Ronnie Lee Milsap was born Jan. 16, 1943, in Robbinsville, N.C. A congenital disorder left him almost blind, and he was raised by his grandmother in the Smoky Mountains until the age of five, when he was sent to the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, N.C.

Showing an interest in music early on, at the age of seven his teachers recognized that he had considerable musical talent. He began studying classical music and learned several instruments, eventually mastering the piano.

His youthful passion for rock music led him to form a band with some high school classmates called The Apparitions. Briefly attending Young Harris College on a full scholarship, Milsap left before graduating to pursue a career in music.

In the early 1960s, Milsap played his first professional gigs as a member of J.J. Cale’s band. In 1965, he released “Total Disaster,” his first single as a solo artist, which achieved some local success in the Atlanta area.

In 1965, Milsap signed with New York-based Scepter Records where he scored an R&B Top 5 with the Ashford and Simpson-penned “Never Had It So Good.” While at Scepter, Milsap shared concert stages with James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, who encouraged the young man to apply himself to music.

In 1969 Milsap moved to Memphis to become a session musician. Working with the legendary Chips Moman, he played keyboards on Elvis Presley’s “Kentucky Rain” and can be heard singing background on “Don’t Cry Daddy.” When not doing session work, Milsap and his ensemble served as the house band at the local music hotspot T.J.’s Club.

In 1970, Milsap found success on the pop charts with “Loving You Is a Natural Thing.” He recorded and released his eponymous debut album – produced by Dan Penn -- in 1971.

In 1972, Milsap was performing at the Whiskey A-Go-Go where Charley Pride happened to be in the audience. Impressed with his soulful singing style, Pride encouraged Milsap to focus on Country Music. Moving to Nashville later that year, he began working with Pride’s manager, Jack D. Johnson. A year later, he signed with RCA Records and later that same year released his first Country single, the Top10 “I Hate You.”

In 1974 Milsap scored two No. 1s: “Pure Love” and “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” which won his first Grammy. Another No. 1 followed the next year with “Daydreams About Night Things.”

In 1976, Milsap established himself solidly as one of Country Music’s biggest stars. A string of seven No. 1 hits in a row, including “(I’m a) Stand By My Woman Man,” “What a Difference You’ve Made in My Life,” and “It Was Almost Like a Song,” which was the most successful single of the 1970s. “Song” was the singer’s first crossover hit, peaking No. 7 on the adult contemporary chart; it paved the way for Milsap to be named Billboard’s Artist of the Year (in any genre) in 1976.

This string of hits also kicked off a remarkable run in American pop music. With songs “(There’s) No Getting Over Me,” “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It For the World,” “Any Day Now,” “Stranger In My House,” “Lost in the Fifties Tonight,”  “She Keeps the Home Fires Burning,” “Snap Your Fingers,” and “Where Do the Nights Go,” Milsap did not leave the Top 10 for 16 years.

Milsap also received myriad awards and accolades during this period. He won four CMA Album of the Year Awards (1975, 1977, 1978, and 1986), three CMA Male Vocalist of the Year trophies (1974, 1976, and 1977), and the coveted CMA Entertainer of the Year Award (1977). In addition he won five Grammys for Best Male Country Vocal performance (1975, 1977, 1982, 1986, and 1987) and one Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1988 for the Kenny Rogers duet “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine.”

In 1993, Milsap left RCA and signed with Liberty Records and released the album True Believer.  In 2000, he released the two-CD set, 40 No. 1 Hits.

In 2004, Milsap recorded Just For a Thrill, a collection of American popular/jazz standards, which was nominated for a Grammy. Returning to Country in 2006 at his original home of RCA Records, he released My Life. It was followed in 2009 with Then Sings My Soul, a two-CD set collection of hymns and gospel songs.

On March 18 of this year, Milsap released Summer #17,  his 31st album, which he describes as an homage to the music that inspired him. Hailed by USA Today, The Tennessean and NPR: National Public Radio, the set paid homage to the influences that shaped Milsap’s singular brand of soul-steeped country.

With 40 No. 1 hits and more than 35 million albums sold, Milsap remains one of Country’ Music’s most successful and beloved crossover artists. At 71, he continues to tour the country, playing his music for multiple generations of music lovers.

