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65-449: Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. He began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of The Stanley Brothers , and most often as the leader of his band, The Clinch Mountain Boys . Ralph was also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley . He was part of

130-428: A capo . In "Stanley style", the rolls of the banjo are continuous, while being picked fairly close to the bridge on the banjo, giving the tone of the instrument a very crisp, articulate snap to the strings as the player plays them. †Honorary former member; was scheduled to be invited, but died before the invitation was extended Bluegrass music Bluegrass features acoustic stringed instruments and emphasizes

195-553: A distinct musical form developed from elements of old-time music and traditional music in the Appalachian region of the United States . The Appalachian region was where many Scottish American immigrants settled, bringing with them the musical traditions of their homelands. Hence the sounds of jigs and reels , especially as played on the fiddle, were innate to the developing style. Black musicians, meanwhile, brought

260-647: A fiddle. Many older bluegrass songs come directly from the British Isles . Several Appalachian bluegrass ballads, such as " Pretty Saro ", " Pretty Polly ", " Cuckoo Bird ", and " House Carpenter ", come from England and preserve the English ballad tradition both melodically and lyrically. Some bluegrass fiddle songs popular in Appalachia, such as "Leather Britches" and "Soldier's Joy", have Scottish roots. The dance tune " Cumberland Gap " may be derived from

325-413: A genre within the post-war country/western-music industry, a period of time characterized now as the golden era or wellspring of "traditional bluegrass". From its earliest days, bluegrass has been recorded and performed by professional and amateur musicians alike. Although amateur bluegrass musicians and trends such as "parking-lot picking" are too important to be ignored, it is touring musicians who have set

390-433: A little store, and I remember my aunt took it out in groceries. He learned to play the banjo , clawhammer style, from his mother: She had 11 brothers and sisters, and all of them could play the five-string banjo. She played gatherings around the neighborhood, like bean stringin's. She tuned it up for me and played this tune, "Shout Little Luly," and I tried to play it like she did. But I think I developed my own style of

455-432: A lot of music in his home. As he said, his "daddy didn't play an instrument, but sometimes he would sing church music... I'd hear him sing songs like ' Man of Constant Sorrow ,' ' Pretty Polly ' and ' Omie Wise .'" I got my first banjo when I was a teenager. I guess I was 15, 16 years old. My aunt had this old banjo, and Mother bought it for me ... paid $ 5 for it, which back then was probably like $ 5,000. [My parents] had

520-465: A radio advertisement for Barack Obama 's presidential campaign. Country singer Dwight Yoakam said that Stanley is one of his "musical heroes". In 2012, Stanley was featured on several tracks of the soundtrack for Nick Cave 's film Lawless , with music by Cave and Warren Ellis . His solo track "White Light/White Heat" is prominent in several scenes of the movie. Stanley maintained an active touring schedule; appearances in his later years included

585-705: A rhythmic alternation between the root and fifth of each chord , with occasional walking bass excursions. Instrumentation has been a continuing topic of debate. Traditional bluegrass performers believe the "correct" instrumentation is that used by Bill Monroe's band, the Blue Grass Boys (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and bass). Departures from the traditional instrumentation have included dobro, accordion , harmonica , piano , autoharp , drums , electric guitar , and electric versions of other common bluegrass instruments, resulting in what has been referred to as "new grass." Despite this debate, even Monroe himself

650-588: A small label in Dayton, Ohio . In December 1966, Carter Stanley of the Stanley Brothers died and Ralph Stanley was in need of a guitarist to replace Carter. "Ralph Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys" consisted of Ralph Stanley-banjo, Larry Sparks-guitar, Curly Ray Cline -fiddle and Melvin Goins-bass. Sparks moved to Clintwood, Virginia and got married. With Ralph Stanley, Larry Sparks recorded

715-595: A statement on his own website appeared saying that he would not be retiring. After two previous marriages ended in divorce, Stanley married his wife, Jimmie, in 1968; he had four children. Stanley's autobiography, Man of Constant Sorrow which was coauthored with the music journalist Eddie Dean, was released by Gotham Books on October 15, 2009. On June 23, 2016, Stanley died from skin cancer at his home in Sandy Ridge in Dickenson County , Virginia ; he

