BOO HANKS
(BIRTHDATE UNKNOWN)
James Arthur "Boo" Hanks is, as of 2012, an 83-year-old acoustic blues guitarist with roots in the Piedmont string band and blues traditions. He saved money for his first guitar by selling packets of garden seeds, picking out the same old-time songs he heard his father playing after long days in the tobacco field. As a young man in the 1940s, Hanks earned pocket change playing guitar at barn dances with his cousins accompanying him on mandolin and spoons.
His rich musical repertoire reflects his multiethnic heritage (his ancestors were white, African American, Ocinneechee Indian and family folklore believes they are descendants of Abraham Lincoln's mother Mary Hanks). Today, Hanks lives in Virgilina, Virginia, just over the North Carolina border (a stone's throw from the rolling hills where he was born). Drawing from the deep musical well of his region, Hanks showcases his virtuosity in the driving time and delicate finger-style guitar of the classic Piedmont blues style made famous by Blind Boy Fuller.
In 2008, soon after his 80th birthday, Hanks performed at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, in Davenport, IA. The annual three-day music festival is hosted on the banks of the Mississippi river during July and has been acclaimed as one of the finest blues fests in the country.
In August of the same year, Hanks brought the tradition of classic Piedmont Blues to the 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival, held at the Lincoln Center in New York.
Though Hanks has been playing music for more than 75 years, he recorded his first CD, Pickin Low Cotton, when he was 79 years old.
His rich musical repertoire reflects his multiethnic heritage (his ancestors were white, African American, Ocinneechee Indian and family folklore believes they are descendants of Abraham Lincoln's mother Mary Hanks). Today, Hanks lives in Virgilina, Virginia, just over the North Carolina border (a stone's throw from the rolling hills where he was born). Drawing from the deep musical well of his region, Hanks showcases his virtuosity in the driving time and delicate finger-style guitar of the classic Piedmont blues style made famous by Blind Boy Fuller.
In 2008, soon after his 80th birthday, Hanks performed at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, in Davenport, IA. The annual three-day music festival is hosted on the banks of the Mississippi river during July and has been acclaimed as one of the finest blues fests in the country.
In August of the same year, Hanks brought the tradition of classic Piedmont Blues to the 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival, held at the Lincoln Center in New York.
Though Hanks has been playing music for more than 75 years, he recorded his first CD, Pickin Low Cotton, when he was 79 years old.
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