Ward Eller was born in Wilkes County on May 24, 1930 and began playing the guitar and singing as a teenager with his cousins, the Church Brothers, Bill, Edwin and Ralph Church. Their professional music career began using the name “The Blue Ridge Ramblers.” This group performed on the local radio stations WILX and WKBC in North Wilkesboro. They did many public appearances in schools, theaters and other venues in western North Carolina.

In 1949 the band, using the name “The Church Brothers” signed a five year contract with Rich-R-Tone Record Company in Johnson City, TN. Several records were cut with this label.
Later the Rich-R-Tone contract was purchased by Blue Ridge Label in North Wilkesboro. Ward Eller recorded his solo record entitled “You’re Still the Rose of my Heart” under this label.

Ward served his country in the army during the Korean War from 1951-53. After his discharge, he earned a BS degree from Appalachian State University and a MA from East Tennessee State University.

He spent 33 years serving as a teacher, coach and principal. Ward represented his professional organization, North Carolina Teachers’ Association, at two national conventions.
In 2008 Ward was recognized as a Bluegrass Pioneer for his early recordings. He received life membership in the International Bluegrass Music Museum Association in ceremonies at the International Bluegrass Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky.
Ward continues his music career weekly with the house band at the VFW Hall in North Wilkesboro. This had its beginning in 1955 and continues to be the longest continuous country music entertainment in the area, occurring every Saturday night.

Ward lives in the Mount Pleasant Community with his wife Kate. They have two children, a son, Douglas Eller and wife Alisa, and a daughter Karen, and husband Ty Worley, and three grandchildren, Kendall, and husband Travis Steelman, Brittany Eller and TJ Worley.

Uncle Dave Macon was the first superstar of the Grand Ole Opry and an immortal in the annals of old time and country music.  In a continuously active entertainment career which spanned more than thirty years, “The Dixie Dewdrop” recorded nearly two hundred records and appeared at venues nationwide.  In his time, Uncle Dave was the most popular country music star of the day, and his importance within the American entertainment industry cannot be overstated. Uncle Dave’s most significant and enduring legacy is the preservation of a huge collection of traditional and old time music from a bygone era, ever preserved in his many recordings.  He was also vital to the development and maturation of the Grand Ole Opry and the country music industry.   

David Harrison Macon was born on October 7, 1870, in Smartt Station, Tennessee.  He came from a long line of successful politicians and entrepreneurs with roots in North Carolina which predated the American Revolution.  His father, John Macon, had migrated to Tennessee from North Carolina and married a Tennessee girl, Martha Ann Ramsey. After gaining success as a farmer and business owner, John Macon had served during the American Civil War as an officer in the Confederate Army.

Young Dave had a pleasant childhood, and his parents encouraged him to develop his love for music.  As a youngster, he received piano lessons and learned to play the guitar. Economic hardship eventually prompted the Macons to abandon their homestead in rural Middle Tennessee and to move to Nashville, where they purchased and operated the Broadway House hotel.  Located in the heart of downtown, the Broadway House was a favorite stopover for traveling minstrels and entertainers. Dave was fascinated with the musicians, and at age thirteen, begged his mother to buy him a banjo, which he quickly mastered. Dave’s attendance at the many carnivals and vaudeville acts which frequented Nashville instilled in him an appreciation for the art of public performing and a hunger for the satisfaction of pleasing a crowd.

Tragedy struck in 1886 when John Macon died suddenly.  The following year, Martha Macon sold the hotel and left Nashville, settling in nearby Rutherford County where she owned and operated a country inn.  Dave eventually worked for his mother as a liveryman. He developed a passion for old, traditional music, including sacred and black genres. At the same time, he began to perform in public, putting on shows for overnight guests at his mother’s establishment.

In 1899, Dave married Mary Matilda Richardson of nearby Kittrell, where the couple soon settled and started a family.  For the next two decades, the couple successfully farmed and raised a family of seven sons. Dave also operated a thriving freight line.  But Dave and his banjo were inseparable, and as he started playing at local events, his popularity grew by leaps and bounds. By 1920 trucks were replacing mules and horses, and instead of upgrading his freight line to trucks, Dave decided to close the business and try to make a go as an entertainer.                        

