From the Beginning

Among the major-league talent emerging from the folk music boom of the late '50s were the Country Gentlemen, a D.C.-based quartet that introduced bluegrass to a generation of city folks and college students, people who had never heard of Flatt & Scruggs or Bill Monroe or the Stanley Brothers. The Gentlemen, in playing the old bluegrass standards but playing them "different," were in a sense the first newgrass group. Eddie Adcock was the band's banjo player and he was a player of distinction -- his style was as innovative as Don Reno's. Adcock's considerable talent spread to other stringed instruments when he left the Gentlemen in 1970 and began exploring new musical genres. For the next three decades, Eddie Adcock remained one of the most popular musicians in bluegrass.

Adcock was born and raised in Scottsville, VA. He bought his first banjo as child and began performing with his brother Frank shortly afterward. The duo would sing in local churches and radio stations based in the nearby Charlottesville. In his teens, he played in a band called the James River Playboys and worked at a theater in his hometown, where he had the opportunity to see major country artists of the day, including Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper. At the age of 14, he left home after a family crisis and supported himself through semi-professional boxing. For the next seven years, he boxed and played music at nights. A few years later, he began racing cars. As a racer, Adcock racked up 34 straight wins with his car, which he named Mr. Banjo; he also had set two track records at Manassas, VA. Not only did he box and race, he also performed various blue-collar jobs to pay the rent. All the time, he played music at night.

Eddie Adcock didn't begin his professional musical career until 1953, when he joined Smokey Graves & His Blue Star Boys, who had a regular show at a radio station in Crewe, VA. His exposure with Graves led to jobs with other musicians, including Mac Wiseman, Bill Harrell, and Buzz Busby. Between 1953 and 1957, he floated between different bands. Bill Monroe offered a job to Adcock in 1957, and he played with the Blue Grass Boys for a short time -- Monroe had to let him go because the band simply wasn't earning enough money to employ him. Adcock returned to working day jobs, but that was short-lived. After he started working in a sheet metal factory, Jim Cox, John Duffey, and Charlie Waller asked him to join their new band, the Country Gentlemen.

The Country Gentlemen became one of the most popular and respected bluegrass bands of the late '50s and '60s, as well as one of the most progressive. They expanded the repertoire of bluegrass bands to include contemporary country, folk, and rock songwriters, most notably Bob Dylan; usually they added this material at the urging of Adcock. The Country Gentlemen rode to popularity in the late '50s as part of the folk boom and continued to be one of the most popular bluegrass/folk bands in the country throughout the '60s.

At the end of the '60s, Adcock began to feel constrained by the Country Gentlemen. He wanted to experiment with different musical genres, which he felt the band wasn't willing to do. Consequently, he quit the Gentlemen and moved to California, where he formed a country-rock band called the Clinton Special. While he performed with the group he used the pseudonym Clinton Codack. The band recorded only one single, "Just as You Are I Love You"/"Blackberry Fence," which was released on MGM Records; the A-side of the single was featured in the 1971 film The Horsemen.

After the Clinton Special fell apart, Adcock headed back east, where he formed another group, II Generation with Bob White, A.L. Wood, Wendy Thatcher, and Jimmy Gaudreau, who used to play with the Country Gentlemen. II Generation's lineup changed frequently during the '70s, but it gelled around 1974 when Martha Hearon joined the group. Hearon played guitar for the band and wrote a good share of its material; she also married Adcock soon after she joined. II Generation was active throughout the '70, releasing a handful of albums on the Rome, Rebel, and CMH labels.

Adcock and Hearon disbanded the group in 1980 and moved to Tennessee, where they formed a trio called Talk of the Town with bassist Missy Raines. In the mid-'80s, Adcock launched a solo career, releasing a series of cassette-only collections on CMH. In the '90s, he began releasing albums on compact disc, as well as performing with an all-star bluegrass outfit called the Masters. After nearly 40 years in the music business, Eddie Adcock remained as popular as he ever was, touring all around the world.

Have you ever wondered about the offstage world of a professional musician? Every month in this column, bluegrass now will provide a glimpse into the lives of some of your favorite bluegrass stars. To see captions, just move your cursor over the photos!


On Valentine's Day this month, many couples will enjoy candlelit dinners and romantic getaways. How will Eddie and Martha Adcock celebrate? Well, since Cupid's big day falls on a Saturday, they'll probably be on a stage somewhere, playing the music they've performed together for over 30 years. And if they're not performing, they'll likely be home, doing household chores.

"Our situation is a little different from most other musicians', since we're both out on tour at the same time," Martha explains. "Because there's no one left at home to take care of anything, life at home stops when we leave, and starts again when we get back. Things pile up! But it's hard to imagine how delighted we are to get back. I think no one on earth has ever been gladder to have their own little nest."

