Calvin Cole

Calvin and Viola Cole: lived in a mobile home across from Howard Hall’s home.  They were an extremely friendly couple, only too willing to let me listen to their music.  During my first visits I recorded Calvin’s banjo-playing.  But had to wait until the following summer before I could persuade Viola to let me record some of the ballads that she had learnt from her mother.  Calvin, a small, wiry man, was one of the people who taught me to play clawhammer-banjo.  Like Dan Tate, who only lived a mile or so from Calvin & Viola’s home, he was also recorded for the Library of Congress by Professor Fletcher Collins.

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mike Yates, to the Musical Traditions Records CDs Far in the Mountains (MTCD321-4)