Dave Macon initially entertained at venues throughout Middle Tennessee, northern Alabama and southern Kentucky.  Adorned in his plug hat, gates-ajar collar and gold teeth, Dave picked his banjo and sang of the people and country he loved, gathering much of his song material from personal experiences and local lore.  His natural talent as a musician, singer, comedian and social commentator captivated audiences. He soon adopted the stage name “Uncle Dave Macon”, a title meant to endear him to fans as though he were a familiar, family member.  Appearances at theaters in Nashville soon led to a major contract with Lowe’s Theaters, a national chain. By 1923 Uncle Dave was playing in theaters across the South and in the Northeast. The following year he traveled to New York City for his first recording session, and his increased popularity led to repeated recording sessions throughout the 1920s and 30s.  Uncle Dave eventually recorded nearly two hundred songs. Among his most popular were: “Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy All the Time”; “Chewing Gum”; “Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat”; and “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be”.

WSM began broadcasting in the summer of 1925, and before the end of that year, the Grand Ole Opry took to the airwaves.  Uncle Dave had played previously on WSM, but his debut on the Grand Ole Opry came in April 1926. For the next fifteen years, he was the undisputed headline act of the Opry and eventually played on the show continuously for twenty-six years.  He was deeply loved and respected by his peers and earned a reputation as one willing to mentor younger performers who struggled to manage their music careers. His three-finger playing style and overall performance manner changed little during his long career.  Uncle Dave was primarily a banjoist and vocalist, but hilarious jokes, physical antics, country philosophy, and biting commentaries on politics, religion, economics and the battle between the sexes always put big smiles and laughter on the faces of live audiences and radio listeners.  

By 1940 new changes in music styles, including the rise of singing cowboys and bluegrass, caused Uncle Dave’s career to fade somewhat.  He remained very popular on the Opry, but while touring he became an opening act for new talent. He continued touring throughout the 1940s, but age and infirmity finally took their toll.  On March 2, 1952, Uncle Dave made his last appearance on the Opry, and he died from cancer three weeks later at age 81. His funeral on March 23, 1952, was perhaps the largest ever in the state of Tennessee, unmistakable evidence of the number of people he had touched during a music career of over three decades.                        

Uncle Dave’s music legacy still lives on.  In 1966 he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  The Uncle Dave Macon Days music festival, held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, each July and now in its 37th year, still honors his memory.  Even today, his recordings garner respectable sales, testimony to the fact that no one aided the transformation of the folk music of the nineteenth century into modern country music more than Uncle Dave Macon. 

With few exceptions, the piano does not play a prominent part in Appalachian or Americana

music, and is rarely the lead instrument. But Jeff Little is an exception – and a remarkable one. His distinctive two-handed style, much influenced by the mountain flat-picked guitar tradition, is breathtaking in its speed, precision and clarity.

Little’s involvement with fiddle tunes, old time country, and traditional blues dates to his growing up in Boone, North Carolina, where his family, owned a music shop. The shop was a regular gathering place for musicians who would just stop by to pick a few tunes. Beginning around the age of six Jeff would regularly sit in with many of the musicians from the region, including one of America’s most influential musicians: Doc Watson. These influences helped shape Jeff’s approach to the piano which is based on these deep musical traditions. But there is also an echo of more contemporary mountain tradition in Jeff’s performances.

A professional musician since the age of 14, Jeff is conversant with traditional old-time country, bluegrass, rockabilly, and blues. With a rack-mounted harmonica and vocals, he can also be a one-man show. Jeff settled in Nashville for a while, where he worked as a session man in between stints on the road. He also worked with a wide range of commercial country artists as a musician or manager most notably Keith Urban. In 2004, Jeff and his family returned to the Blue Ridge where he is the Director of the Music Industry Program at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, North Carolina.

Today, Jeff continues to have a very busy concert schedule. Performances include The Smithsonian Institution, The National Folk Festival, American Piano Masters, Merlefest and many festivals, performing arts centers, colleges and music venues throughout the US. Jeff has released four CDs, and been featured on National Public Radio several times. He has taken his traditional piano style around the world on U.S. government goodwill tours, performing in Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Oman, France and Tanzania.

On the third Saturday of every June at Grayson Highlands State Park in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, the Wayne C. Henderson Music Festival and Guitar Competition features some of the region’s best traditional musicians. From time to time, they have shared the stage with bluegrass bands from Europe.

