No recordings exist from this early era of clawhammer playing

            There is still much mystery, historically, about just how and when the clawhammer style of banjo playing made its way into the mountains of SW Virginia. Although we know that by the early 1800’s, black players had introduced white mountaineers to this unique way of playing, at this point we can only make educated guesses about exactly how and when clawhammer made its appearance.

            We do know that a “20 something” from Randolph County, NC. moved to Galax somewhere around 1850. He brought with him a fretless, handmade banjo and immediately made friends with one of Galax’s most influential fiddlers, a young man named Greenberry Leonard.

            Leonard had learned to play fiddle in the 1830’s and ‘40’s from a variety of old timers including his grandfather, but this was a time when the classic blending of fiddle and banjo was not prominent in the area.  He would go on to teach his many tunes to another young fiddler, Emmet Lundy, who would bridge the gap between pre-banjo and post banjo music in Galax.

            Into the area marches Manly Reese, barely 20, and yet already an accomplished banjoist.  It is theorized that Reese had learned the instrument and how to build it from his father while still in the mountains of North Carolina.  There Reece was not only exposed to his father’s teachings, but met many Black loggers and railroad workers who knew how to play in the downward style.

            Soon, Reece and Leonard were fixtures in the Grayson and Carroll Counties’ music scenes and people seemed to enjoy dancing to the duo’s unique pairing of clawhammer banjo and fiddle.  As 1860 approached, Manly Reese was drafted into the Confederate Army and a number of letters from Galax residents bemoaned the fact that banjo music had disappeared from the local scene. We do know that Reece brought his 5-string with him to the army and that his influential playing must have continued around desolate campfires late at night.

            In March of 1864, Reese’s career as a musician was sadly ended when he was riding with a group of soldiers on top of a troop train. As they neared Petersburg, VA., heavy smoke from the locomotive engine blinded the troops just as the train approached a tunnel.  Reese and several of his companions were killed.

            Although Reese only lived and played in the Galax area for just a decade, his musical influence is still being felt.  Luckily, he had taught his sister, Julia to play the banjo, and the Reece tradition of fiddle and clawhammer lived on in Galax.  Julia’s grandson, Kahle Brewer (1904-1989), continued his great grandfather’s musical tradition both on the fiddle and banjo and became a well-known Galax musician. In 1926, Kahle fiddled “Peek-A-Boo” with emerging country star Earnest Stoneman. Thus, the clawhammer/fiddle tradition became rooted in the Galax region, greatly assisted by the many unnamed Black players, who shared their music freely, and the playing of Manly Reese.