“Tight and precise.”  After recording a variety of  SW Virginia’s best musicians, that’s how field recorder and folklorist Peter Hoover described Calvin Cole’s playing.  He was introduced to Calvin by another legendary musician from the area, Dan Tate, in 1960 and immediately set to recording 37 tracks of Calvin’s playing, both solo and with members of his band, “The Rock Creek Ramblers,” that included Calvin’s son, Dewey Cole.

            This was not the first time Calvin’s intricate playing had been noticed by collectors. As part of the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center, folklorist Colin Fletcher travelled to Fancy Gap to record Calvin’s drop thumbing style.  Included in this collection were both local standards and tunes that Calvin sang while playing banjo including “Cindy,” “Turkey in the Mountain” (during which Dan Tate accompanied him from the outside doorway), “Old Sally Brown,” “Kitty Cline,” “Old Smokey,” and a local ballad about a shootout at the Carroll County courthouse entitled “Claude Allen.”

            Calvin grew up in neighboring Grayson County and moved to Fancy Gap to work on the Blue Ridge Parkway shortly after he was married.  When he was seven years old, he found a banjo “just ‘a lyin’ around the house,” and taught himself to play.  He soon established himself in the local music community and began to both host musicians in the family’s living room and travel throughout the county to play with fiddlers. As each of his children came of age, he made sure they had a guitar or fiddle to play.

“I always liked playing at people’s houses, in their living rooms than I did playing out.” With five kids, all of whom Calvin had taught to play music, it wasn’t hard to find a playing partner.  One person he loved to play with was his neighbor, Dan Tate, another SW Virginia master, who fiddled, played guitar and banjo.

            One of Calvin’s favorite times of year was Christmas.  During his early years of playing, he often participated in the local tradition of “Breakin’ up Christmas” when spontaneous music parties, usually starting on Christmas Eve, would be held throughout the region.  We’d show up in the early evening, and play ‘till dawn, said Calvin.  “They’d put their furniture and rugs out on the porch and they’d dance and play all night, sometimes for days in a row.  Around midnight, or sometimes 2 or 3 o’clock, they’d bring out supper and we’d eat and then go right back to it!”

            Calvin quit playing music for 15 years, sold his banjo, and retired from playing from 1948 to 1960. “I lost the spirit and we quit,” said Calvin.  Calvin spent his days logging in the area with a team of horses, the only method possible to tackle the incredibly steep mountainsides near Fancy Gap.  He worked more than 10 hours every day to support his family, and playing until 1:00 in the morning just became undoable.

            As his children left home and his work life slowed down, Calvin bought a new banjo and when Peter Hoover visited in 1960, had recovered his full repertoire of tunes and added new ones.  Peter’s interest spurred him to return to playing out at contests and in1972, he placed in the Galax banjo competition.

            In 1990, at the age of 82 and two years prior to his death, he recorded several hours of interviews and banjo playing for Virginia Humanities.  His playing at that time, was still crisp, sharp, focused, tight and precise.  He left for us a legacy of music from the Fancy Gap.