Roscoe Holcomb 1964

Roscoe Holcomb 1964, hand-drawn portrait of Roscoe playing a Vega Whyte Laydie banjo in Daisy, Kentucky, age 52.

I’m starting a series of portraits called “Influencers”; musicians that in some way influenced the music industry and history.

Holcomb was an American singer, banjo/guitar player from Daisy, Kentucky.
A prominent figure in Appalachian folk music, Holcomb was the inspiration for the term “high, lonesome sound”, coined by folklorist and friend John Cohen.
The “high lonesome sound” term is now used to describe bluegrass singing, although Holcomb was not, strictly speaking, a bluegrass performer.

Holcomb’s repertoire included old-time music, hymns, traditional music and blues ballads. In addition to playing the banjo and guitar, he was a competent harmonica and fiddle player, and sang many of his most memorable songs acappella.
Holcomb stated: “Up till then the blues were only inside me; Blind Lemon was the first to ‘let out’ the blues.”

Holcomb sang in a nasal style informed by the Old Regular Baptist vocal tradition. Bob Dylan, a fan of Holcomb, described his singing as possessing “an untamed sense of control”.
He was also admired by the Stanley Brothers and Eric Clapton, who cited Holcomb as his favorite country musician.

A coal miner, construction laborer and farmer for much of his life, Holcomb was not recorded until 1958, after which his career as a professional musician was bolstered by the folk revival in the 1960s.

Holcomb gave his last live performance in 1978.

Suffering from asthma and emphysema as a result of working in coal mines, he died in a nursing home in 1981, at the age of 68.

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