Born in Arlington, VA., Emily Spencer came to the White Top Mountain area of Virginia as a ballad and mountain music collector in the mid-1970’s. It is here that she met her husband, fiddler Thornton Spencer (1935-2017,) and in 1977 the two joined the legendary Whitetop Mountain band.  The band, that represents more than 80 years of continuous mountain music, was formed by Thornton’s brother-in-law and the renowned fiddler Albert Hash, and is still a major force in SW Virginia’s old time music scene.

            First a guitar player and singer, Emily learned to play banjo from Jont Blevins and Enoch Rutherford, two local masters of the clawhammer style.  She quickly developed a driving and raucous style of playing that was well suited for the fast fiddling of the highlands of Grayson County.  She regularly played dances and concerts throughout the region and travelled with the band to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC and has been featured at nearly every major old time music event in the nation.

            The remoteness of the region helped Emily and the band develop a unique, dance oriented style of music that also includes many mountain songs and ballads that are unique to the region.  Emily has recorded more than 12 albums with the Whitetop band and her guitar and banjo work as well as her vocals are well represented on these compilations.

            Besides her musical prowess, Emily is maybe best known as a teacher of mountain music.  She has been a mentor in the Virginia Folk Life program, a music teacher at Mt. Rogers school and along with her husband and Albert Hash, founded a local music program for young people that became the prototype for the very successful Junior Appalachian Musicians program that reaches thousands of young people in several states every year. 

            Some of Emily’s students have included Brian and Debbie Grim, of the “Konnarock Critters” fame, Trish Kilby Fore, another master, as well as her own two children, Martha and Kilby Spencer, who are considered renowned mountain musicians in their own right.

            Currently, Emily is a much sought after torch bearer of the Grayson County style of clawhammer and teaches regularly with the JAM’s Program as well as at programs and conventions across the region.  The Whitetop Mountain Band, that often includes her children, Kilby on fiddle and Martha on vocals, guitar, fiddle and banjo, still regularly draws large crowds of dancers and listeners.  Emily continues to be a vital source of clawhammer knowledge and a frequent teacher at festivals, workshops and concerts.