Description

From the collection of Andy Cahan

Walter Raleigh Babson (1900-1987) grew up in Ash, a settlement in Brunswick County, on the North Carolina coast. At an early age he began to develop a unique and eclectic musical personality on the banjo and fiddle, and also created a form of knuckle tapping in which he would knock out elaborate, syncopated rhythms that uncannily resembled the sound of a dancer. Stylistically, Walter’s banjo playing was unclassifiable. He finger picked in several styles, using two and three fingers, and he also frailed. Often, he would combine and vary the styles within a single tune. While Walter was a soft-spoken man with an unpretentious nature, his music was extroverted and entertaining. His banjo playing contained dramatic visual elements in which strings were plucked in unorthodox ways (which he referred to as “sleight of hand banjo playing”), graceful hand movements were used, and percussive taps on the banjo head accentuated the rhythm. Old-time dance tunes, hymns, waltzes, turn of the century popular songs, minstrel songs, blues, and any melody that interested him were included in a repertory that expanded throughout his life. – Andy Cahan

Additional Notes: The Music of Walter Raleigh Babson (1900-1987)