About Me
Kevin Fore
I am a native of the Round Peak section of Surry County, North Carolina. I didn't start playing the banjo until I was 26 years old, but it didn't take me long to discover that playing and making banjos was my passion in life.
After trying my hand at dirt track racecar driving for a couple of years, I became ill with sinus and breathing problems due to the dust from the track and quit racing. Fortunately, when this door shut, another opened, and it was at this time that I became interested in old-time string band music.
Learning to Play the Banjo
Around 1999, I went to see Benton Flippen's band, The Smokey Valley Boys, at the Alleghany Jubilee in Sparta, North Carolina. It was at this time that I decided that I wanted to learn how to play the banjo, but it wasn't until September of 2000, that I bought my first banjo and took a few bluegrass style banjo lessons, I found this style of playing the banjo was not for me. I wanted to play the local, old-time style of music. I basically taught myself to play by listening to older musicians from the Round Peak area. The first recordings I bought were Tommy Jarrell's Joke on the Puppy, Dix Freeman's Tonenail Gap String Band, and Kyle Creed's Liberty album. These recordings influenced my banjo playing in a profound way because I learned things from them that I could not learn from other people.
I was lucky to have relatives around me who encouraged me to carry on the tradition of playing the banjo in the Round Peak style. My cousins, Paul Sutphin, Verlin Clifton, and Kirk Sutphin offered me support and emphasized the importance of learning the "old ways." Paul and Verlin, were members of the Camp Creek Boys, a legendary old-time string band from the Round Peak area. Paul told me about my great and great-great grandpas who were also clawhammer banjo players in Round Peak. Kirk and Verlin showed me several tunes on the banjo and helped me get my start.
I have played with many musicians including Benton Flippen, Kirk Sutphin, and the New Ballards' Branch Bogtrotters. I am a six-time first place winner at the Johnson County Old-Time Fiddlers' Convention, held at Laurel Bloomery, Tennesse, a three-time consecutive first place winner at the Alleghany County Fiddlers' Convention, held in Sparta, North Carolina, and most recently I won first place at the 2008 and 2009 Blue Ridge Banjo Shootout, sponsored by the Blue Ridge Music Maker's Guild in Galax, Virginia. Currently I play the banjo with the award-winning Galax, Virginia based old-time-band, Southern Pride. The band features James Burris on fiddle, Joey Burris on guitar, Ronnie Lyons on mandolin, and Terry Semones on bass, and myself on banjo. We enjoy playing for fiddlers' conventions, benefits, and community events. Influences on my banjo playing include Kyle Creed, Charlie Lowe, Dix Freeman, Fred Cockerham, Tommy Jarrell, and Gilmer Woodruff.
