EDDIE
ADCOCK BIOGRAPHY
A pioneer of contemporary Bluegrass music, Eddie Adcock is one of Bluegrass' bonafide
legends. One of the best-known and most distinctive of banjo and guitar players,
Eddie is an innovator recognized for originating his own revolutionary style of
playing, known - appropriately enough - as "Adcock Style". He is one
of the most influential banjoists in Bluegrass, almost singlehandedly introducing
a progressive aspect to the music in the 1950's with the iconic "Classic"
Country Gentlemen, and continuing to break ground in every decade thereafter.
'Country Music' Magazine calls this Bluegrass giant "legendary".
He was the first internationally-acclaimed Bluegrass 5-string banjo player to
appear at Carnegie Hall, as sparkplug in his former group, the groundbreaking
Classic Country Gentlemen. During Eddie's 12-year tenure with them, they became
the group who took Bluegrass uptown and changed it forever. In his earlier career,
Adcock honed his talents playing with the great Mac Wiseman, and was a member
of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, remembered by Bill as being his favorite baritone
singer.
And Eddie's extraordinarily exciting Second Generation band, a
group electric in more ways than one, was a master of their medium -- eclectic,
energetic "newgrass" -- in the 1970s. Now, performing with wife Martha,
they are re-setting the bar for the duet format.
This native of Scottsville,
Virginia, began playing many different musical instruments at a tender age, immediately
developing his own style (the hallmarks of which include a self-invented single-string
, a pedal-steel style, string-bending, a rhythmic thumbstyle, a certain energetic
'bounce', and unlimited improvisation).
Early in Eddie's musical life,
he was winning banjo contests. Later, he won such awards as Bluegrass Music's
Entertainer of the Year in 1974. In 1987 he was installed in his home state of
Virginia's Country Music Hall of Fame, when he was presented a Certificate of
Special Achievement Award; and June 14 was named an annual "Eddie Adcock
Day" by the Governor of Virginia. The Major Independent Record Labels award
for Instrumentalist of the Year was accorded Eddie in 1991. Then the Society for
the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America tapped him for their Preservation
Hall of Greats in 1993. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music
Association's Hall of Fame in 1996, as well as into America's Old Time Country
Music Hall of Fame in Iowa that same year. The year 2005 saw his induction into
the Bill Monroe Hall of Fame at Bean Blossom, Indiana, as well as being honored
with an "Eddie Adcock Day" by the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. Eddie
has been designated a Pioneer Of Bluegrass by the International Bluegrass Music
Museum, which has also awarded him Lifetime Membership and has filmed him in documentary
for their Video Oral History Project.
Eddie's zany stage humor might at
first belie the fact that he is an impressively innovative stylist on guitar and
banjo: simply, a SuperPicker. He has been one of Bluegrass music's most noted
performers for over forty years, a genius of the genre, considered one of the
great pioneers of "new acoustic" music, a fusion of bluegrass with jazz
and other styles. In the year 2000, Eddie celebrated 50 years in the music business
-- his FIRST fifty years, he reminds us. He has earned his place as one of the
masters. "Eddie Adcock is patriarch of modern bluegrass music," claims
'The Richmond Times-Dispatch'. 'Bluegrass Music News' says "Eddie stands
out as one of the greatest pickers in bluegrass music".
Eddie's
strikingly original guitar work perhaps elicits as much response today as his
boldly different banjo picking did earlier in his career. "You ever ride
a really big motorcycle? One of those 1200cc jobs that goes from zero to infinity
in about 3 seconds? When Eddie Adcock kicks off a guitar solo he can accelerate
the same way. The man probably keeps a radar detector in his guitar case and a
fire extinguisher tucked behind his p.a. cabinet at all times. Inspiring."
said 'Frets' Magazine.
In the late '70s Adcock invented the Gitbo, a
remarkable double-necked combination electric guitar with electrified acoustic
banjo, so that he could play both guitar and banjo solos quickly in any tune.
