We’ve received the unfortunate news that influential banjo player Wade Mainer has passed. Mainer, who was 104 years old, had invented his own two-finger banjo picking style and had a career which spanned nearly six decades. Mainer is often credited for ‘bridging the gap’ between old-time mountain music and modern bluegrass. He got his start in the 1930s in his brother J.E. Mainer’s band J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers. Mainer then began recording with his own band the Sons of the Mountaineers, and had a prolific recording streak in the time before World War II. In the 1940s he performed alongside other folk music greats like Woody Guthrie, Burl Ives, the Coon Creek Girls and Sonny Terry at a version of the The Chisholm Trail held in New York. He also played for President Franklin D. Roosevelt who requested he play “Down in the Willow Garden.” Known for his unique brand of “hillbilly music,” Mainer has always been an unassuming and respectful figure within bluegrass music. After settling down with his wife Julia in Flint, MI, Mainer went to work at a General Motors for the next 20 years, but never gave up the music. Mainer continued playing well into his later years, and even played at a ceremony for his 101st birthday.

Here’s a video recording of David Holt’s interview with Wade Mainer who was 97 years old at the time:

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