Event

Scott Ainslie

Scott Ainslies mother found him at the family piano picking out melodies from the records she listened to during the day when he was three years old. Hes been a musician all his life. A Phi Beta Kappa and honors graduate of Washington & Lee University, Ainslie came of age during the Civil Rights era, and cultivated a powerful affinity for cross-cultural exchange. He has studied with elder musicians on both sides of the color line in the Old-Time Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, as well as Black Gospel and Blues. He plays this music with affection, authority, and power. Armed with a variety of instruments -- vintage guitars, a fretless gourd banjo, a one-string, homemade diddley bow (aka cigar box guitar) and carefully-chosen historical personal anecdotes of his encounters with senior musicians across the South -- Ainslie brings the history, roots music, and sounds of America alive.