers, Raymond K. toured the US and South America and performed at the White House for President John F. Kennedy.  McLain edited a collection of regional folk songs for the Council of the Southern Mountains published as Songs of All Time.   He also worked with the War on Poverty projects in the 1960s that brought federal funds and programs into the area.  His wife, Betty, who had previously been recreation director at the school, assisted with programs as they reared their five children.

Their children, Raymond W., Alice, Ruth, Nancy Ann, and Michael, grew up with a love of music of all kinds, especially the music of the Appalachian region.  It was a logical step for Raymond K. to form the McLain Family Band in 1968 when they began performing and doing a weekly show at WKYH-TV in Hazard, KY. 

In 1970, the family moved to Berea, KY, where Raymond K. joined the music faculty at Berea College and created the country's first university level Bluegrass and Appalachian music courses.  The McLain Family Band's overseas touring began after playing for the National Endowment for the Arts Music Committee which met that year in Berea.  Composer Gian Carlo Menotti was so charmed by the band that he invited them to play at his Spoleto Festival in Italy in 1972.  While abroad that summer, they also had musical engagements in Germany and Belgium.  Over the next 18 years, the McLain Family Band made 14 overseas tours performing in a total of 62 foreign countries.

In the mid 1970s, the McLain family bought their Big Hill Farm near Berea and for 13 years hosted the internationally recognized annual McLain Family Festival showcasing family bands from the US and abroad.  Between 1969 and 1989, as one of the top traditional music bands in the US, the McLains performed at bluegrass festivals, toured for arts councils and gave community concerts in all 50 states, as well as having solo concerts at the nation's most prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, the Grand Ole Opry, the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Kentucky's Composer in Residence at the time, Phillip Rhodes, impressed by the McLains' superb musicianship, wrote orchestral arrangements of original McLain songs, commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  Rhodes also wrote for the McLains the first major work ever written for bluegrass band and symphony orchestra, the Concerto for Bluegrass and Orchestra, which was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kentucky Arts Commission.  Peter Schlickle, of "P.D.Q. Bach" fame, composed a major work for the McLains, Far Away From Here. McLain and son, Raymond W. wrote Troublesome Creek Suite and The Fast Lane which were orchestrated by Newton Wayland.  As the first bluegrass band to perform with symphony orchestras, the McLain Family Band performed these pieces in over 200 concerts with more than 100 orchestras nationwide, including Cincinnati, Louisville, Atlanta, Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Anchorage, Rochester, Houston, Denver, Phoenix and the National Symphony Orchestra. 

The McLain Family Band was unique, in part, because of Raymond K's background in classical music theory as well as his understanding of traditional music and culture.  Raymond K. wrote many original musical pieces and arranged other classical and popular compositions for the band, one of the most stunning being his arrangement of the third movement of Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto.  His Recorder Quartet, written while he was in high school, is still available from Schirmer Music Publishers.  The McLain Family Band released 14 recordings through their record company, Country Life Records. 

After being Executive Director of the Hindman Settlement School, teaching at Berea College, and a 20 year career as leader of the McLain Family Band, Raymond K. moved to Lexington, living with his good friend, Peter Taylor, and earning a degree in Library Science from the University of Kentucky.  He worked at the Lexington Public Library for 10 years before retiring in 1996.  Denison University, his alma mater, awarded Raymond K. an honorary Doctor of Music degree.

McLain's dedication to education and music continues as all his children are involved in music and education.  Raymond W. is Assistant Director of the Bluegrass and Country Music Program at East Tennessee State University, Michael leads the Bluegrass Ensemble and teaches acoustic instrument instruction at Belmont University, Al White, husband of Alice and former member of the family band, teaches similar courses at Berea College, Alice teaches first grade at Silver Creek Elementary School near Berea, and Nancy Ann and Ruth are both Executive Supervisors with Usborne educational books. 

Raymond Kane McLain is survived by 5 children, their mother, Betty Tallmadge, 12 grandchildren, his sister, Rosemary Ware, who is a singer-songwriter in Jackson, Mississippi, and his mother, Beatrice Kane McLain who lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.