Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson are among the inaugural class of inductees in the new Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame in
The Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame was created in 2006 as a project of the
Scruggs, who popularized a three-finger banjo picking style that has become a defining characteristic of bluegrass music, and Watson, who virtually invented the art of playing mountain fiddle tunes on flat-top guitar, both hail from North Carolina.
Also selected for membership in the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame this year were the Carter Family (pioneering artists who were one of the most influential groups in mountain music and whose songs have become part of the standard country music repertoire), Tommy Jarrell (an influential banjo player and fiddler), Dolly Parton (acclaimed country music singer and songwriter), David Johnson (a studio musician and performer from Wilkes County), Ralph Rinzler (the late folklorist, festival administrator, writer and advocate for grassroots music for whom the Smithsonian named its Folkway Collection), Ralph Epperson (the founder of radio station WPAQ in Mount Airy, North Carolina), Wayne Henderson (a noted luthier) and Sam Love Queen, Sr. (the “Square Dance King” of North Carolina).
Housed in the
More information on the Hall of Fame and this year’s inductees can be found online at www.blueridgemusichalloffame.com.
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