John Justus at Indian Ridge

The University of Toledo Urban Affairs Center Press is pleased to announce the release of its first audio media project—a compact disc titled John Justus at Indian Ridge. This recording’s fourteen tracks feature the fiddle and guitar artistry of one of Northwest Ohio’s premiere traditional artists. It was produced by the UT-UAC Press in partnership with the Indian Ridge Recording Studio of Delta, Ohio.

John Justus came to Toledo in 1950 after growing up in Fort Payne, Alabama, where he was surrounded by old time and country music. In Fort Payne, and in north Georgia where his mother’s family lived, he played fiddle and guitar in his older brother’s band. In Toledo, he taught guitar lessons at several prominent studios and steadily gained renown as a guitarist and band leader in Toledo. He played at the Inverness County Club for over twenty years fronting his own band, the John Justus Quartet. Along the way he learned the trade of piano tuning. In the early 1980s, he began to concentrate on the fiddle.

Numerous musical friends of John’s appear on the CD, among them Jess Hurt, Jimmie Thompson, and Larry Reinstein. These are some of the best musicians in the Toledo area, and they were all eager to be a part of this project, which is John’s first professional recording.

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