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780-466: A worldwide audience as a result of its frequent use in the movie "Bonnie and Clyde". But the functionally similar old-time music genre was long-established and widely recorded in the period of the film's events and later CD was released. Ralph Stanley commented about the origins of the genre and its name. Oh, (Monroe) was the first. But it wasn't called bluegrass back then. It was just called old-time mountain hillbilly music. When they started doing

845-662: Is a common name given in America for the grass of the Poa genus, the most famous being Kentucky bluegrass . A large region in central Kentucky is sometimes called the Bluegrass region (although this region is west of the hills of Kentucky). Exactly when the word "bluegrass" was adopted is not certain, but is believed to be in the late 1950s. It was derived from the name of the seminal Blue Grass Boys band, formed in 1939 with Bill Monroe as its leader. Due to this lineage, Bill Monroe

910-745: Is an American Bluegrass singer and guitarist . He was the winner of the 2004 and 2005 International Bluegrass Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year Award. 2005, won IBMA for Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year for his album "40," celebrating his 40th year(2003) in bluegrass music. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2015. Sparks was born and raised in Lebanon, Ohio . His family originated from Jackson County, Kentucky in

975-639: Is frequently referred to as the "father of bluegrass". The bluegrass style of music dates from the mid-1940s. In 1948, the Stanley Brothers recorded the traditional song " Molly and Tenbrooks " in the Blue Grass Boys' style, arguably the point in time that bluegrass emerged as a distinct musical form. Monroe's 1946 to 1948 band, which featured guitarist Lester Flatt , banjoist Earl Scruggs , fiddler Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts (also known as "Cedric Rainwater") – sometimes called "the original bluegrass band" – created

1040-630: The Appalachians . In his childhood, he used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry and to radio station WCKY . He learned to play the guitar when he was quite young influenced by artists such as Wayne Raney , Stanley Brothers , Tommy Sutton and Paul "Moon" Mullins. Although he had played in country music and rock bands while he was in high school, his bluegrass career began when he joined the Stanley Brothers in 1964. At that time he

1105-460: The C.F. Martin Company started to manufacture them in the 1830s. The guitar is now most commonly played with a style referred to as flatpicking , unlike the style of early bluegrass guitarists such as Lester Flatt , who used a thumb pick and finger pick . Bassists almost always play pizzicato , occasionally adopting the "slap-style" to accentuate the beat. A bluegrass bass line is generally

1170-699: The Grand Ole Opry in the third millennium. He joined producers Randall Franks and Alan Autry for the In the Heat of the Night cast CD Christmas Time's A Comin' , performing "Christmas Time's A Comin'" with the cast on the CD released on Sonlite and MGM/UA; it was one of the most popular Christmas releases of 1991 and 1992 with Southern retailers. He was featured in the Josh Turner hit song " Me and God " released in 2006,

1235-933: The Telluride Bluegrass Festival , RockyGrass in Lyons, Colorado, and MerleFest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina began to attract acts from outside the bluegrass tradition, merging the bluegrass community with other popular music scenes across America. Following the death of Jerry Garcia , who began his career playing bluegrass, and the dissolution of the Grateful Dead , the blossoming " jam band " scene that followed in their wake embraced and included many groups that performed progressive bluegrass styles that included extended, exploratory musical improvisation , often called "jamgrass." This style began to define many such acts whose popularity has grown into

1300-413: The fiddle ), five-string banjo , guitar , mandolin , and upright bass ( string bass ) are often joined by the resonator guitar (also referred to as a Dobro ) and (occasionally) harmonica or Jew's harp . This instrumentation originated in rural dance bands and is the basis on which the earliest bluegrass bands were formed. The fiddle, made by Italians and first used in sixteenth century Europe,

1365-426: The key of G , and a I-IV-V chord pattern is common. In traditional bluegrass, instrumental breaks are typically short and played between sections of a song, conventionally originating as a variation on the song's melody. Also common are breakdowns, an instrumental form that features a series of breaks, each played by a different instrument. Particularly since the 1990s, a number of younger groups have attempted to revive

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1430-423: The off-beat . The off-beat can be "driven" (played close to the previous bass note) or "swung" (played farther from the previous bass note). Notes are anticipated, in contrast to laid-back blues where notes are behind the beat; this creates the higher energy characteristic of bluegrass. In bluegrass, as in most forms of jazz, one or more instrumentalists take a turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while

