Dent Wimmer
Dennis Omer “Dent” Wimmer (1908-1979) was one of nine children born to Thomas Fleming Wimmer and Hattie DeWeese Wimmer of Copper Hill in Floyd, County. Thomas Wimmer was a fiddle player, and he passed his …
People
Meet the individuals who defined the sound of old time country music at the pinnacle of Appalachian ingenuity. These are the figures with the grit and fortitude for commercial success and those who maintained their connection to the deeper traditions of folk at the dawn of a new industry.
Sam Conner
BY MAC TRAYNHAM AND ALICE SLUSHER— Oldtime fiddler Samuel Henry Conner was born in 1909 in Franklin County and lived the majority of his life in the Copper Hill area of Floyd County, Virginia. Both Sam …
The Life of Blind Alfred Reed
BY TED OLSON— FOUNDATIONS Alfred Lee Reed was born blind in Floyd County, Virginia; his birthdate was long believed to have occurred in 1880 (on June 15 or June 25 of that year), though researcher …
Charley LaPrade
BY KINNEY RORRER— Charley Washington LaPrade was born in Franklin County in 1888. His family moved to Spray (Eden), North Carolina around 1900 to work in the cotton mills there as had other families from …
Charlie Poole
BY KINNEY RORRER— Charles Cleveland Poole (March 22, 1892- MAY 21, 1931) — Born into a family of North Carolina cotton mill workers, Charlie and his family moved from Iredell County to Randolph County finally …
Albert Hash – A Young Genius on Whitetop Mountain
BY MALCOM SMITH— Albert Hash woke to the soft and haunting sound of the Hermit Thrush. The sun was just breaking over Phoenix Mountain and sparkling through the old-growth red spruce trees outside his bedroom …
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The Blackard-Shelor Story: Biography of a Hillbilly String Band
BY TOM CARTER— Dad Blackard’s Moonshiners, alternatively billed as the Shelor Family, recorded four sides for Victor in 1927. On these recordings Joe Blackard sang the lead and picked the banjo; his daughter Clarice Blackard …
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John Rector
BY JOSH BECKWORTH— Henry Whitter and Fiddlin’ John Carson’s initial recording sessions in 1923 set off a shockwave in popular music. Record producers, suddenly aware of an untapped demand for ‘authentic’ folk musicians, began scrambling …
J.P. Nester & Norman Edmonds
The banjo and fiddle duo of J.P. Nester and Norman Edmonds had only two recordings released from the Bristol Sessions, but for many fans and critics the two sides represent the apogee of Appalachian stringband …
Emmett W. Lundy
BY MARTY McGEE Emmett W. Lundy of Delhart was reputed to be one of the finest oldtime fiddlers from the Galax, Virginia, area. Born during the Civil War, Lundy acquired much of his older repertoire …
G.B. Grayson
—BY JOSH BECKWORTH G.B., or Gilliam Banmon, Grayson was born on November 11th, 1887. The precise location of his birth is unclear, but was either in Ashe County, North Carolina, or in bordering Johnson County, …
Spangler and Pearson
Because of his radio broadcasts over WRVA between 1926 and 1931, John Wallace “Babe” Spangler was one of his era’s most influential fiddlers. Born in Meadows of Dan in Patrick County, Virginia on November 15, …