Col. Andy Hunt's World: Paddle Faster...I Hear Banjo Music!

Paddle Faster...I Hear Banjo Music!

Whilst I am listening to www.worldwidebluegrass.com I am thinking back through my banjo playing life from its beginnings. Travel with me back down memory lane if you will to the time when I was 11 years old in 2003. I had been wanting to play the banjo for a time at that point. Who inspired me to start playing? Well first off I have an uncle who picks a five string a bit really got me started thinking about playing. He won't play much in front of crowds, but I heard him play at family things from time to time. Besides him my earliest influences were probably Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs mainly. Well as time went along I would ask my mother and daddy when I could get a banjo and start playing. They would always say that I had to wait until I was 12 so I knew that my instrument was not just a toy. Finally around Thanksgiving of 2003, surprisingly about 5 months before I turned 12, I got my wish and the rest is history! I went upstairs one morning in late November of 2003 as I did normally to watch mother get ready for the day and I was posed with a question. "Guess what?" What, I said? Then she said words that would change my whole life. "You are going to banjo lessons today." I was overjoyed to say the least! I said mama pinch me because I thought I was dreaming. She pinched me and I felt it. I wasn't dreaming! I was actually going to start banjo lessons. That day we went to Smith Whitley Music on Westchester Ave in High Point and started my lessons with Brad Dobbins who taught banjo there at the time. My cousin Charlie Sumner started taking lessons about the same time as myself. Anyhow, I took lessons from November of 2003 to 2004 or 2005 with Brad, then he stopped teaching there so I just had to go off of what I had learned. After a year or two of not having a teacher, I realized at that point in my musical journey that I still needed the guidance of a teacher. I also found myself slipping on what I had learned and almost getting discouraged to the point of laying the banjo down. Luckily when I told mom and dad that I needed a new teacher, they got on the search. My next teacher came from an add in the classifieds section of the High Point Enterprise. John "Randy" Flynt was his name, and he worked wonders with perfecting my talent. At that time I had big problems with my timing, but he got those things worked out pretty quickly. He wanted to teach me notes when I first came to him, but after about two lessons or so he decided that my ear was good enough. I spent a couple of years under John until I felt that I could move at a faster pace than I was learning at then. After my lessons were finished with John I began doing shows around with him and playing at many different places by myself. Now we will skip on to August of 2010. At that time I started college in Hyden, Kentucky at Hazard Community and Technical College's Kentucky School of Bluegrass & Traditional Music. That point in my life helped my music more than any other time so far. I learned alot while at college from the top notch instructors including Bobby Osborne, Dean Osborne, Curtis Burch, J.P. Mathes, and Chris Mullins. While there in little Hyden, I made an album with my band called The Hyden Colonels. That album entitled "Old Man Dancin' In The Graveyard" has sold between 600 and 800 copies all across the United States. I graduated from KSBTM on May 5th 2012 and came back home to old North Carolina. Since then I have been playing at many different places around including The Osborne Brother's Festival in Hyden Kentucky (2011 & 2012), Galax Old Fiddler's Convention (2012), Sparta Fiddler's Convention (2012), The Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver Festival (2012), as well as many other smaller venues. Soon I will be starting my DJ career on the WWB (www.worldwidebluegrass.com) spinning some great Bluegrass for anybody who wants to listen! I will let everyone know when I'm going to be on the air! Tonight I will be playing from 6-7 pm at my church Archdale Friends Meeting for their 3rd annual Chili Quake that runs from 4:30-7 pm tonight. For $5 you get a chili tasting bowl, bread, and a drink and some great Bluegrass music from Robert Spry (5-6 pm) and me (6-7 pm)! If anybody is in the area come on out and join us for some good chili and Bluegrass with friends!