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2014 Carroll Best: Old-Time 'Fiddle-Style Banjo' from the Great Smoky Mountains Ted Olson East Tennessee State University, [email protected]

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Citation Information Olson, Ted. 2014. Carroll Best: Old-Time 'Fiddle-Style Banjo' from the Great Smoky Mountains. The Old-Time Herald. Vol.13(10). 10-19. http://www.oldtimeherald.org/archive/back_issues/volume-13/13-10/best-fv.html ISSN: 1040-3582

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This article is available at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University: https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1217 CARROLL BEST: OLD-TIME "FIDDLE-STYLE BANJO" FROM THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS By Ted Olson

Carroll Best and Danny Johnson at the 1992 Tennessee Banjo Institute

10 THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 13, N UMBER 10 n an interview published in the February 1992 is­ sue of The Banjo Newsletter and conducted by blue­ grass historian Neil Rosenberg and banjo player Iand instruction book author Tony Trischka, Car­ roll Best conveyed the depth of his connections to the instrument he had mastered: "When I was old enough to pick up a banjo I wanted to play." An affinity for the banjo, he claimed, had been passed down within his family. Best's great-grandmother and grandmother both played the instrwnent in the old-time clawham­ mer style, and his mother, Bertie Davis Best, "played real good clawhamme1/' while his father, Hugh Carroll Best, Sr., played the banjo in a three- or four-fingered picking style. Other Best relatives were talented on other instruments: one uncle was a fiddle1~ and another played the guitar. Many neighbors were also musical, with the fiddle being the instrument most commonly played. Haywood Cow1.ty, North Carolina, where the Bests lived, was "full of tremendous fiddle players," Carroll said, "so I just pursued the fiddle type banjo." Best began playing the banjo in 1936, at the age of five. His first public performance occurred five years later, in 1941, when he played banjo for a square dance held at Maggie Elementary School. As he related to Rosen­ berg and Trischka, "I grew up playing dances. My old­ er brother would take me to them. That's how I got to play.... Very gradually I got into it. You see, these old fiddlers would play this [dance music] and that was really what I liked, was playing those hornpipes . ... So I just started playing what the fiddle played." To interpret those fiddle tunes on the banjo, Best devel­ oped a right-hand technique that utilized two or three fingers plucking the banjo strings as often as necessary to play as mai,y of the notes of a tune as possible; he ul­ timately decided that "three [fingers] really beats two." In picking out a lot of individual notes, Best extended the approach of his father, who played in a sparer style ("I don't remember my dad putting all of those notes in there.").

THE OLD-TlME HERALD WWW.OLDTJMEH ERALD.ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10 11 Growing up on the fa rm owned by his ancestors since the late 18th century, Car­ roll Best played the banjo at every oppor­ tunity. While his playing was influenced by hi s father and other famil y members, as well as by neighbors, Best was weU aware of the professional banjo players and fiddlers who made records and per­ formed on radio. According to Joe Wilson, former Executive Di.rector of the National CoLmcil for the Traditional Arts, "Carroll loved the music of such older banjoists as r Wade Maine1~ and of his own contempo­ rary, Earl Scruggs. I can recall a comment Carroll made about Scruggs: 'He put the push into bluegrass, and it is important in his style. 1 play a fiddle style, trying to get all tl1e notes like a good fiddler."' Among the fiddlers whose music the futme banjo master heard on the radio, Howdy For­ rester (who performed witl1 Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and Roy Acuff) was par­ ticularly inspiring to Best. After serving in the US Navy from 1950- 1954, Best returned to the family farm. At the time, his £atl1er was ill from can­ cer (and would succumb to that disease on Christmas Day 1955). Although Best was the youngest among his siblings, his I parents knew he would take good care of the 125-acre farm and the many ongoing tasks of farming (including growing to­ bacco, raising cattle, and tending a tlu·ee­ acre vegetable garden). A tall man at 6'2" and strong, Best was certainly not afraid of hard work, despite the toll it took on him-he was once severely burned while igniting a brush pile; another time his teeth were broken when a chainsaw he was using to cut a tree bounced back and struck him in the moutl1. According to French Kirkpatrick (a ban­ jo-playing friend of Best's, also from Hay­ wood County), in the early 1950s Carroll played the banjo and the steel guitar witl1 equal enthusiasm, yet was unsure whid1 of the two instruments he should focus upon. It was French's brother, fiddler Billy Kirkpatrick, who assured Best that while he was a good steel guitar player he was a great banjo player. Best heeded this advice. By the mid-1950s Best was performing his banjo at home and in community gatherings, and his reputation spread outside Haywood County. Soon be was regularly performing at the annual sw11- mertime Mountain Dance and Folk Festi­ val in Asheville. According to Wilson, Carroll influenced many with his pres­ ence at Basco m La mar Lunsford 's fes ti­ vals. A tight circle of mos tly banjo play- Carroll Best in tlw US Na vy.