The Adcocks' nest is a brick three-bedroom ranch with a full finished basement, located near Nashville. Such a house would seem perfectly adequate for just two people, but after 15 years, the Adcocks have grown out of their home.

With a wide variety of interests and hobbies, they've run out of space. They've got two vans in the driveway, and a big old motor home filled with Adcock Audio's sound equipment parked permanently in the yard. Inside their home is a recording studio, their library (with many books about world religions, which they both find fascinating), and Martha's various collections.

The Adcocks have two indoor cats: Mang and Nip. "Our license plate says MANGNIP. The plate on our old brown van says POOPSIE -- our cat who lived and traveled with us for almost 20 years," Martha says. "It's just wonderful to have your pets on the road with you. We don't like to be without them, really."

A colony of feral cats has also found a home with the Adcocks. "They're mostly bobtails, and wild as can be," she says. "We feed them, and trap them to take them to the vet, and Eddie builds little houses for them for the winter."

One of the busiest spaces in their home is their workshop, filled with a wide array of tools and machines. "We can do anything - refinish instruments, repair them, build cabinets, almost anything," says Eddie proudly. "We have the tools to do whatever we need to do."
"That includes auto maintenance work!" adds Martha. "Someday when we have the room, we'll probably satisfy our yen for the cars of our youth. I'd like to find a 1955 Buick Century and a 1949 Hudson Hornet and have Eddie restore them!"

He could do it, too. Early in his career, from 1957 to 1966, Eddie was a master auto mechanic. His success as a drag racer attracted some serious clientele. "My garage did the whole county of Prince William, all the mechanic work on the police cars. The police started bringing their cars in to me, first one, then another, then another. I started to have a pretty good business just off the county!"

Martha's no slouch in the workshop, either. "She was a pearlcutter when I first met her, working for Randy Woods (a famed luthier). She's excellent at that sort of thing!" Eddie says.
"And I've owned several motorcycles," adds Martha. "I was a wrenchturner. I wasn't afraid to approach mechanics." Mechanical aptitude is one of the many things they share. "It's really nice if you have a lot of interests in common. To be together 24 hours a day is something that perhaps most people wouldn't want to do, or maybe couldn't do. We thrive on that! We're sort of loners together, is how I describe it sometimes."

Both Adcocks happily pursue solo interests. Martha draws, cooks, and writes -- she's her husband's official biographer. A former Golden Gloves champion, Eddie loves to watch boxing on television, and football (he's a Titans fanatic). "The very reason we met and got along in the first place was that we were different enough to keep the interest and the spice in it," he says. "Tolerance is a key ingredient in a happy marriage," he adds. "You have to learn to put up with some things until you get to where they are part of you. Eventually, if you can put up with something long enough, you'll like it," Eddie comments with a slow chuckle.
"I'm trying to think what he's talking about," says Martha wryly, after a beat.

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Eddie Adcock
Three-time Grammy nominee Eddie Adcock has charmed all kinds of crowds across the U. S., Canada and Europe with his bluegrass and acoustic country music, with rave reviews, much press and heavy airplay around the world. He was married in 1976 and now makes his home in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Martha.

Cashbox Magazine calls him "a stellar musician and vocalist," and Billboard has called him "one of the Bluegrass circuit's top acts." He has taken his warm, witty, high-energy music from clubs to the Kennedy Center.

Eddie has appeared on "Austin City Limits," TNN's "Nashville Now" and "Wildhorse Saloon," NPR specials, and a host of syndicated and local TV and radio shows. His video, Dog, attained airplay on TNN, CMT, and even CNN. He released a number of popular recordings, appearing on several bluegrass and country charts.

Eddie features much of his own original music, both songs and instrumentals, showcasing his strong, expressive style and somehow sounding like more than himself. Focus calls his music "ensnaring." Woven in and among his uniquely-styled music are influences from bluegrass, country, folk, jazz, blues, rock, gospel, and rockabilly, transcending into a unique and heady sound, part of the past, present, and definitely the future. And his warm-yet-edgy style, uninhibited stage persona is a real treat.

Eddie's zany stage humor might at first belie the fact that he is an influential, innovative stylist on guitar and banjo--plain and simple: a superpicker. He has been one of Bluegrass music's best known and most revolutionary performers for over forty years. Country Music Magazine calls Eddie Adcock's playing and instrumental influence "legendary." Seen as the originator of a recognized style of playing, he was the first internationally-acclaimed 5-string bluegrass banjoist to appear at Carnegie Hall--as sparkplug in the Country Gentlemen. During Edie's 12-year tenure with them from 1958 to 1970, they were the group who changed bluegrass and took it uptown. In his early days, Eddie was a member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, remembered by Bill as being his favorite baritone singer.

Eddie belongs to a number of business organizations, including IBMA and the Folk Alliance. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Banjo Institute. He also runs Adcock Audio, a large, state-of-the-art sound company. And he maintins a large mailing list in order to stay intouch with deejays, press, and fans.

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