Pete Kuykendall

Peter "Pete" Van Kuykendall (January 15, 1938 – August 24, 2017) also known as Pete Roberts, was an American bluegrass musician, songwriter, discographer and a magazine and music publisher. He was a co-founder of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine and its editor since 1970. He was instrumental in the formation of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) in 1985 and the International Bluegrass Music Museum (IBMM) in 1991. In 1996, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

Born in Washington, D.C., he grew up in Arlington, Virginia, attending Washington–Lee High School. An avid record collector from a young age, Kuykendall would listen to country and bluegrass music on the WARL, WGAY and WWVA radio stations. His mother was a piano teacher and Kuykendall played clarinet in his junior and high school concert bands. He learned to play all the bluegrass instruments, but his primary instrument is the five-string banjo. He played banjo as a member of The Country Gentlemen in 1958–1959.

After high school, he studied at Capitol Radio and Electronics Institute (CREI) and was a deejay for WKIK in Leonardtown, Maryland and WFCR (WEEL, now WDCT) in Fairfax, Virginia. Graduated from CREI, he got married and worked for a short time as a recording division technician in the Library of Congress, transferring recordings from fragile discs and cylinders to magnetic tape. He built Wynwood Recording Studio in the basement of his house in Falls Church, Virginia and recorded Mississippi John Hurt there in 1964 and many other blues, bluegrass and country music performers over the years. He produced several albums for the Country Gentlemen, including Nashville Jail in 1964.

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