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l - 1; Billy Kirkpatrick, Carroll Best, Lowell Messer, French Kirkpatrick. Tlnee of the four musicians here were recorded by Joseph Hall in 1959 as the White Oak String Band.

ers formed whenever Carroll took out to work the farm. Louise, though, viewed www.donleister.com his instrument. When I started coming the situation differently: "I never tried to to those events in the mid-1950s he was keep him from going to make music. It already a celebrated player, and that wouldn't have been Carroll without the festival [the Mountain Dance and Folk banjo." Even so, after about two months Festival] was popular with Northern with the Morris Brothers, Best decided visitors as well as local players. It was that he did not want to be separated from considerable exposure for Carroll, who his farnily. Regarding his short stint as a was a mountain farmer. full-time musician in the mid-1950s, Car­ About this time Best received an invita­ roll said (in 1993), "I always liked playing BanjoFactory.corn tion to join the Asheville-based musicians a lot, but you had to spend your life riding W 19th Century ' 1yle the Morris Brothers. Wiley and Zeke in a car and I got real tired of that." For the Tack-head Frctlc s Gourd and Wood~n Shell Banjo Morris had been performing as a broth­ remainder of his life, Best, despite the dan­ er duo in Western North Carolina since gers and drndgeries, preferred working on Like roots mu ic? the 1930s, and they had worked with a his farm and in a nearby factory to being a succession of banjo players (including professional musician; he felt that working such banjo masters as Mainer, Scruggs, at and near home allowed him to take care and Don Reno). Best accepted the offer, of his family. As his wife put it, "Carroll and appeared with the Morris Brothers took his family over being famous." in concert and on radio and television. French Kirkpatrick reflects that, "Car­ (The Morris Brothers had a regular show roll felt he didn't need to travel to make broadcast on WLOS-TV.) music, he could make music at home." In June 1956, Carroll married Louise And make music at home he did, accord­ Presnell, and she moved onto the Best ing to Louise: "Carroll brought a radio farm. Although she had been a Bap­ or tape recorder into the fields with him, tist, the couple would attend his fam­ and if he heard a tune he liked, he'd run ily's home church, the nearby Mount to the house to figure out how to play it. Zion United Methodist Church. Louise It seemed like every time Carroll came in and Carroll would eventually have two the house from outside-even for a glass children: Alpha Rebecca (born 1958) and of water-he'd head straight to the living Hugh Carroll III (born 1960). room to pick the banjo. It was a continu­ Best's mother Bertie disapproved of her al thing." Indeed, Best played the banjo son traveling away from home to play mu­ at home nearly every day. ("He was al­ sic, feeling that his first responsibility was ways trying to play the tunes he loved

THE OLD-TlME HERALD WWW.OLDT!MEHERALO .ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10 13 n 0 C

French Kirkpatrick (l) and Carroll Best (r), with daughter Alpha Best in his lap, around 1959. perfectly," remembers Louise.) Addi­ an open-back Great Lakes 5-string ban­ cuperating in the hospital for a week, Best tionally, he would perform regularly jo for $500 from Kirkpatrick. (Best sold went home, and, according to Louise, with other musicians at their homes and some calves to raise the money.) The lat­ upon entering the house walked straight at nearby community events and perfor­ ter banjo became Best's favorite, though to the living room, picked up one of his mance venues, and he would make mu­ he could not bear to part with the other banjos, and played it, despite excruciating sic with friends on Sunday afternoons af­ instruments. Banjo great Sonny Osborne pain. Later, maintaining that he did not ter church. Despite the fact that Best was (of the bluegrass duo the Osborne Broth­ want to risk losing his job, Best refused a regular churchgoe1~ some people did ers) once tried to purchase the Gibson to file a lawsuit against Dayco, whatever not understand or respect his passion for RB-4, and though Best was no longer the company's responsibility for the acci­ playing the banjo. As Kirkpatrick recalls, playing that banjo he would not sell it. dent. Indeed, he often mentioned that he "People sometimes disapproved of our In about 1965, Best began working for appreciated the flexibility of his employer music back then, because string bands Dayco Corporation, a national manufac­ in granting him leave anytime he wanted were associated with dances. But Carroll hlring company that had built a plant in to play music. Best remained with Dayco used to say, half-kidding of course, 'If I the part of Waynesville, North Carolina, for 25 years. won't be able to get into Heaven because known as West Waynesville. In a 1970 Throughout these years Best competed I play the banjo, then maybe I don't want workplace accident, he nearly lost the first in, and often won, banjo competitions at to go there."' and second fingers on his right hand. To regional music festivals, including Union When recorded by linguist and folklorist increase production, someone in compa­ Grove, Fiddlers Grove, the Asheville Joseph Hall in 1956 and 1959, Best played ny management had sped up a conveyer Folk Festival, and the Folk Festival of the a Vega Tubaphone five-string banjo that belt without warning workers. Best's fin­ Smokies. By the 1970s he was playing he had bought in California when with gers on his right hand got caught up in semi-regularly in a band called the Horn­ the Navy. Kirkpatrick remembers that the belt, and he immediately engaged the pipers (later renamed the Carroll Best Best also owned a tenor banjo at this time "emergency off" switch with his left hand. Band), featuring several talented West­ (likely an old May Bell model), though Best was rushed to the hospital, whereup­ ern North Carolina musicians, including apparently he was never drawn to play­ on an on-duty doctor, assessing the sirua­ banjo player Zack Allen, fiddler Mack ing that type of banjo. Given his affin­ tion, a.m1ounced plans to cut off those two Snoderly, and guitarist Danny Johnson. ity for the five-string banjo, Best evenh1- fingers. Best overruled the doctor and With this band in 1982, Best recorded his ally acquired a Gibson RB-4 model with requested care from a local surgeon, Dr. first album, Pure Mountain Melodys [sic], a resonator. He deemed that that banjo Heyward Smith, who successfully sewed which showcased what was by then his was too loud, and he ultimately bought up the wound on Best's fingers. After re- fully realized melodic three-finger banjo