1495-484: The 1930s and mid-1940s. However, the term "bluegrass" did not appear formally to describe the music until the late 1950s and did not appear in Music Index until 1965. The first entry in Music Index mentioning "bluegrass music" directed the reader to "see Country Music; Hillbilly Music". Music Index maintained this listing for bluegrass music until 1986. The first time bluegrass music had its own entries in Music Index

1560-647: The 2012 Muddy Roots Music Festival in Cookeville, Tennessee and the 2013 FreshGrass Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts . In June 2013, he announced a farewell tour, scheduled to begin in Rocky Mount, North Carolina on October 18 and extending to December 2014. However, upon notification of being elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (awarded on October 11, 2014)

1625-748: The 21st century, such as Leftover Salmon , The String Cheese Incident , Yonder Mountain String Band , The Infamous Stringdusters , Railroad Earth , Greensky Bluegrass and Billy Strings . In recent years, groups like the Punch Brothers , the Jon Stickley Trio and Nickel Creek have developed a new form of progressive bluegrass which includes highly arranged pieces resembling contemporary classical music played on bluegrass instruments. These bands feature complicated rhythms, chord schemes, and harmonics combined with improvised solos. At

1690-694: The band name when he continued as a solo act after Carter's death, from 1967 until his death in 2016. After Carter died of complications of cirrhosis in 1966, after ailing for "a year or so", Ralph Stanley faced a hard decision on whether to continue performing on his own. "I was worried, I didn't know if I could do it by myself. But boy, I got letters, 3,000 of 'em, and phone calls... I went to Syd Nathan at King and asked him if he wanted me to go on, and he said, 'Hell yes! You might be better than both of them.'" He decided to go it alone, eventually reviving The Clinch Mountain Boys. Larry Sparks , Roy Lee Centers, and Charlie Sizemore were among those with whom he played in

1755-543: The banjo. He graduated from high school on May 2, 1945, and was inducted into the Army on May 16, serving for "little more than a year." When he got home he immediately began performing: ... my daddy and Carter picked me up from the (station), and Carter was playing with another group, Roy Sykes and the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys, and they had a personal appearance that night. So I sung a song with Carter on

1820-523: The baritone part sung in the normal range of that voice; E.P. Tullock [aka Cousin Jake] normally providing the part, though at times it was handled by Curly Seckler). Bluegrass tunes often take the form of narratives on the everyday lives of the people whence the music came. Aside from laments about loves lost, interpersonal tensions and unwanted changes to the region (e.g., the visible effects of mountaintop coal mining ), bluegrass vocals frequently reference

1885-412: The bluegrass festivals in 1965, everybody got together and wanted to know what to call the show, y'know. It was decided that since Bill was the oldest man, and was from the bluegrass state of Kentucky and he had the Blue Grass Boys, it would be called 'bluegrass.' Traditional bluegrass emphasizes the traditional elements and form of the genre as laid out by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys band in

1950-587: The borders of the United States and become an internationally appreciated art form. Bluegrass associations now exist worldwide. One such association, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) was formed in 1985 and presents annual awards. In 2012, the critically acclaimed Dutch -language Belgian film, The Broken Circle Breakdown , featured Flemish musicians performing Bluegrass music central to

2015-460: The definitive sound and instrumental configuration that remains a model to this day. By some arguments, while the Blue Grass Boys were the only band playing this music, it was just their unique sound; it could not be considered a musical style until other bands began performing in a similar fashion. In 1967, the banjo instrumental " Foggy Mountain Breakdown " by Flatt and Scruggs was introduced to

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2080-549: The direction of the style. Radio stations dedicated to bluegrass have also proved influential in advancing the evolution of the style into distinctive subgenres. Bluegrass was initially included in the category of folk music and later changed to hillbilly . In 1948, bluegrass was placed under the country and western heading for radio airplay charting. All four of the seminal bluegrass authors - Artis, Price, Cantwell, and Rosenberg - described bluegrass music in detail as originating in style and form, in one form or another, between

2145-596: The exposure traditional bluegrass received alongside mainstream country music on radio and televised programs such as the Grand Ole Opry , a wave of young and not exclusively Southern musicians began replicating the genre's format on college campuses and in coffeehouses amidst the American folk music revival of the early 1960s. These artists often incorporated songs, elements and instruments from other popular genres, particularly rock and roll. Banjoist Earl Scruggs of Flatt and Scruggs had shown progressive tendencies since

