Wade Mainer

Banjoist/singer Wade Mainer was an influential figure whose innovative two-fingered picking technique expanded the traditional clawhammer style and helped pave the way for the three-finger virtuosity of modern bluegrass players like Earl Scruggs. Mainer was born in 1907 and raised on his family's small mountain farm near Weaverville, NC, where he was inspired to try his hand at traditional mountain music by his brother-in-law, fiddler Roscoe Banks. After moving to Concord to work in a cotton mill, he began performing with his brother J.E. Mainer's group the Mountaineers, playi...