The Colorado Bluegrass Music Society has inducted Joan Wernick along with four other Coloradoans into the Colorado Bluegrass Hall of Honor. The five chosen for their longtime and significant impact on bluegrass music in Colorado also includes Mike Dow, Craig Ferguson, Dave Patton, and Steve Szymanski. In a January 2007 CBMS Pow’r Pickin’ article, BJ Souter says of the new inductees, “Their combined contributions illustrate the marvelous role bluegrass music plays in Colorado and epitomize what it takes to keep the music flourishing.
The article continues with a profile on Joan’s many accomplishments and her devoted and varied involvement in bluegrass music.There’re kudos for her long-time role with community radio station KGNU, including as host of the hugely popular Old Grass, GNU Grass program.
The article also describes her impressive performance credentials, as lead vocalist in Pete Wernick & FLEXIGRASS; singer and guitarist in the Pete & Joan Wernick (Dr. & Nurse Banjo) duo; and her membership in the County Cooking band in the 1970’s. And Joan’s role in bluegrass is not merely earthbound, either! The article sites an impressive accomplishment: having her vocal recording of Big Rock in the Roadplayed on the planet Mars in 2004, to wake up the Space Rover! Suter says, Now that’s really spreading the spirit and sound of bluegrass!
Joan now joins her husband Pete “Dr. Banjo Wernick”, inducted in 2006, as esteemed members of the Colorado Bluegrass Hall of Honor.
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