2210-467: The first generation of bluegrass musicians and was inducted into both the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor and the Grand Ole Opry . Stanley was born, grew up, and lived in rural Southwest Virginia —"in a little town called McClure at a place called Big Spraddle Creek, just up the holler" from where he moved in 1936. Before that he lived in another part of Dickenson County . The son of Lee and Lucy Smith Stanley, Ralph did not grow up around

2275-401: The group's breakup in 1969. New Grass Revival began utilizing electric instrumentation alongside songs imported from other genres to great popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, and the term "newgrass" became synonymous with "progressive bluegrass". It continued to evolve though the '80s and '90s, moving closer to folk and rock in some quarters and closer to jazz in others, while festivals such as

2340-432: The group's earliest days, incorporating jazz-inspired banjo and bass duets and complex chord progressions that extended the genre's original rigid, conservative structure. In the late 1960s, Scruggs experimented on duets with saxophonist King Curtis and added songs by the likes of counterculture icon Bob Dylan to the group's repertoire, while bandmate Lester Flatt , a traditionalist , opposed these changes, resulting in

2405-522: The hardscrabble existence of living in Appalachia and other rural areas with modest financial resources. Some protest music has been composed in the bluegrass style, especially concerning the vicissitudes of the Appalachian coal mining industry . Railroading has also been a popular theme, with ballads such as " Wreck of the Old 97 " and "Nine Pound Hammer" (from the legend of John Henry ). Bluegrass as

2470-480: The high baritone above Ralph Stanley's tenor, both parts above Carter's lead vocal. This trio vocal arrangement was variously used by other groups as well; even Bill Monroe employed it in his 1950 recording of "When the Golden Leaves Begin to Fall'. In the 1960s, Flatt and Scruggs often added a fifth part to the traditional quartet parts on gospel songs, the extra part being a high baritone (doubling

2535-433: The icing on the cake for me," he said. "It put me in a different category." He was known in the world of bluegrass music by the popular title, "Dr. Ralph Stanley", having been awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Lincoln Memorial University of Harrogate, Tennessee in 1976. Stanley was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1992 and in 2000; he became the first person to be inducted into

2600-563: The iconic banjo to Appalachia. Much later, in 1945, Earl Scruggs would develop a three-finger roll on the instrument which allowed a rapid-fire cascade of notes that could keep up with the driving tempo of the new bluegrass sound. Settlers from Britain and Ireland arrived in Appalachia during the 18th century and brought with them the musical traditions of their homelands. These traditions consisted primarily of English and Scottish ballads —which were essentially unaccompanied narrative—and dance music, such as reels , which were accompanied by

2665-452: The last lead singer and band leader for The Clinch Mountain Boys. About 1970, Ralph Stanley ran for Clerk of Court and Commissioner of Revenue in Dickenson County and said: What happened is, somebody traded me off— they used my popularity and money to elect somebody else . I was done dirty. And I'm so proud that I was done dirty, because if I had been elected ... I woulda had a job to do ... maybe woulda finally quit. So that's one time I

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2730-508: The late '50s, a record company which was so eclectic that it included James Brown at the time. In fact, James Brown and his band were in the studio when the Stanley Brothers recorded " Finger Poppin' Time ". "James and his band were poppin' their fingers on that" according to Ralph. At King Records, they "went to a more 'Stanley style', the sound that people most know today." Ralph and Carter performed as The Stanley Brothers with their band, The Clinch Mountain Boys, from 1946 to 1966. Ralph kept

2795-475: The late 1940s. Traditional bluegrass musicians play folk songs, tunes with simple traditional chord progressions, exclusively on acoustic instruments , though it is common practice to amplify acoustic instruments during stage performances before larger audiences. In most traditional bluegrass bands, the guitar rarely takes the lead, instead acting as a rhythm instrument, one notable exception being gospel-based songs . Melodies and lyrics tend to be simple, often in

2860-418: The ordering and layering of vocal harmony is called the "stack". A standard stack has a baritone voice at the bottom, the lead in the middle (singing the main melody) and a tenor at the top, although stacks can be altered, especially where a female voice is included. Alison Krauss and Union Station provide a good example of a different harmony stack with a baritone and tenor with a high lead, an octave above