14 THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10 style; yet, because it was released on tiny Methodist Churd1. One local newspaper Asheville-based Skyline Records, the al­ ai·ticle about the incident featured a quote bum found few listeners. from Bob Phillips, the mayor of the near­ In 1990, wider recognition for Best's ex­ by town of Cai1ton, in which Plullips said h·aorclinaiy abilities on the banjo fina!Jy what everyone who knew Best felt-that came his way. That year at the Bascom the bai1jo master was "[a] real gentlemai1. Lamar· Lunsford Festival (at Mai·s Hill Col­ He wouldn't harm ai1ybody." In 2014, lege), he received the Lunsford Awai-d. when renunded about Phillips' words of Also that year Best was invited to be on the respect for her husband, Louise said sim­ faculty of the Te1messee Banjo Institute, a ply, "Everyone loved Carroll." special event held at Cedai-s of Lebanon French Kirkpatrick reflects today, "Car­ State Pai-kin MidclJe Te1messee. Best's ap­ roll was generous-he would share peai·ance at the TBI (accompanied by his ai1ything he could with other people. friend, guitai-ist Daimy Jolmson) was a rev­ He was a purist, a straight person-it elation to the many banjo enthusiasts in at­ showed in his playing, it showed in his tendance, since mai1y members of the old­ character. He never drank, he wouldn't time ai1d bluegrass conm1wuty had never ever get in trouble with anyone, ai1d he before heai-d him (or even heai-d of lum). always worked hai·d. He lived the Gold­ Best's distinctive bai1jo techiuque forced en Rule." Kirkpatrick relates that, one discussion about his role in the evolution of winter in the early 1960s when the Kirk­ the melodic three-finger bai1jo style. Given patrick family's house burned down, the the impact he made upon lus first appeai-­ first person to show up was Carroll Best, ance at the TBI, Best was asked to rehrrn who gave French ai1d his brother Billy to the same event in 1992. In 1994, he re­ money to buy coats. Some years late1~ ceived the North Cai-olina Folk Heritage French, who owned horses, telephoned Awai-d, an honor bestowed upon him by Best to buy a small amow1t of hay from the North Cai-olina Arts Council. Also that lum; Best showed up with a much larger yeai-, Best was selected to perform (along­ truckload of hay thai1 requested and re­ side better-known banjo players like Ralph fused to accept any payment for it. Staiuey and J. D. Crowe) on the Masters of Kirkpatrick still regrets a missed op­ the Banjo Tour, sponsored by the National porhmity involving Best. In about 1994, Cmmcil for the Traditional Arts. when coordinating a music performance Other recognition for Best during this to be held at Saco Gap (adjacent to the period included invitations to appear on Blue Ridge Parkway on the boundary be­ radio (the Grand Ole Opry and the Wolf tween Haywood and Jackson Counties), Trap Folk Masters radio concert series) Joe Wilson asked French Kirkpatrick ai1d on television (Hee Haw). In 1993 to perform with Best and fiddler Roger Best and his band recorded a second al­ Howell. Impressed by what he heard bum, released on another Western North that day, Wilson thought Kirkpatrick Carolina-based label, Ivy Creek Record­ should sing a couple of songs on Best's ings; this albwn incorporated fiddling next recording project. Just before the from longtime friend Tommy Htmter. Yet scheduled recordings were to take place, because of limited distribution, The Car­ Best had to have dental work, and the roll Best Band with Tommy Hunter failed session was postponed. That recording to serve as the vehicle for Best's break­ session never happened. In recalling the through into the broader music world. tragedy of Best's death today, Kirkpat­ Sadly, the recording that truly show­ rick sighs: "It broke my heart." cased Best's exceptional talent was a Old-time musician David Holt remem­ posthumously released 2001 albtm1 pro­ bers Best as "generous of spirit, gentle duced by Joe Wilson, Say Old Man, Can and kind-hearted. A wonderful man. I A-IAJ~ You Play the Banjo? On May 8, 1995, Best remember tlunking after he was shot that was murdered. According to Wilson, of all the people I know Carroll was the f8MtHo "Carroll was a happy man with just one least likely to be shot because he was truly LUNG GUN~ hair shirt he had to wear: lus gun-toting such a good man." Tony Trischka adds, OUT WlST quarrelsome brother, Sam Best. Carroll "Wlule I had very little contact with Car­ BLUtS spent much time caring for his jealous roll, outside of my trip to the Tennessee brothe1~ and keeping lum out of trouble. Banjo Instih1te ai1d two other occasions And it was that brother, Sain Best, who where I spent a short amotmt of casual NOW AVAILABLE! shot Carroll dead in the road." time, he did seem like a gentle, kind man. 180 GRAM VINYL Carroll was buried near his home in the It's literally and figuratively criminal that Best fanuly section of the cemetery located his life was cut short. People were just on a hill overlooking Mount Zion United starting to find out about him."

THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDT LM EHERA LD.ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10 15 "Fiddle Style" Best added, as if to diffuse any embarrass­ a signjfjcant impact on Earl Scruggs. ment he might have caused King: "They As exciting and propulsive as it was (and After Best's death, to commemorate a don' t know what category to put me in. is), Scruggs-style ba11jo had its limitations, life well li ved and a musical journey that That's the problem." as subsequent banjo players began to re­ was fr ui tful if not widely recognized, In 2014, Trischka related that, alize. Scruggs-style rolls articulated vari­ Joe Wilson compiled Say Old Man , Can When 1 interviewed him in 1990, Car­ ous notes in the chord of a song or tune, You Play the Banjo?, an album featuring roll was playing those fiddle tunes in but missed some essential notes in a given a range of Best's recordings from the what is generally called the melodic style. melody. By the late 1950s and early 1960s 1970s to the early 1990s-some previ­ He called it "fiddle style." Bill Keith de­ several players bega11 experimenting with ously released, many u111·eleased. The veloped his own version of the melodic new approaches to picking the banjo­ 2001 album, on the Copper Creek label, sh;le and popularized it via appearances one that was better suited to playing the solidified Best's reputation, furthering and recordings with Bill Monroe in 1963. lead on instrumentals, including fiddle awareness that Best was a significant and It's a banjo style based on scales rather hmes. One new approach, utilized by innovative music talent. The album pre­ than the arpeggiation of chords. Scruggs Don Reno witl1 memorable results, was sented the ba11jo-player as a missing link style falls into the latter category. single-string style, i11 which the ba11jo between old-time a11d bluegrass, two I originally thought of Carroll as being player literally plucked specific notes of a music gemes that are integrally intercon­ primarily a fiddle tune player. When I song's or tune's melody on a single banjo nected yet whose connections are not al­ first met him at the Tennessee Banjo In­ striJ1 g. For an arguably more exciting ren­ ways acknowledged. stitute in 1990, that was mostly what he dition of the full ra11ge of melodi.c notes, Say Old Man also generated debate was playing (though he did play "Foggy though, ba11jo players like Carroll Best be­ about Best's role in the evolution of the Mountain Breakdown" as well). Lis­ gru1 to employ what came to be known as melodic three-finger banjo style. Some tening to the tunes on this new album melodic tlu·ee-finger style. bluegrass fa11s who heard Say Old Man [Carroll Best and The White Oak String On the Banjo Hangout website, Joe marveled at Best's approach to playing Band], l'm realizing he had a much wid­ Larson succinctly described tl1e melodic instrumentals-mostly old-time fiddle er range than I had originally thought. three-finger style: tunes-on the banjo. While a new 2014 He was also a powe1ful Scruggs-orient­ To get the melody [to sound] exactly like release, Carroll Best and The White Oak ed player, and he could get down with a fiddler might play it you have to break String Band, illustrates that the banjo the blues. out of rolls and play each melody note, player was capable of playing such tunes Wilson long knew the full ra11ge of which often are a stream of eigh th notes. in a range of banjo styles, the recordings Best's repertoire: You could do this single-string style or for on Say Old Man, from the 1970s through Carroll always played the traditional a more legato sound, you could plan it in the 1990s, suggest that from at least the tunes of the mountains, such as "Cum­ a way that each melody note was played early 1970s (if not sometime in the 1960s) berland Gap," "Sally Ann," "Johnson on a different string, allowing them to Best preferred to interpret fiddle tunes Boys, " "Reuben, " "Sa fly Good in," and ring over each other slightly. utilizing the melodic three-finger banjo many others. He could pull up any of A common narrative in bluegrass style. these tunes in a second. Many came circles for many years has held tl1at Holt describes the style of banjo playing to him from his family or close associ­ the melodic thi-ee-finger ba11jo style is for which Best became known: ates, such as the great long-bow fiddler traceable back to early-1960s perfor­ Carroll's three-finger banjo style was Tommy Hunter. Carroll knew banjo mances by Bill Keith, and the melodic clean, crisp, and musical. He followed standards from earlier recorded uses of style has sometimes been referred to as the melody of the fiddle tune he was the instrument. But he also remained "Keith Style." Some banjo fans have as­ playing, note for note. This means he contemporary, and, if given a moment serted that another banjo playe1~ Bobby could not use the normal syncopated to get it into his head, he could pe1form Thompson, had recorded i11 a variation three-finger rolls to play the exact notes many country and western standards. of tl1e melodic style in the late 1950s of the tune. His stt;le was very exacting Like most others, Carroll had a period of and thus should be credited for having and precise, and difficult since he didn't intense learning in his younger years, pioneered the approach. Best's record­ rely on formulaic roll patterns. but he never stopped learning. ings on Say Old Man, tl1ough recorded in Despite the fact that his banjo style was Indeed, Best learned to play all the ma­ the 1970s through the 1990s, challenged complex, even virtuosic, Best balked at jor tlu·ee-finger banjo styles-Scruggs such assumptions. For one thing, Best the notion that his style was in any way style, single string style, and melodic was older-and had been playing banjo progressive (the term used in bluegrass style. Even before Scruggs revolutionized longer-than either Keith or Thompson. circl es to describe new stylistic develop­ banjo style in 1945, there was an alterna­ And in interviews conducted in the early ments intentionally employed to modern­ tive to tl1e £railing / claw hammer banjo 1990s, Best related that he had met and ize the smmd of, and to expru1d the audi­ style-an approach involving up-picking discussed banjo technique with both ence for, bluegrass music). When inter­ the strings with one, two, or three of the Thompson (probably i11 1957) and Keith viewer Andy King, in casual conversation right-hand fingers and tl1en down-pick­ (allegedly sometime in tl1e early 1960s). during a 1990 interview session, labeled ing witl1 tl1e thumb. This latter style was Yet, since no recordings had been issued Best's style of banjo playing as "early pro­ tl1e basic approach to banjo playing as­ featuring Best's playing before the 1970s, gressive," Best quickly and emphatically sociated with Best's fathe1~ H ugh Carroll tl1ose speculating about the origins of corrected him, saying "No, no, no. You 're Best, Sr., and also with some otl1er Appa­ tl1 e melodic tlu·ee-finger banjo style had wrong. I play . .. three-finger, old-time, lachian banjo players, including Snuffy no way of knowing exactly how Best's fiddle style. I just call it the fiddle style." Jenkins and Will Keys. Jenkins' style had playing sounded at a11 earlier stage in his

