Watch and hear Ray Chatfield play Suzy Anna Gal with Tommy Jarrell and others

            After witnessing Ray Chatfield play clawhammer banjo with Tommy Jarrell at the Mt. Airy, NC fiddler’s gathering, clawhammer player and well known critic, Dwight Diller wrote, “Sitting there quietly was Ray Chatfield, driving the music with his unassuming, quiet but extremely aggressive rhythm.  He was giving the exact rhythm that does not kill the fiddler: never behind the beat, never even on the beat, but anticipating every single beat and being there microseconds in front with what the fiddler needs to float on top so as to climb the mountain.  Ray was right there building steps up that mountain with his banjo!” (2012, “Rifle Shooting and Old Time Banjo.”)

            As with many of the clawhammer players of the 1960’s, ‘70’s and 1980’s, Ray Chatfield was not born with a southern banjo dialect.  He became enamored with the instrument as a teenager in New York and, like many of his generation, became obsessed with all aspects of the instrument. He began playing in high school, continued through his college years and after moving out West, to Denver in the 1960’s became deeply entrenched in banjo mechanics while building banjos for the Ode Banjo Company.  While in Denver he played regularly at The Denver Folklore Center, a driving force in the Western folk revival.

\           A young life of learning Southern tunes on the banjo contributed Ray to decide to move to the Galax area where his quiet demeanor and explosive playing afforded him the opportunity to play banjo with a “who’s who” of local fiddlers.  He was soon playing regularly with Tommy Jarrell over the boarder in Mt. Airy, NC, as well as other legends like Greg Hooven, Benton Flippen, and Eddie Bond. 

            In 1983, at one of the pinnacles of Ray’s banjo playing, folklorist and popular media figure Alan Lomax visited Galax to capture Ray along with such legendary musicians as Frank Bode and Chester McMillan on video for the Smithsonian archives.  This series of documentation firmly place Ray at the epi-center of the clawhammer and folk music revival.  Ray had quickly established himself as a fiddler’s dream to play with, perfecting the banjo’s role in Southern Old Time Music as a rhythmic engine, providing the drive and structure needed for the fiddle to soar.

             In the early 2000’s, Ray became a teacher in the newly evolving Junior Appalachian Musicians program (JAM) and returned to teaching banjo to young players.  Students flocked to his classes and several of the young people he mentored went on to become mater level players. Among his most prominent students was Jared Boyd, whose grandfather was Jimmy Boyd, founding member and driving force behind the Dry Hill Draggers in Franklin County.  Jared quickly learned Ray’s subtle yet driving approach and has become a young SW Virginia Master of Clawhammer in his own right, always crediting Ray’s teaching for his winning style. 

            At Ray’s funeral in 2022, the standing room only crowd was treated to a video that included photos of Ray’s performances with some of the most incredible old time legends in the region with a soundtrack that had everyone following Ray’s impeccable timing.  He had successfully learned and become a master of the local banjo dialect.