You won’t find W. Lawrence Russell’s name in the winners at Galax or most of the other major contests that feature clawhammer banjo.  Lawrence was not a player who felt he had to win contests or even play in a succession of bands in order to demonstrate his brilliance on the banjo.  He stayed true to a much more time-honored Appalachian musical tradition. He enjoyed playing at home, with friends, and teaching others how to play. Music was an art that was woven into the domestic and social fabric of his life.

            Lawrence grew up near the town of Marion, in Smyth County, in the Blue Ridge, where music served as an important social connector and as a thread running through his family history.  He learned through local networks and kept his playing mostly at home and in his community, where it provided both relief from hard work and a sense of joy.  His family had a history of playing music in both the Smyth County area and over in the White Top Mountain region in Grayson County.  As Lawrence once told a documentarian, “Music gets in your blood, and stays there!”

            Lawrence, like many great masters of clawhammer in SW Virginia, would have probably remained unknown to most and lost to history had it not been for the dedication and great work of Galax’s Bobby Patterson, a musician and the founder of Heritage Records.  Bobby often said his mission for Heritage was to “record the living archive” of Blue Ridge musicians.  In 1984, Bobby invited Lawrence and his good friend and fellow banjoist, Enoch Rutherford, to come to his studio in Galax and record for Heritage.

            Bobby was putting together the second album in a series he called “The Old Five String.”  Volume 1 of the project had focused on younger players then in the region such as Paul Brown and Andy Cahn who had come at the music as preservationists and revivalists.  The second volume, however, featured the original masters of the area as Bobby saw them.

            When he arrived in Galax to record, Lawrence was famously hesitant and nervous to record, seeing himself as a “home player.”  He questioned Bobby about why anyone would want to hear his playing, that he just called “plain old banjo.”  He also remarked that he planned to play for hours after he got recorded, because that would “be more fun.”

            However, once Bobby Paterson turned on the recorder and Lawrence played a bit, he began to relax and enjoy the experience.  He remarked that “music is my greatest thrill,” and began to show his prowess in playing a very accomplished clawhammer style with drop thumbing and interesting melodic variations.  For Lawrence, like many Blue Ridge musicians, music was enough.  It was an end unto itself, delivering both joy and satisfaction.

            Bobby recorded a wide swath of Lawrence’s diverse repertoire. Among the tunes and songs he played for “The Old Five String, Vol. 2” were archaic British ballads, 19^th Century minstrel tunes and 20^th Century country blues.   He contributed a mountain gospel tune, “I’ll be Somewhere Listening for my Name,” “West Virginia Blues,” the archaic British ballad, “House Carpenter,” as well as the local hoedown, “Fiddler’s Drunk and He Can’t Play.”

            Lawrence was a self-taught musician who played a variety of instruments including the guitar, that he played like a dobro, lap style, using a pocket knife edge as a slide.  He was also a talented teacher that loved to share his tunes with younger players. One of those players who learned from both him and Enoch Rutherford, was clawhammer master Emily Spencer of the White Top Mountain band.  Emily often credits her many hours of sitting knee-to knee with Lawrence as a key ingredient in her learning mountain banjo.  Although not a competitor or big-name showoff, Lawrence Russell was an accomplished master whose music gave him great joy, social connections, and hours of fun. He played the banjo for 55 years.