2925-571: The original versions of modern bluegrass standards including "I Only Exist", "Sharecropper's Son", and "Going Up Home To Live in Green Pastures". In late 1969, he left the "Clinch Mountain Boys", formed the "Lonesome Ramblers" and began recording for Pine Tree Records. The first version of the "Ramblers" comprised Larry Sparks, David Cox, Lloyd Hensley, Joe Isaacs and Larry's sister Bernice Sparks. After Pine Tree Records he went to Old Homestead Records and then to Starday Records before moving to

2990-438: The others perform accompaniment ; this is especially typified in tunes called breakdowns . This is in contrast to old-time music , where all instrumentalists play the melody together, or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide accompaniment. Breakdowns are often characterized by rapid tempos and unusual instrumental dexterity, and sometimes by complex chord changes . The violin (also known as

3055-634: The radio before I even got home. After considering a course in "veterinary", he decided instead to join his older guitar-playing brother Carter Stanley (1925–1966) to form the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946. Drawing heavily on the musical traditions of the area, which included the unique singing style of the Primitive Baptist Universalist church and the sweet down-home family harmonies of the Carter Family ,

3120-552: The revived band. He encountered Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley arriving late to his own show, "They were about 16 or 17, and they were holding the crowd 'til we got there... They sounded just exactly like (the Stanley Brothers)." Seeing their potential, he hired them "to give 'em a chance", though that meant a seven-member band. Eventually, his son, Ralph Stanley II, took over as lead singer and rhythm guitarist for The Clinch Mountain Boys. His grandson Nathan Stanley became

3185-518: The same time, several popular indie folk and folk rock bands such as the Avett Brothers , Mumford & Sons and Trampled by Turtles have incorporated rhythmic elements and instrumentation from the bluegrass tradition into their popular music arrangements, as has the Branson -based band The Petersens . While originating in the United States, Bluegrass as a genre has expanded beyond

3250-718: The same year he was awarded the National Medal of Arts . On November 10, 2007, Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at a rally for presidential candidate John Edwards in Des Moines, Iowa , just before the Democratic Party 's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. Between renditions of " Man of Constant Sorrow " and " Orange Blossom Special ", Stanley told the crowd that he had cast his first vote for Harry S. Truman in 1948 and would cast his next for John Edwards in 2008. In October 2008, he performed in

3315-515: The sound and structure of traditional bluegrass, a trend that has been dubbed neo-traditional bluegrass. The group The Country Gentlemen is credited with starting the progressive bluegrass movement with their 1960 album Country Songs, Old and New , combining traditional ballads such as "The Little Sparrow," "Weeping Willow" and "Ellen Smith" with traditional bluegrass instrumentation and "bouncy" mandolin and banjo parts distinct from those of traditional players such as Monroe and Scruggs. Due to

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3380-524: The standard melody line, sung by the female vocalist. However, by employing variants to the standard trio vocal arrangement, they were simply following a pattern existing since the early days of the genre. Both the Stanley Brothers and the Osborne Brothers employed the use of a high lead with the tenor and baritone below it. The Stanleys used this technique numerous times in their recordings for both Mercury and King records. This particular stack

3445-683: The story. International bluegrass groups include Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra and Ila Auto from Norway ; Rautakoura and Steve 'n' Seagulls from Finland ; Druhá Tráva and Poutníci from the Czech Republic (home of the subgenre, Czech bluegrass ); Hutong Yellow Weasels and The Randy Abel Stable from China ; Heartbreak Hill and Foggy Hogtown Boys from Canada ; the U.K. 's The Beef Seeds , Southern Tenant Folk Union , and Police Dog Hogan ; and Australia 's Flying Emus , Mustered Courage , and Rank Strangers . Larry Sparks Larry Eugene Sparks , (born September 25, 1947)

3510-475: The tune that accompanies the Scottish ballad " Bonnie George Campbell ". The music now known as bluegrass was frequently used to accompany a rural dancing style known as buckdancing , flatfooting , or clogging . As the bluegrass sound spread to urban areas, listening to it for its own sake increased, especially after the advent of audio recording . In 1948, what would come to be known as bluegrass emerged as

