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Down the Road on the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina - Mary Jane Queen Preserved a Family Tradition of Songs and Stories

Mary Jane Queen Preserved a Family Tradition of Songs and Stories

12/10/19 • 5 min

Down the Road on the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina
In Jackson County, North Carolina, the Queen family has long played, sung, and shared the music of their native home. The matriarch of the Queen family was Mary Jane Queen. Her father, James Sylvester Prince, born in 1876, was known as a great banjo player. Mary Jane also absorbed many old songs from her singing grandmothers, and one of her brothers was said to be the first person in the Caney Fork section of Jackson County to own a guitar. Though the old music was always in Mary Jane Queen’s memory, it wasn’t until later in life, after she’d raised eight children and become a widow, that she began to focus on singing and sharing the old songs that she’d grown up with.
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In Jackson County, North Carolina, the Queen family has long played, sung, and shared the music of their native home. The matriarch of the Queen family was Mary Jane Queen. Her father, James Sylvester Prince, born in 1876, was known as a great banjo player. Mary Jane also absorbed many old songs from her singing grandmothers, and one of her brothers was said to be the first person in the Caney Fork section of Jackson County to own a guitar. Though the old music was always in Mary Jane Queen’s memory, it wasn’t until later in life, after she’d raised eight children and become a widow, that she began to focus on singing and sharing the old songs that she’d grown up with.

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undefined - David Holt Shares Blue Ridge Mountain Music with the World

David Holt Shares Blue Ridge Mountain Music with the World

It all began when David Holt was a college student at UC Santa Barbara. At a campus concert, he heard Ralph Stanley play the clawhammer banjo, the driving style Ralph’s mother played. After the show, David approached Ralph and asked him, “where can I learn to play the banjo like that?” Ralph told him, “You’ll have to go back to the Southern Mountains where I grew up. Go to Virginia go to North Carolina.” That’s just what David Holt did.

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While Earl Scruggs is often credited as the originator of bluegrass banjo, he was actually an innovator within a broader tradition of three-finger banjo playing. Predating bluegrass, it was made famous by banjo players from the hills and mountains of the Carolinas, all of whom had their own personal takes on the style. In addition to Scruggs, these pioneers included Wade Mainer, Smith Hammett, Snuffy Jenkins, and Don Reno.
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