Vic Mullen

Mullen, Vic

Vic (Melvin Victor) Mullen. Banjoist, fiddler, mandolinist, record producer, b Woodstock, Yarmouth County, NS, 28 Jan 1933. He took up guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo in turn, and at 16 toured as a mandolinist with Ned Landry. After playing in the 1950s with the Rainbow Valley Boys, the Country Harmony Boys (on CKVR radio, Barrie, Ont), and with Kidd Baker, he formed his own bluegrass band, the Birch Mountain Boys, in 1959. Mullen was seen nationally in the early 1960s with the Bluenose Boys on CTV's 'Cross Country Barndance,' 1962-9 as a banjo player on 'Don Messer's Jubilee,' and 1970-4 as music director and leader of the Hickorys on CBC TV's 'Countrytime'.

After serving 1974-80 as co-host for CBC radio's 'Country Road,' he returned to concert work, fiddling with Meadowgreen (which had supplanted the Birch Mountain Boys as his bluegrass band in 1975) or the Vic Mullen Band (an old time group). He toured Canada more than 20 times 1980-91, appearing in clubs and at festivals. Mullen's discography includes LPs for Rodeo in the mid-1960s with the Birch Mountain Boys and under his own name (Bluegrass Banjo, RBS-1121; Mr. Country Strings, RBS-1203; Swingin' Fiddle, RBS-1226), as well as albums for Arpeggio (RCA), MCA and, in the late 1980s, his own Jay-Vee label. He also produced and/or played on many recordings while in charge of A&R for Rodeo in the mid-1960s.