3575-565: The two Stanley brothers began playing on local radio stations. They first performed at Norton, Virginia 's WNVA, but did not stay long there, moving on instead to Bristol, Virginia , and WCYB to start the show Farm and Fun Time , where they stayed "off and on for 12 years". At first they covered "a lot of Bill Monroe music" (one of the first groups to pick up the new "bluegrass" format). They soon "found out that didn't pay off—we needed something of our own. So we started writing songs in 1947, 1948. I guess I wrote 20 or so banjo tunes, but Carter

3640-428: The way he did it. You see, I had recorded "O Death" three times, done it with Carter. So I went down with my banjo to Nashville and I said, "T-Bone, let me sing it the way I want to sing it," and I laid my banjo down and sung it a cappella . After two or three verses, he stopped me and said, "That's it." With that song, Stanley won a 2002 Grammy Award in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance . "That put

3705-585: Was 89. Stanley created a unique style of banjo playing, sometimes called "Stanley style". It evolved from the Wade Mainer style two-finger technique and was later influenced by the Scruggs style , which is a three-finger technique. "Stanley style" is distinguished by incredibly fast "forward rolls", led by the index finger (instead of the thumb, as in Scruggs style), sometimes in the higher registers using

3770-442: Was a better writer than me." When Columbia Records signed them as The Stanley Brothers, Monroe left in protest joining Decca Records . Later, Carter went back to sing for the "Father of Bluegrass", Monroe. Ralph Stanley gave his opinion on Bill Monroe's apparent change of heart: "He [Monroe] knew Carter would make him a good singer... Bill Monroe loved our music and loved our singing." The Stanley Brothers joined King Records in

3835-545: Was done dirty and I want to thank them for it now. Stanley's work was featured in the very popular 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? , in which he sings the Appalachian dirge " O Death ". The soundtrack's producer was T-Bone Burnett . Stanley said the following about working with Burnett: T-Bone Burnett had several auditions for that song. He wanted it in the Dock Boggs style. So I got my banjo and learned it

3900-604: Was in 1987. The topical and narrative themes of many bluegrass songs are highly reminiscent of folk music. Many songs that are widely considered to be bluegrass are in reality older works legitimately classified as folk or old-time music that are performed in the bluegrass style. The interplay between bluegrass and folk forms has been academically studied. Folklorist Neil Rosenberg, for example, shows that most devoted bluegrass fans and musicians are familiar with traditional folk songs and old-time music and that these songs are often played at shows, festivals, and jams . "Bluegrass"

3965-407: Was known to experiment with instrumentation; he once even used a string orchestra, choir, and pre-recorded bird-song track. Apart from specific instrumentation, a distinguishing characteristic of bluegrass is vocal harmony featuring two, three, or four parts, often with a dissonant or modal sound in the highest voice (see modal frame ), a style described as the "high, lonesome sound." Commonly,

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4030-616: Was most famously employed by the Osborne Brothers who first employed it during their time with MGM records in the latter half of the 1950s. This vocal arrangement would become the trademark of the Osbornes' sound with Bobby's high, clear voice at the top of the vocal stack. Additionally, the Stanley Brothers also utilized a high baritone part on several of their trios recorded for Columbia records during their time with that label (1949–1952). Mandolin player Pee Wee Lambert sang

4095-490: Was one of the first instruments to be brought into America. It became popular due to its small size and versatility. Fiddles are also used in country , classical , cajun , and old time music. Banjos were brought to America through the African slave trade. They began receiving attention from white Americans when minstrel shows incorporated the banjo as part of their acts. The " clawhammer ", or two finger style playing,

4160-531: Was playing in a local band in Middletown, Ohio : "Irvin MackIntosh and His Band" and a friend of his, banjo player Wilbur Hall, was acquainted with Moon Mullins - who had just arrived to Middletown - and Hall told Mullins about Sparks. Mullins, who knew the Stanley Brothers, recommended Sparks to them and he was hired after an audition. An extensive tour followed and he recorded for the first time in 1965 for

4225-494: Was popular before the Civil War. Now, however, banjo players use mainly the three-finger picking style made popular by banjoists such as Earl Scruggs . Guitars are used primarily for rhythmic purposes. Other instruments may provide a solo on top of the guitar during breaks , guitarists may also provide these solos on occasion. The instrument originates from eighteenth century Spain, but there were no American-made models until

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