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Wilkes Heritage Museum

Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame

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Sidewoman and Regional Musician

While enrolled at Warren Wilson College in the mid-1970s, she met David Holt and began a lifelong friendship with her mentor. Laura began playing and performing with Holt and numerous other players around the Asheville area. In 1984 she took over David Holt’s chair in the Luke Smathers Band. She learned the mountain swing style that the Smathers brothers created after hearing swing music on the radio in their formative days. Laura has also played music with Josh Goforth, with whom she has toured extensively in the US and Scotland as well as David Holt and the Lightning Bolts and the Midnight Plowboys. Laura has recorded numerous solo albums and is instrumental in maintaining the tradition of shaped note singing from the Christian Harmony in workshops at MerleFest and Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week at Mars Hill University and annual singings across the region. Proficient in instruments including banjo, guitar, and autoharp, she also teaches multiple instruments and offers vocal coaching. She has vast experience teaching residencies in Southern Mountain Music to public school children of all ages. In her role as Executive Director of the Madison County Arts Council she helps administer the Junior Appalachian Musician program to elementary and middle school students in Madison County, NC.

Published in 2017

Laura Boosinger

Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame

100 East Main Street P.O. Box 935 Wilkesboro, NC 28697 • 336-667-3171

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