The event takes its name from National Heritage Award recipient Wayne C. Henderson, a musician and instrument maker who lives in nearby Rugby, Virginia. Henderson’s top-notch finger-picking is a source of great pleasure and pride to his friends, family, and neighbors in Grayson County, Virginia. His guitar playing has also been enjoyed at Carnegie Hall, in three national tours of Masters of the Steel-String Guitar and in seven nations of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Wayne and many of his musical friends are featured performers at the festival, with bluegrass and old-time music dominating the program. The Wayne C. Henderson Music Festival and Guitar Competition was established in 1995 to express appreciation for this living legend. A portion of the proceeds from the festival are placed into a scholarship fund to aid local young musicians in continuing their educations. More than $100,000 has been awarded through the 2014 festival.

“Dock” Coble Walsh was a teacher by profession but music was his legacy.  The self-proclaimed “Banjo King of the Carolinas” was born July 23, 1901 in the Lewis Fork community of western Wilkes County, North Carolina.  Dock’s love for music began at an early age. His first banjo at the age four was a gift made by his older brother from an axle grease box. His teenage years found him playing music each opportunity he had.  He became known for playing the banjo in the “claw hammer style”, “three finger style”, and for placing pennies under the bridge of the banjo and playing the strings with a knife.

As a young man in the early 1920s, Dock was determined he would make a record and was willing to do whatever it took to make his dream come true.  Leaving the teaching profession behind, he moved to Atlanta with hopes of making a record for either Okeh Records or Columbia Records. Working in the cotton fields by day and playing music at night, Dock’s determination paid off.  In 1925 he made his first recordings for Columbia Records that included “I’m Free at Last”, “East Bound Train”, “Bulldog Down in Sunny Tennessee”, and “Educated Man”. Dock was the first to record “bottle-neck” slide style by placing pennies under the bridge of his banjo.  Once these recording sessions were completed, Dock walked a distance of 300 miles back to Wilkes County from Atlanta.

In 1926 Dock again returned to Atlanta to record “We Courted in the Rain”, “Knocking on the Henhouse”, “Going Back to Jerico”, and “Traveling Man”.  It was during these sessions that Dock made the first recording of “In the Pines” for Columbia Records.

During the years of 1926 through 1929, Dock also found success as a member of the Four Yellowjackets and the Carolina Tar Heels.  Along with Dock, Gwin Foster, Garley Foster, Tom Ashley and Dave Fletcher made up the Carolina Tar Heels. Together, this group recorded over 40 songs for Victor Records.  Dock and Gwin recorded four duets for Victor Records. The song “Going to Georgia” showcased Dock’s three-finger banjo picking style and his lead vocals were seconded on the chorus by Gwin’s harmony and harmonica playing combining blues, slides, and wild improvising that resounds of both swing and early jazz.  This early recording is much the way of modern bluegrass and a true example of bluegrass music being in place some twenty years before bluegrass was made more popular by artists like Bill Monroe.

Dock’s last solo recording session took place in 1929 for Victor Records.  Four songs were recorded during these sessions, “Bathe in that Beautiful Pool”, “Laura Lou”, “A Precious Sweetheart From Me is Gone”, and “We’re Just Plain Folks”.

That same year, Dock married Annie Church and they raised four children (Drake, Dean, Libby and Judy) in the Lewis Fork community of Wilkes County.  Dock continued to play music with Garley Foster by “bustin” or “ballying” in the streets and playing for spare change.

With the end of his recording career in 1932, Dock worked on a poultry farm to support his growing family.  Later he became an outside salesman for C. D. Coffey and Sons Auto Parts in his hometown of North Wilkesboro.  His music playing continued, however, with his good friend Garley Foster and Dock’s son, Drake, in local bluegrass bands.

The revival of folk music in the 1960s brought Dock in contact with Gene Earle and Archie Green who tapped Dock, Garley Foster and Drake Walsh to record several remakes of the Carolina Tar Heels recordings along with a few original compositions to release on a Folk Legacy Album.

Gwin Foster died November 25, 1954.  Dock Walsh died May 28, 1967 with Tom Ashley passing shortly after on June 2, 1967.  Garley Foster died October 5, 1968.

The musical legacy and tradition of Dock Walsh and the Carolina Tar Heels continued to be played by Dock’s son, Drake, who honored his father and the band playing beloved songs until his death in 2010.  At the time of his death, Drake was a member of the Elkville String Band who today continues to carry on the legacy of honoring the music of Dock Walsh and the Carolina Tar Heels.