Frank Proffitt

about

Frank Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an Appalachian old time banjoist and performer at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. He was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the banjo. He recorded the ballad "Tom Dooley" for Alan Lomax on one of his (Lomax's) song collecting trips. Frank was born in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee and was raised in the Reese area of North Carolina where he worked in a variety of jobs and lived on a farm with his wife and six children. He grew tobacco, worked as a carpenter and in a spark plug factory. He was known for his carpentry skill, Proffitt's fretless banjos and dulcimers were homemade. In 1937, Frank Proffitt met Frank Warner. Warner was searching out a dulcimer builder and thus began a 30 year friendship and song swapping. The Kingston Trio attributes their recording of Tom Dooley to a recording Frank Warner made of the ballad that he learned from Proffitt. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

top songs

albums

Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina

Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs

Memorial Album

Frank Proffitt of Reese, NC

Essential Folk Masters

Frank Proffitt Memorial Album

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High Atmosphere: Ballads And Banjo Tunes From Virginia And North Carolina

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Classic Banjo from Smithsonian Folkways

High Atmosphere

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Sings Folk Songs

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Early Freak Folk

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Songs and Ballads of North Carolina

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