16 THE OLD0TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTLMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10 career. This year's release of Carroll Bes t Thompson learned that style of banjo by But Keith has long maintain ed he had no and Th e White Oak String Band renders observing Best, Carroll Bes t and The White early exposm e to Best or 11is banjo style. such an assessment possible. Oak String Band presents opportw1ities for Shortly after Best's banjo-playing re­ While performing with the Morris stylistic analyses of the comparative banjo ceived sudden, wider exposme after 11is Brothers, Best met Thompson, who was approaches of the two musicians. Cer­ appearance at the 1990 Tetmessee Banjo then perfonning as a sideman for blue­ tain conclusions can be drawn with cer­ Insti tute, Keith told Trischka: grass bandleader Carl Story. This· was tainty. For one thin g, this albm11 fea tw·es It shocked me too. It was absolute most likely in 1957. The Morris Brothers recordings made in the smnmer of 1956, news to me. It 's great. Where was he all and Carl Story had television shows in sucl1 as "Lost Indian" and "Cumberland my formative years ? I didn 't see anyone adjoining time-slots on Asheville-based Gap," that document exan1ples of Best else doin g it when I was learning. If I WLOS-TV, and Best and Thompson taJk ­ playing fiddle-style banjo, one year before had, I probably would have copied it. I ed on several occasions between shows. Thompson's firs t-ever recordings. think the technique goes back as far as According to music writer Colin Escott, In 1990, Trischka mentioned to Best that classic banjo. Remember, 1 wasn't the Story's show on this station began in he owned a recording of Thompson play­ one who called it "Keith Style." It vin­ 1957, and Thompson's involvement in ing the B-part of "Flop Eared Mule" in a dica tes the technique, that people used it the show probably lasted from that time manner very similaT to Best's rendition of that long ago, and will continue to use it through the middle months of 1958. that hme as performed at the 1990 Ten­ in the futu re. French Kirkpatrick recalls that the Caro­ nessee Banjo Institute; Best responded, In Ja11 uary 2014, when asked if Best lina Pals [a short-lived Haywood Coun­ "I may have shown Bobby that part, but might have had some influence on his ty-based band featuring Best, French I'm not sure, really. But I was doing that a own banjo style, Keith said: and Billy Kirkpatrick, and Sam Setzer] long time ago. . .. It would have been the When 1 fina lly heard Carroll play live performed on Story's television show, middle '50s." Best also claimed to have (in 1990, I think), he was using some and that "Thompson watched every lick demonstrated to Thompson, when the melodic elements, but that didn 't sur­ that Carroll played." Within a few weeks two musicians met in Asheville in 1957, prise me because it had been almost 30 after the two banjo players met, Best how to play the banjo in the key of D with­ years after I had recorded tunes in the was no longer a professional musician. out a capo, which Best by the mid-1940s melodic style with Bill Monroe in March Thompson would soon become a promi­ determined was preferable for perform­ of 1963, and I had recorded a couple of nent musician based in Nashville. ing alongside old-time fiddlers. Before tunes before 1 went to work with Bill In his albw11 notes to Carl Story: Bluegrass, 1957, Thompson had apparently played ("Devil's Dream" and "Sailor 's Horn­ Gospel, and Mountain Music, 1942 -1 959 (a his banjo primarily in the G position. pipe," recorded in 1962). And a lot of 2011 box set from Bear Family Records), Believing that Best was a formati ve in­ players were playing in tha t style by the Escott asserts that Thompson made the fluence on both Thompson and Keith, time I heard Carroll play live. So his first commercial recordings of fiddle-style Wilson asserts that Best shared banjo playing certainly was not an influence banjo playing when he participated in pointers with both musicians out of re­ on me. Story's August 3, 1957, recording session spect for their talents. "Carroll recalled Denying having had contact with-or in Nashville for Starday Records. Those Bobby with fondness, and a time when even knowledge of-Best before 1990, sessions yielded four recordings featuring Bill Keith visited. There is a tape that Keith asserted in 2014 that he was moved Thompson's banjo, including "Fire on the circulated a few years ago of Thompson during 11is formative years to explore Banjo," a mm1ber modelled on the old­ and Keith performing during those years melodic three-finger banjo style from a time fiddle tw1e "Fire on the Mountain," [in 1964] . It is a jam session, but it leaves fiddle1~ not from a fellow banjo player: and another instrumental entitled "Ban­ no doubt of how this music evolved from I can honestly say that I began to ex­ jolina." In the book included in the Story Carroll Best. " plore the melodic style when [ heard box set, Escott writes, Wilson is not the only one to speculate a lady fiddler fro m Nova Scotia play These were almost certainly his about Best's influence on Keith: "There "Devil 's Dream " in 1960 or 1961 , and [Thompson 's] first recordings. . . Dur­ was a local 'rwno1/ " offers Holt, "that I was working on "Sailor's Hornpipe" ing his brief stint with Carl Story, Best influenced Bill Keith to start playing in 1961 while I was in Air Force basic Thompson developed the technique of in a melodic style. I don' t know if this is training in Texas. I mailed a pos tcard playing fi ddle tunes on the banjo. . . true ...but I'd like to know if it is true." to Eric Weissberg on that occasion men­ Other banjo players soon fe ll in awe of While contact between Best and Thomp­ tioning "Sailor 's Hornpipe," and he still him; Doug Dillard recorded bo th "Fire son is easy to confirm, interaction be­ has the card, clearly postmarked Decem­ on the Banjo" and "Banjolina." While tween Best and Keith is harder to gauge. ber 2, 1961, and I have a copy. " Earl Scruggs developed melodies ou t of When asked in January 2014, Keith said In recent years a few people on BaJ1jo the right-hand rolls, Thompson devel­ that he had no memory of such a meet­ Hangou t-motivated, Keith believes, oped the technique of playing melodies ing. Louise Best and French Kirkpat­ by their close relationships with Bobby that spun into rolls, and the birth of that rick, on the other hand, both believe that Thompson-advan ced a notion that style is right here. Keith was brou ght to the Best house by Keith learned how to play the melodic Thompson has received a large meas­ someone else (according to Kirk Randle­ three-finger banj o style fro m Thompson. ure of credit for creating three-finger man in a posting on the bgrass-1 Listserv Keith refutes such a claim: fiddle-style banjo, in part because he was in 2002, that person was Asheville-based I first met Bobby Thompson in 1964 in docw11.ented playing that style compara­ musician George Rice) after Keith had at­ South Carolina, and we sat around and tively early (that is, during the August 3, tended a staging of the annual Mountain played a few tunes together. He was ac­ 1957, recording session). Whether or not Dance and Folk Festi val in Asheville. tively playing in the melodic style. At

