Donald C. Malcolm
"Don 'Cuzin' Isaac' Malcolm has been entertaining listeners with roots music for decades"

(above Cuzin' Isaac, aka Don Malcolm, scans his massive CD collection in his home studio in Langdon. Malcolm performs every week on his radio show, the "Bluegrass Express," which airs Friday mornings on WOOL radio, the low-power community radio station that went live this summer in Bellows Falls.)

(Cuzin' Isaac, aka Don Malcolm, sits in his home studio in Langdon. Malcolm performs ever week on his radio show, the "Bluegrass Express," which airs Friday mornings on WOOL, the low-power community radio station that went live this summer in Bellows Falls.)

LANGDON - A quick temp fiddle and banjo number has just finished playing, rounding out a set of three bluegrass songs, when a gentle tenor voice comes on the air and explains himself.

The voice comes slow, slightly shy but with a practiced radio cadence and authority. It was picked up a little gravel over the years, but New England bluegrass aficionados likely will recognize it; maybe they heard it t a the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass festival in Main, or on a radio stations from Massachusetts up to White River Junction, VT.

This time the voice is broadcasting from a new radio station in Bellows Falls, but Cuzin' Isaac has to assume somebody out there is a longtime listener.

"I may have played some of thee on a previous program," he says, "But it doesn't hurt to repeat once in a while."

The audience should probably forgive Cuzin' Isaac (aka Don Malcolm if he has played a song twice, After all, he's been on the air more than 20 years.

Malcolm performs as Cuzin' Isaac every week on his radio show, the "Bluegrass Express," which airs Friday mornings on WOOL radio, the low-power community radio station that went live this summer in Bellows Falls.

Malcolm, 77, has entertained radio listeners on several stations, mostly college and community radio, like Keene's WKNH and WMUA at the University of Massachusetts. But he has also hone beyond the radio air waves in bringing the gospel of bluegrass to New Englanders, appearing in character as Cuzin' Isaac (which he borrowed from a job as a historical reenactor in Massachusetts) at festivals around the region and through a bluegrass newsletter he began publishing 22 years ago.

Though he held jobs in everything from salesman to driver education teacher, music has been his passion for the better portion of his life.

It al began with radio.

"I grew up on a variety of stuff on the radio," Malcolm said while sitting in his home studio in Langdon, "But when FM came along, it opened up to all kinds of opportunities for people to play music on the radio."

Most of the stuff he had been listening to growing up outside of Boston in the 1940s and 50s was jazz and light classical, both of which he still enjoys. But when one disc jockey began playing what was then called "hillbilly" music in the early 1950s, Malcolm and a few of his friends became instant converts.

He was introduced to people like Hank Williams and Hank Snow and heard a reference to something called the Grand Ole Opry in Tennessee where they performed.

Malcolm sought this music out. There weren't many live bands playing bluegrass in New England, so he raided the record stores. He bought whatever he could find by Hank Williams and Bill Monroe in addition to the jazz and classical records that formed the bulk of his collection. The obsession never ended.

He enjoyed it so much, in fact, he considered a profession in the music industry. But jobs in the field were scarce and not so financially viable. After a college radio professor discouraged Malcolm from going into radio (he recalls being told he wasn't "radio material", Malcolm took a job selling school supplies. He didn't last long.

"I couldn't sell an Eskimo an igloo," he said.

Malcolm bounced around after that., eventually settling into a job teaching driver's education to high school students. But it was a seasonal gig he landed for two summers in 1980-81 that proved to be a pivotal experience in his life.

The job was as "living history interpreter," in which Malcolm played a character named "Isaac Page." Page was a real person, a toll taker who siphoned money from the Pawtucket Canal in the mid-1850's. Dressed in a plaid vest and bowler hat that would become his trademark, Malcolm would greet tourists traveling along the historic canal with a rehearsed spiel.

It was a perfect fit.

"In junior high, I wanted to act and at one time in high c\school, I told my mother after I graduated I wanted to go to acting school," Malcolm recalled. "She told me, 'You'll never make any money doing that."

Malcolm retired from full time work shortly after he left the job in 1981, but he was only beginning to cash in his pent up ambition. After moving to New Hampshire with his wife, Ruth, Malcolm heard a radio station in Walpole (the now defunct WTIJ) was looking for disc jockeys. He applied, got the job and borrowed the persona he knew so well from his job on the Pawtucket Canal (he added "Cuzin'" just because it seemed to suit the character), Malcolm aired a three-hour bluegrass show every Saturday morning.

That was in March 1983. It didn't take long to catch on with the local audience. Malcolm began getting letters from listeners inquiring about the music. Most of what was being played on the airwaves was popular music, classical or talk; not much "roots" music, as it has come to be known.

The response encouraged him to publish a newsletter, called "The Bluegrass Gazette," that listed festival in New England. It would become Malcolm's lasting gift to the region's Bluegrass community and cement his reputation as one of the genre's greatest supporters.

Now entering the 23rd year of its publication, the Gazette was passed off several years ago to Candi Sawyer at Mountain High Bluegrass Associates.

Sawyer, a bluegrass musician herself, has known Malcolm (or "Cuz" as she calls him) for about 25 years. She things her long relationship with Malcolm might be why he trusted her with the project.

"His biggest fear was that he did not want to see it come to an end," Sawyer said. "I was afraid I was going to let him down, but it has grown."

The Gazette now boasts an annual circulation of 1,200 and has been getting an increasing number of requests for a Florida edition, where a vital fan base resides in that state's population of retirees, Sawyer said. Sawyer expanded the Gazette's band biographies as well as the calendar dates.

People plan their vacations around these festivals, Sawyer said, and the Gazette has proven to the an indispensable guide.

"I didn't realize until I took over how much it was in demand," Sawyer said.

Since passing the project off to Sawyer, Malcolm has focused on his work at WOOL. He is vice chair on the station's board and secretary Bob Ross said he has lent his technical expertise to new disc jockeys.

WOOL radio, Malcolm said, has been important for himself and the community. He describes them as a "dedicated group" offering the kind of programming variety that neither National Public Radio nor commercial radio seems able to satisfy.

On a personal level, Malcolm said it has allowed him to keep performing on the radio and playing the music he loves -- two things which along with his religious faith, have been the guiding influences in his life for the past few decades.

Cuzin' Isaac is Malcolm's "other self" now. It is difficult to imaging life without him.

"I guess it's part ego. Why just be me?" Malcolm said. "Why not be somebody else for a little while and I can go back to being me later. Why not be Cuzin' Isaac for a while?"

Photos: Don Clark