William Smith Monroe was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass".
Earl Eugene Scruggs was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was radically different from the traditional way the five-string banjo had previously been played. This new style of playing became popular and elevated the banjo from its previous role as a background rhythm instrument to featured solo status. He popularized the instrument across several genres of music.
Mount Airy is a city in Surry County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 10,611.
The U.S. state of North Carolina is known particularly for its history of old-time music. Many recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Influential North Carolina country musicians like the North Carolina Ramblers and Al Hopkins helped solidify the sound of country music in the late 1920s, while influential bluegrass musicians such as Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson came from North Carolina. Arthur Smith had the first nationally syndicated television program which featured country music. He composed "Guitar Boogie", the all-time best selling guitar instrumental, and "Dueling Banjos", the all-time best selling banjo composition. Country artist Eric Church from the Hickory area, has had multiple No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, including Chief in 2011. Both North and South Carolina are a hotbed for traditional country blues, especially the style known as the Piedmont blues. Elizabeth Cotten, from Chapel Hill, was active in the American folk music revival.
The Piedmont Triad is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. This close group of cities lies in the Piedmont geographical region of the United States and forms the basis of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point Combined Statistical Area. As of 2012, the Piedmont Triad has an estimated population of 1,611,243 making it the 33rd largest combined statistical area in the United States.
Louis Marshall Jones, known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer. He was inducted as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978.
Clarence "Tom" Ashley was an American musician and singer, who played the clawhammer banjo and the guitar. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands. After his "rediscovery" during the folk revival of the 1960s, Ashley spent the last years of his life playing at folk music concerts, including appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.
James Russell Lauderdale is an American country, bluegrass, and Americana singer-songwriter. Since 1986, he has released 31 studio albums, including collaborations with artists such as Dr. Ralph Stanley, Buddy Miller, and Donna the Buffalo. A "songwriter's songwriter," his songs have been recorded by dozens of artists, notably George Strait, Gary Allan, Elvis Costello, Blake Shelton, the Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, and Patty Loveless.
WFDD is an FM public radio station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is the National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate for the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point media market, also called the Piedmont Triad. Owned by Wake Forest University, WFDD serves 32 counties in Central North Carolina and South-Central Virginia. It also operates a translator, W261CK on 100.1 FM in Boone.
Music Maker Relief Foundation is an American non-profit, based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Music Maker Relief Foundation was founded in 1994 by Tim and Denise Duffy to "help the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs. Music Maker presents these musical traditions to the world so American culture will flourish and be preserved for future generations."
WPAQ is a commercial radio station licensed to Mount Airy, North Carolina, serving the Piedmont area of North Carolina, Southwest Virginia and Southside Virginia. WPAQ is owned and operated by WPAQ Radio, Inc. It airs a mix of Americana, Bluegrass, Classic Country and Southern Gospel music, along with some brokered Christian talk and teaching shows. The transmitter and studios are on Springs Road at Mount View Drive in Mount Airy.
Wade Eckhart Mainer was an American country singer and banjoist. With his band, the Sons of the Mountaineers, he is credited with bridging the gap between old-time mountain music and Bluegrass and is sometimes called the "Grandfather of Bluegrass". In addition, he innovated a two-finger banjo fingerpicking style, which was a precursor to modern three-finger bluegrass styles.
WSMX is a broadcast radio station licensed to and serving Winston-Salem, North Carolina. WSMX is owned by Blue Ridge Broadcasting Corporation.
James Benton Flippen was an old-time fiddler from Mount Airy, North Carolina. He was one of the last surviving members of a generation of performers born in the early 20th century playing in the Round Peak style centering on Surry County, North Carolina. His contemporaries included Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Kyle Creed, and Earnest East.
The North Carolina Heritage Award is an annual award given out by the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, in recognition of traditional artists from the U.S. state of North Carolina. The award was created in 1989.
County Records was a Virginia-based independent American record label founded by David Freeman in 1963. The label specialised in old-time and traditional bluegrass music.
Paul Ingles is a radio producer, reporter, consultant, and filmmaker who has been working primarily in radio since 1975. Among other projects, he has produced a series of public radio music documentaries about the history of The Beatles which have been carried on scores of radio stations across the country. The programs include The Beatles In America - 1964, Everything Was Right: The Beatles' Revolver, The Two Sides of Sgt. Pepper: An Honest Appraisal, The White Album Listening Party, A Spin Down Abbey Road, Let It Be: The Beatles' Finale and The Last Year in the Life of The Beatles.
Douglas Flint Dillard was an American musician noted for his banjo proficiency and his pioneering participation in late-60s country rock.
Lightnin' Wells is an American Piedmont blues multi-instrumentalist and singer. He is a proficient musician and regularly plays various instruments in concert including the guitar, mandolin, harmonica, ukulele and banjo. At times he has performed as a one-man band. His style encompasses elements of the blues, country, gospel, old-time, bluegrass and folk. Mark Coltrain stated in Living Blues that, "You won't find a more versatile musician around – able to move deftly between country blues, old-time banjo, and novelty tunes with a single pluck. Lightnin' Wells changes the past..."
Samuel Russell Flippen was an American man who was executed in North Carolina for murder. Flippen was sentenced to death for the February 1994 murder of Britnie Nichole Hutton; his 2-year-old stepdaughter. Since his execution, there have been concerns raised about his conviction and whether he may have been innocent. He was convicted based on circumstantial evidence, had no criminal record, and maintained his innocence to the end. Some people opposed his execution, including Britnie Hutton's biological father. Flippen remains the last person executed in North Carolina.