TH E O LD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERA LD .ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10 17 the time he was in the National Guard, th at Carroll had much iJ:illuence on well­ one ever developed a full-blown melodic and was at home a lot of the time. I'm known players, though he migh t have sf:tJle on tire banjo until Carroll came sure he was able to hear me playing with had a regional influence on some pick­ along. Bobby Thompson also indepen­ Bill Monroe on WSM, but of course I ers." Holt acknowledges the impact of dently created a melodic style for himself was unable to hear what he was up to. Best on Western North Carolina banjo in the 1950s. Then, of course, Bill Keith But nobody in Nashville remarked to players, regardless of their preferred put melodics on the map during his ten ­ me that I was playing in Bobby's style. styles: "Carroll influenced lots of banjo ure with Bill Monroe. He was not influ­ I feel tha t l was an influence on Bobby players by opening up what was possible enced to do so by Carroll or Bobby. As Thompson during that time. Of course, to play on the instrument. Even though I they did, he just came up with it. after I heard him play, 1 can't deny that play clawhammer banjo, I was moved to Wilson explains the reasons fo r the he was somewhat of an influence on me get more notes of the tune into my play­ longtime neglect of Best's role in the after our encounter, especially his re­ ing after hearing Carroll Best." emergence of the melodic three-finger cordings with Area Code 615 [a Nash­ Bill Keith feels that "Best's music cer­ banjo style: ville-based "coun try rock" supergroup tainly has a place in Appalachian and old­ Of course Carroll Best played a key part that was active in 1969-1971 ). time music, and I'd say he deserves notice in the evolution and spread of this style. Keith adds, in bluegrass music history as a pioneer The mass audience for such music tends One fact that emerged during tha t but not necessarily as a grmmd-breaker." to attribute its invention to those they pro tracted discussion [on Banjo Hang­ Trischka adds, first heard play it. But those who learned out] was that Carroll Bes t worked in the I fee l that Bes t has been extremely from the sttJle were of a younger genera­ same TV studio where Bobby Thom pson important within Appalachian music, tion. They were learners trying their best worked for a while, so I fee l it's likely within old-time music, and also within to make a living from music. No one told that Carroll influenced Bobby in playing bluegrass music. Though he was not them they were supposed to interview in that style. So in that sense, Carroll well known outside of his area, the fact Carroll, and tell his story. Even the few played a role in the evolution of the style that he had developed a profoundly academicians who have bothered to docu­ by in troducing it to Bobby. important banjo style in a very short ment such music have been painfully Of course, it is impossible to know period of time, ten years before Bobby obtuse and uninformed. When Carroll Thompson's perspective on this debate, Thompson, is remarkable. For perspec­ finally was mentioned, there was an ac­ because he died in 2005. Around that tive, Carroll told me that he came up cusatory tone, one not warranted. time, Earl Scruggs said to a newspaper re­ with his banjo style in 1945, the same Many people, observes Wilson, could not porte1~ "I think [Thompson] has done a lot year an unknown Earl Scruggs joined believe that a farmer could also be a true for the banjo. He was the first one to play Bill Monroe and set the country music artist and iimovator. "Carroll performed that style of banjo [melodic three-finger] world on fire . if, hypothetically, Carroll near home for most of his life, and he that I ever heard. And there has never had joined Monroe that year instead of lived in a remote area. He was a fa.rme1~ been anyone to top him." With such com­ Earl, we might all be playing Best style and farmers are taken for granted." ments, Scruggs seemed to be positioning ins tead of Scruggs style. And how According to Trischka, "Carroll's music Thompson as a more central figure to many people create their own completely is not more widely kn own because he the melodic style than Keith. During the unique style of music? Charlie Parker, never toured nationally, and never re­ 1950s Best knew Scruggs' music, of course, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Rice, Bill Monroe. corded for a large independent or a major but it is unlikely that Scruggs knew Best's But no t many others. Carroll was in record label." Holt adds, "Canoll wasn' t music then because Best had not yet re­ very rarified company. Consider the fact interested in being a traveli11g profes­ leased a recording and because the two that he wasn't influenced by other banjo sional musician. This is a niche style of banjo players did not o·oss paths. (Their players. It wasn't an evolutionary de­ music, even for full-time professionals. stints with the Morris Bro thers were years velopment. His ShJle came fully blown Notoriety is difficult to come by. Car­ apart, and Best would not meet Scruggs from the brow of Zeus, so to speak. roll was known to musicians who ca.red until the early 1990s.) After thinking about the melodic th1·ee­ about banj o and traditional fiddle music, Some banjo players have taken a clear finger banjo style for many years (and but that is a small percentage of the pop­ position on Best's role in the evolution of writing a book discussing the subject, Me­ ulation, even in southern Appalachia. the melodic three-finger banjo style. In lodic Banjo), Trischka asserts that there is Moreover, Carroll was quiet and retiring 2008 Don Borchelt, a banjo player and no singular melodic style; rather, there are a11d never called attention to hiJ:11self. He teache1~ wrote on Banjo Hangout: several distinctive versions. Trischka ad­ just loved to play music." Wilson agrees: I was one of a number of pickers beat­ mits that he did not know about Carroll "Carroll loved playing more than talking. en by Carroll Best in the banjo contest Best when he wrote his study of the style Music was for sharing, and he shared all at the Folk Festival of the Smokies in in 1976, so Melodic Banjo did not men­ that he knew." Gatlinburg around 1970, and I can tell ti on the Haywood County banjo player. Thompson and Keith may have re­ you he was all over the neck in melodic Nonetheless, Trischka now main ta.ins that ceived most of the credit for the inven­ style by tha t time, anyway. That was a Best is a central figure in that story: tion of the melodic three-finger banjo real epiphany for me, and based upon Carroll definitely played a role in the style, but, says Wilson, "Carroll h ad what I heard, I am inclined to believe evolution of the melodic three-finger no resentment of the fame that came that he probably was the first person to banjo ShJle. There are minor examples of to them [Thompson and Keith] but not come up with the style. melodic banjo playing dating back to the to him. Carroll explained that he was Assessing Best's impact on other mu­ minstrel banjo era (mid-1800s) and to ' too tall to sleep in a car' and be a pro­ sicians, Tri schka says, "I don' t believe the classic banjo style (c. 1900). But no fessional musician. He loved his wife

