RILEY BAUGUS - A native of the southern Appalachians.

A native of the southern Appalachians.

RILEY BAUGUS

"Baugus' vocals sound like they've been echoing through the Appalachian Mountains for about 150 years. Quintessential American old-time music". Billboard, 2006

Riley Baugus, a North Carolina native who lives in Walkertown, began singing and playing music at an early age. Raised in a household where recordings of old-time music were often played, he developed a love and appreciation for traditional southern Appalachian music. He and his family attended a Regular Baptist church, where unaccompanied hymn singing was a long-standing tradition.

Riley began playing the fiddle at age ten. Soon after that he took up the guitar. By the time he was twelve, he and his father built a banjo from scrap wood, and he once again began to learn another instrument.

Riley honed his musical skills with a close friend and neighbour, fiddler Kirk Sutphin. Together they visited elder traditional musicians in and around Grayson County, Virginia, and Surry County, North Carolina. Riley often visited, played with, and learned from fiddlers Tommy Jarrell, a National Heritage Fellowship recipient from Surry County, and Robert Sykes, and banjo player Dix Freeman. During these visits he also met and learned from many other traditional musicians of the area, including former Camp Creek Boys members Verlen Clifton and Paul Sutphin.

Riley has played with numerous old-time string bands, including the Red Hots, Backstep, and Old Hollow Stringband. He currently plays with the Dirk Powell Band and Polecat Creek. He teaches banjo, guitar, and fiddle at music camps throughout the country and tours regularly with Dirk Powell and Tim O'Brien, and with Ira Bernstein. As a producer and performer, Riley worked with the Lonesome Sisters on their recording Going Home Shoes. His singing is featured on the soundtrack of the Academy Award-winning film Cold Mountain. He built the antebellum-style banjos that were used in the film.

Riley has recorded two albums featuring his banjo, guitar, and fiddle playing and singing: Long Steel Rail, and Life of Riley. He has also collaborated with Laurelyn Dossett and Ira Bernstein on recordings and contributed to albums by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Polecat Creek, Martha Scanlan, Dirk Powell, Adam Tanner, Kirk Sutphin, and the Lonesome Sisters.

From Wikepedia

Baugus was born in Walkertown, North Carolina, near Winston-Salem, and grew up in the Regular Baptist tradition, which gave him a solid foundation in unaccompanied singing. His father had moved from Alleghany County, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, to Winston-Salem in the 1950s, looking for work, and his mother's family (from Surry County, North Carolina) had a similar trajectory; and both families brought their culture with them. He began playing the fiddle at age 10 and began playing the banjo at age 11, and grew up with the fiddler Kirk Sutphin. As a youth, he also had the opportunity to study with old-time musicians from Surry County, North Carolina and Grayson County, Virginia, including Tommy Jarrell, Robert Sykes, Dix Freeman, Verlin Clifton, and Paul Sutphin. He is influenced particularly by the Round Peak style of Surry County, North Carolina.

Baugus worked as a welder and blacksmith for 18 years before pursuing a career as a professional musician. He has performed throughout the United States and internationally in Canada, Ireland, Scotland, and England. He has played with several old-time string bands, including The Farmer's Daughters, The Konnarock Critters, The Red Hots, Backstep, and the Old Hollow Stringband. He tours regularly with Dirk Powell and Tim O'Brien, and frequently performs and tours with dancer Ira Bernstein, with the duo show Appalachian Roots.

He often performs as a guest musician with the Dirk Powell Band and the North Carolina folk band Polecat Creek. He sang on the soundtrack to the 2003 film Cold Mountain. He has recorded with Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Willie Nelson, Dirk Powell, April Verch, and Martha Scanlan. He has taught banjo at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina; the Augusta Heritage Center's Old Time Week in Elkins, West Virginia; the Midwest Banjo Camp in Olivet, Michigan; and Banjo Camp North in Massachusetts.

On March 22, 2025 he was inducted into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame