Wayne Bonham grew up on Town Branch in Jonesville where he and his brother, Jack, learned to play the guitars by listening and watching some local players. The music that he listened to came from Nashville radio, local radio and the TV stations in Bristol and Johnson City. During high school, he and friends formed a local folk singing group. They played for local events including some stints on local radio. When his college career began, he became a member of a rock band playing rhythm guitar and back up singing-and they played for various events at LMU. Thirty years later, he and his wife along with Fred Cox Jr., began folk singing again and performed locally for about 4 years. Bluegrass is now his music—“I really love the bluegrass style of playing, I’m hooked.”
Wayne, an U.S. Army veteran, served with the 11th infantry brigade in Vietnam, is a retired employee of the Lee County School System, where he taught Carpentry at the Vocational Center for 20 years then transferred to the Maintenance Department as supervisor. His wife of 34 years, Deborah, is from Jonesville also. They have 2 daughters and 1 grandson.
(Check back to our website as we will be featuring a brief bio about each band member in the future.)