Gitbos are soon to be produced by a major manufacturer. Quite the inventor, Eddie
has devised an impressive array of other useful musical items, such as loudspeaker
designs, numerous electronic gadgets, a foot-operated device for universal control
of an Echoplex, and "Tex", the heavy-duty stand for his acoustic banjo.
Adcock's signature licks are taught by him on both banjo and guitar instructional
videos for Homespun Tapes; and he's featured in a recent Mel Bay instruction book.
He has taught at Levelland College, the American Banjo Camp, Tennessee Banjo Institute,
Maryland Banjo Academy, Reno Revival, Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend, Smoky Mountain
Banjo Academy; and he conducts numerous workshops. Eddie currently holds an Artists
and Composers seat on the Board of Directors of the International Bluegrass Music
Association and has represented Agents and Managers on the Board of the Kentucky
Center for Traditional Music. As a former member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys,
he was honored with a commission as a Kentucky Colonel.
A former winning
race car driver and boxer (among many other hobbies and occupations), Eddie's
varied pursuits still reflect his numerous interests.
MARTHA
ADCOCK BIOGRAPHY
From a musical family, Martha Hearon Adcock began playing classical piano at age
5 and studied for 11 years while growing up in cotton country near Bishopville,
South Carolina. In the meantime, a friend's ukelele captivated her at age 8, from
which point she also focused on string music, all the while listening to many
different types of music, including a great deal of blues.
Artistic,
intellectual, and athletic interests were her early focus. In high school, where
she was a cheerleader, she won the State Latin Derivatives championship, was installed
in her high school's Hall of Fame, named "Most Original" as a senior,
and graduated at 16 years old. She studied first at Coker College, where she received
the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Creative Writing Award, and then at the Ringling
School of Art.
Before deciding on music as a career, she worked as a
television and newspaper journalist and photographer, as a cook, a commercial
artist, and in accounting. Martha is a certified welder; and she was the first
NASCAR-sanctioned female movie photographer allowed in the pit area at races.
Meanwhile, after being won over by stringed instruments, she gained acclaim
as a sought-after performer on the Southern folk circuit. When her scope had grown
to include Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country, she emigrated to Nashville as a songwriter
and musical instrument craftsperson in 1973. Here Martha met Eddie, and they began
their partnership and career together on the cutting edge of Bluegrass in the
genre-bending Second Generation "newgrass" band, and have been together
through many different musical configurations since. Now, allied with husband
Eddie for over three decades, she has carved out much territory of her own, becoming
one of the most respected of the admittedly few women musicians in Bluegrass.
The Adcocks' duo features Martha's captivating, richly evocative vocals on lead
and harmony. Hers is a prodigious gift that reveals great instinct of interpretation.
"Make no mistake," says 'Bluegrass Now', "the clarity, passion
and accuracy of Martha's leads easily place her among the top female singers in
our business; maybe any business". 'Bluegrass Unlimited' calls her "an
interpretive vocalist of the first rank". 'Country Song Roundup' describes
her singing as "totally enchanting".
Adjectives describing Martha's
rhythm guitar playing range from "sparkling" (from 'Frets') to "mean"
('Round Barn Jamboree'), and she is praised as one of the most versatile and adept.
Martha plays a powerhouse style, for a rock-solid solo rhythm section that is
an important component of the Adcocks' sound. "Fast-becoming-legendary guitar
work," says 'Tennessee Grassroots Music Newsletter'.
In 1998, the
Lee County SC Arts Council named her a Distinguished Artist. She has served on
the Board of Directors for the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well
as on its Strategic Planning and Executive committees. After serving IBMA, Martha
was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel. She has been awarded Lifetime Membership
in the International Bluegrass Music Museum.
An artist of many facets, Martha
enjoys working in oils, pastels, and pen-and-ink as well as in songwriting, poetry,
and prose. She is currently at work on a biography of Eddie.
Her hobbies still
include art as well as reading, animals, history, yoga, gourmet cooking (she's
a blue-ribbon-winning baker), collecting, architecture, archaeology, watching
sports, and gardening.
