Published by Peter Cooperon November 22, 2009.
Influential bluegrass banjo player Allen Shelton, an integral part of numerous classic recordings with Jim & Jesse, Jim Eanes and others, died Saturday at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville after battling leukemia. He was 73.
A virtuoso instrumentalist, Mr. Shelton could play up-tempo numbers with uncommon speed and precision, and he was also at home playing jazz-inflected tunes. Jim & Jesse fans recall his spotlight solo on “Bending the Strings” during live performances, as well as his rollicking, chattering work on recordings of “South Bound Train” and “Maybelline.”“He helped start the Jim & Jesse sound,” said duo member Jesse McReynolds. “He had his own style: He had a way of presenting with his right hand that no other banjo player has had. I learned a lot of mandolin licks from the way he played the banjo, and he was like a brother to me.”
Mr. Shelton joined Jim & Jesse in 1960, before the festival scene and the television popularity of Flatt & Scruggs helped make bluegrass music a more profitable endeavor.
“We had it back then, but not many people wanted it, did they?” he sometimes remarked to Jesse McReynolds in later years.
Full story in The Tennesseean.
Influential bluegrass banjo player Allen Shelton, an integral part of numerous classic recordings with Jim & Jesse, Jim Eanes and others, died Saturday at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville after battling leukemia. He was 73.
A virtuoso instrumentalist, Mr. Shelton could play up-tempo numbers with uncommon speed and precision, and he was also at home playing jazz-inflected tunes. Jim & Jesse fans recall his spotlight solo on “Bending the Strings” during live performances, as well as his rollicking, chattering work on recordings of “South Bound Train” and “Maybelline.”“He helped start the Jim & Jesse sound,” said duo member Jesse McReynolds. “He had his own style: He had a way of presenting with his right hand that no other banjo player has had. I learned a lot of mandolin licks from the way he played the banjo, and he was like a brother to me.”
Mr. Shelton joined Jim & Jesse in 1960, before the festival scene and the television popularity of Flatt & Scruggs helped make bluegrass music a more profitable endeavor.
“We had it back then, but not many people wanted it, did they?” he sometimes remarked to Jesse McReynolds in later years.
Full story in The Tennesseean.
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