18 THE OLD-TlME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER JO and children, and felt lucky to live nem Waynesville in the mountains." "Carroll played a melodic style, but never claimed to have invented it," Wil­ son relates. "He attributed it to hjs family, especiall y his fa ther. If pressed, this most modest and genial of banjoists would admit that he 'might have had' a role in expanding and enlarging the style. The truth seems to be that he had a pivotal place in causing it to become fully ma­ tme and in reaching the nation." For Wilson, the notion that Best should be granted a more central position in blue­ grass music "would amuse Carroll, who for years had to insist to contest judges that he felt his m.usic was old-time, even though he wore three picks and did not frail. He would be proud to be recalled with [old-time banjo players] Frank Prof­ fitt Sr. and Earl Sweet, and by the banj o students who know about them." French Kirkpatrick insists that his friend and mentor was the originator of the me­ lodic three-finger banjo style. "Carroll Best invented that sow1d that you hear today, though he'll never get credit for it. The melodic three-finger banjo style-in fact, the whole progressive banjo sound­ came from Carroll." Kirkpatrick remains thrilled that he got to play music with the banjo master: "Carroll was the best banjo player on the planet," French says, "and I was privileged to play with him." After Best's death, his wife Louise gave his banjos to their son Hugh Cmroll and their grandson Jared, both of whom have continued the family tradition of playing the banjo. According to Louise, Jared of­ ten listens to his grandfather's banjo re­ cordings and leqrns to play those tunes note-for-note.e(

Ted Olson has co-produced and contributed notes to several compilations of old-time mu­ sic, including Carroll Best and The White Oak String Band, Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music, The Folk Box: 50th An­ niversary Edition, and box sets featuring the complete recordings from the Bristol Ses­ sions and the Johnson City Sessions.

This article is adapted from the alb um notes to the new CD release Carroll Best and The White Oak String Band : Old­ Time Bluegrass from the Great Sm oky Mountains, 1956 and 1959. Rel eased by the nonprofit Great Smoky Mountains Association, this album is available at shop.smokiesinfimnation.org or via County Sales. Carroll Best with the Vega Tubaphone banjo he played for Joseph Hall in 1956 and 1959.

THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTLMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 13, NUMBER 10 19